Emerging as one of the most distinctive voices of the early 2000s pop-punk and emo wave, The Starting Line’s Ken Vasoli has spent over two decades crafting songs that capture the exhilaration, heartbreak, and growing pains all of us endure throughout life.
Whilst their 2002 debut ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ helped define a generation of confused, conflicted teens, what has long sat at the heart of The Starting Line’s appeal isn’t just nostalgia, but authenticity. Led by Ken, the Pennsylvania band have consistently stuck to their guns whilst weaving through major label battles and artistic reinvention, every song reflecting their restless creative spirit.
Known for his untouchable sense of melody and a knack for penning lyrics that collide vulnerability with defiance, over the years, Ken’s writing has matured alongside him. Shifting from the raw angst of teenage heartbreak to reflections on self-awareness, perseverance, and gratitude, every release from the band has told its own story. From confessional outbursts to thoughtful musings on the world around him, the whole spectrum of his talent can be found on the band’s long-awaited fourth album ‘Eternal Youth’.
To celebrate their first full-length release in 18 years, Rock Sound sat down with Ken to reflect on his journey as a lyricist, talking through ten lines that have defined The Starting Line’s evolution.
“It says sit back and take this time // To lose your mind // And find out what it’s like to die // So where’s my spine // When it’s time to give an obvious and simple reason // Why I won’t ride again” ‘This Ride’, ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ (2002)
“When I look back on our earlier stuff, my recollection of what inspired the lyrics can get a little fuzzy. Luckily though, my writing style back then was a lot more literal than it is now, so it’s easy for me to pick up on the clues of what I was talking about. Throughout most of this record, I was talking about being wronged by someone that I was dating at the time. I was 16 years old though, so ‘dating’ is a word that should be taken with a grain of salt. I was feeling thwarted by this relationship, found out about cheating, and felt like I was getting taken for a ride. The whole ‘what it’s like to die’ part is very dramatic, but that was how it felt back then. At the time, I didn’t have a lot of courage to say how I was feeling directly to that person, so I wrote it in a song.”
“If these branches hold a leaf // They’ll hold convictions // I believe that this is the beginning // Of something too strong to break now” ‘Making Love To The Camera’, ‘Based On A True Story’ (2005)
“On this record, I shifted gears into writing more about my experience with making music and being in a band. We had transitioned from Drive-Thru Records to what would become Geffen Records and found ourselves in a situation where we had to make a record that would please the label. It was a strenuous process to get approval to record songs, and I was getting a bit neurotic. I was worn out by the process of trying to appease people. This song was about us having the strength to proclaim our foundation and having a touchstone of why we do this. It’s easy to get lost in going after something that’s going to make someone else happy, and we’ve stuck to our guns for the most part during our career. I was particularly proud of this line because when I first sang it to Mike [Golla, guitarist], I could tell that it visibly affected him. Even on our latest tour he was citing this as one of his favourite lines of mine.”
“Could you get to the point, get it across // To the boys at the top of the ladder I’m climbing up // I have my doubts // This is a call from my cage // Through the bars // Inspired by the dollar sign that’s dangling outside” ‘Inspired By The $’, ‘Based On A True Story’ (2005)
“I was immediately tired of playing the game with major label politics. We would go to meetings at the Geffen office, and the president of the label would be in the bathroom on the phone. We would sit for 25 minutes with our burritos in front of us, just waiting for him and wanting to get the meeting over with. We knew he wasn’t our number one fan, and it felt like we were getting nowhere. We were trying to show these people what music we wanted to make, and they would just play us ‘Catalyst’ by New Found Glory and tell us to do that instead. That’s their band, not ours. It almost encouraged us to revolt against the whole process. I was 21 years old at the time, and at my most angsty, so they pushed my buttons enough to get lines like this out of me.”
