New Outlook

Matt Skiba's disposition often seems to match his eyeliner -- like some bottomless inkwell, it's painted in the deepest shades of black. Judging from his band's dark-hued records, the Alkaline Trio frontman sounds like a man with storm clouds tethered to his heels.

But all that's begun to change, and Skiba has an Indian ascetic to thank for it.

For the past year-and-a-half, Skiba's been practicing Transcendental Meditation, a technique developed by the recently deceased Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Maverick filmmaker David Lynch also is a practitioner, and Skiba says it's helped improve his outlook of late.

"I think that's had a huge impact on the positivity in my life, for sure," Skiba says from a tour stop in Norfolk, Va. "I think there's definitely a certain amount of wisdom lacking in some of our previous efforts. Not that we've got it all figured out now, but I feel like we're in a stronger place as people."

This new outlook manifests itself on Alkaline Trio's latest disc, "Agony & Irony," which still pulses with ashen pop-punk missives, but there also are a few more rays of sunshine poking through the fog here and there, even on songs about suicide and heartache.

"Our music has always been rather fatalistic, and I think there's definitely more hope, more of a light at the end of the tunnel on this one," Skiba says. "There's always been this darkness, but I think that where we're at in our lives, it's made itself apparent that we do have hope and that it's not all bad all the time."

Sonically, the band has continued to evolve as well. Alkaline Trio always has been skilled at making sad songs sound anything but sullen, with a hard-edged, heart-pounding buoyancy buffered with soaring, radio-friendly hooks and a melodic savvy that the band has honed to a bayonet-sharp point.

"Agony" contains all these trademarks, but flushes the band's sound out with near-dance-worthy numbers ("I Found Away") and a symphonic edge in places.

"We definitely took more of a straight-ahead live approach to the record," Skiba says. "When we met with (producer) Josh Abraham, he said 'I want to go in there and have a really good time, and we'll make a record while we're at it.' We worked really hard, but it was this very laid-back approach. It was definitely a new experience for us."

One of the more interesting embellishments on the disc is a string section on "Live Young, Die Fast," which was contributed by progressive Norwegian black-metal troupe Ulver, of all acts.

"We're black-metal fans," Skiba says. "I first heard of Ulver reading the 'Lords of Chaos' book. Derek (Grant, drummer) has always been a huge black-metal fan, and he tracked them down online and started sending them tracks. We became friends with them, and they did great things for the record."

It's a fitting pairing, as Alkaline Trio slowly has progressed from a band firmly ensconced in the Warped Tour, punk-rock ranks to a group that belongs to a broader coterie of darker-edged acts -- from alt-rockers The Cure and H.I.M. to the more metallic Type O Negative and Dimmu Borgir among countless others -- whose fan bases aren't really defined by genre and who share many of the same followers.

"We certainly are proud of our punk-rock heritage, but when people who like other kinds of music are into your band, it's flattering," Skiba says. "We've noticed it more in Europe, kids are a lot less cliquey over there. If you're into metal, you can be into punk. They're just into whatever they're into. In the States, it's starting to get that way. I see kids in Cradle of Filth shirts at our shows, which is awesome."

Throughout the conversation, Skiba, an amiable, good-humored dude, doesn't sound like the kind of guy who's often portrayed as misery's bedfellow.

He seems content, kind of happy, actually, even if his tunes occasionally suggest otherwise.

"The songs are definitely reflective of who I am as a person, but there's also a bit of storytelling involved, too," he explains. "There's a lot of me in those songs, but that's not how I talk to people, you know what I mean? I think who I am as a person on and off the stage is always kind of the same thing, but I don't take a lot of things very seriously. We always try and keep our tongues firmly planted in our cheeks."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.