You’ve always been fearless in how you present sex, love, politics, and race in your lyrics. As you get older, have you ever reconsidered your stance?

I’ve definitely thought twice but I always come back to, that is the definition of being an artist. A true artist is not a chickenshit. It’s not like you don’t care — it's just that you have to have balls. Be strong. For me, the definition of an artist is how they translate how they feel to the public; how they choose to translate that into a painting, or graffiti or a into a song, or the way how they use their voice, is that person’s interpretation, and the level of their interpretation of the art form is what they want to give to the public. If you hold back on that, you are not going to do your best work.

But I’ve gotten into trouble for that. I learned a very long time ago not to tell people what songs are about them. Never, ever, ever. But in “Death to the Lovers,” it was fucking obvious. And because I’d already gotten into trouble for it, there is no point in trying to pretend that it is about something else.

The single “We Are The Flames” seems to correlate with the current political and social climate.

Today I’ve been looking at all of the memes about Melania Trump’s [Republican Convention] speech [regarding accusations of plagiarism.] I consider that a flame. These are the ways in which we hide the frustrations we have. We’ll put something on our Facebook or Twitter to ignite a bunch of people into it. We [the band] had this discussion as to whether this song should be a personal song, as in “I Am The Flame,” or something as in "We," which is about me talking about the whole band. I guess it is, in a sense. It’s one of those things where you put the feeling out there and people interpret it how they want. So I guess it was that kind of feeling.

What’s your view on the current social and political issues in England?

I’m seriously depressed and worried about my country right now. This whole Brexit nonsense has just been fuel for all those closet racists — all of those closet, ignorant, suburban people who just think that they rule the country. Do you know these are the same people who will get an Indian curry faster than Superman? These are the same people who worship the Royal Family. And I’m like, "Do you realize that Prince Philip is Greek, so he is an immigrant, and other members are German?" And then they marry each other, and that’s the way it’s been for hundreds of years. So this idea that the Royal Family, who are held up to this notion of being the best of British life, and worshiped by these suburban, ignorant people who don’t want any immigrants in the country, is ridiculous. They don’t realize that the number one immigrant is Prince Philip. And I think that it was a lot of political game playing that backfired. I don’t think that [U.K. Foreign Secretary] Boris Johnson wanted to be out of Europe, I think he wanted a percentage of votes so he could go on to be Prime Minister. And it all backfired. All of those guys who did all of that fucking shit are all gone. They all just walked away without finishing their job, and not concerned with the aftermath. It’s like going to Mount Everest, sticking a flag on top of the mountain and then saying, "I don’t feel like climbing down now. Can I just get a helicopter? I’m done it with it now."

I’m incandescent with rage right now with all the things that are happening right now. And the sad thing is, is that in Britain, we have been at the forefront of social issues, such as gay marriage. And with this one move, we’ve turned into what the Americans were like during the Bush era.