Titus Andronicus Frontman Not 'Ashamed' to Show Emotions

In December 2008, Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles opened for Ted Leo at the underground Brooklyn, N.Y., venue Market Hotel, performing a dozen or so songs about drinking, self-loathing and 20-something angst. He did so within plain view of his mother, who watched from the audience, beaming with pride.

As Stickles tells Spinner, he finds such emotional openness -- long a Titus Andronicus hallmark -- both necessary and cathartic.

"It is hard, but you've got to do it," Stickles says. "That's something that I've learned from bitter experience. It's much better to have everything out in the open."

Even when your mom is standing 10 feet away?

"As far as my mother goes, I've got to give her a lot of props, because it was really her that taught me how to deal with my feelings and stuff," Stickles says. "She works as sort of a guidance counselor at a high school in Jersey. Her whole job is getting kids to open up and understand their feelings and be able to share them and stuff. She's the one that taught me the value of that."

That philosophy informs Titus Andronicus' sophomore album, 'The Monitor,' a conceptual song cycle that juxtaposes Stickles' post-collegiate trials and tribulations with the tragedies of the Civil War. Like the band's previous effort, 2008's 'The Airing of Grievances,' the record pairs introspective lyrics with shambolic bar-band punk.

"We have a tendency to think of our most severe emotions as being something that's dirty or something to be ashamed of, or to hide from the world," Stickles says. "That seems unhealthy to me. That's now how I was raised. I think I am much happier person for not carrying that baggage around."

"People think if you say, 'I have feelings,' you're a whiny little b----," he adds. "The sooner we let go of those apprehensions, the happier we will be. We're emotional creatures. It's not something to be ashamed of."