“If this is worth my time // Then I’ll be here for a while // If this is worth your while // Then you’re making me smile // If S-I-L-Y-M-I still is all you want // Then I’m not sure how much in common we’ve got” ‘Somebody’s Gonna Miss Us’, ‘Direction’ (2007)
“I’m still so proud that I managed to fit that acronym in there! This was more of a comment to the longtime fans. At this point, it had become clear that we were trying to do more than just what was displayed on that first record. We were trying to broaden our horizons musically, and when we were making ‘Direction’ it felt like we had grown so much as a band. There was an obvious divide in our fans, because some of them didn’t want us to change, but it had become less important for me to hold onto the pop-punk aspects of our band. There was a lot of other music that I was interested in, and I wanted to explore that. This line was me wrestling with balancing my influences with what was expected of our band.”
“I’ve had a lifetime to wait // Such a magnificent drain on my energy // I want another one awake // Until the right words fall in place” ‘Anyways’, ‘Anyways’ (2016)
“At this point, it was much more about the sound to me. I didn’t place a lot of importance in my lyrics on this EP, but I was talking a lot about creative procrastination. I’m so guilty of that, and often it feels like years go by with no progress. When we did the ‘Anyways’ EP, we only had those three songs. That EP was about us seeing what it was like to make music together again. We did still want to be creative; we just didn’t have the time to dedicate to making a full record. This line is a comment on that. A lot of this EP is about me facing my own shortcomings when it comes to being a frontman in a band and taking ownership over things that I could have done.”
“Changed right before your eyes // Said either blazed or disguised // It’s cooled off all my hype // And now salad days are behind // Even if it hurts real bad // It’s better than nothing said // Or even an empty head in the meantime // Even if it’s what you heard // The bygones are lying dead // Better than what you read // Seeing the dream life through” ‘Quitter’, ‘Anyways’ (2016)
“At this point, I wasn’t in a relationship, and I was in between bands. It felt like anytime there was something inconvenient about being in my bands, I would just stop playing in them. I felt like a quitter in a lot of areas of my life. This was my favourite The Starting Line song for a long time, and I think it was cathartic to be self-realised about something that I wasn’t proud of. In a lot of our previous songs, I was always coming out clean. It was always someone else’s fault. This was the first time I was taking ownership of it. I was acknowledging that there are some things that I could improve upon, and my commitment to music was a big one that I was wrestling with.”
“I’ll never be replaced // I know it in my heart // It’s got to be this strange // Evident from the start // Everything is absurd // Best just to laugh it off // Although a grain of salt // May not be quite enough anymore” ‘Sense Of Humor’, ‘Eternal Youth’ (2025)
“Right now, there’s a lot of computer-generated music, created without human touch. As an artist you can wonder, ‘What’s my place in all this?’ This line is a statement of confidence, and also an investment in punk music. I’ve had a long time to think about it, and leading up to making this record we concentrated on what we wanted the essence of this band to be. As an artist, I’m only interested in things that humans can do, and things that a computer can’t recreate. For those reasons, we don’t use autotune, and we don’t use amp mods on this record. I wanted the sonics of this album to be a true punk record, and I wanted my expression to be a human expression. No machine can ever replace that.
Our band is not the biggest thing in the world, and I’m happy with that. We’re in this sweet spot right now where we have our fans, and we are ungoverned with the kind of music that we make. Here, I’m trying to shine a light on the fact that we have our place in this, and that no one can do what we do. I’m not saying it’s the best thing ever, but it is us, and we are the only ones that can be us.”
“Hard to imagine what’s deep beneath the surface // Sorry for yourself // Only defeating the purpose” ‘Defeating The Purpose / Pivot’, ‘Eternal Youth’ (2025)
“My wife and I talk about emotional regulation a lot. She’s eight months pregnant now, so emotional regulation has been a huge thing for us throughout the pregnancy. Anyone that’s expecting a child knows that you have to stay calm, and she’s an exceptionally calm person. I have my moments though, and I can get worked up over stupid shit and let minuscule things ruin my mood. Lines like this are a reminder that if you’re feeling sorry for yourself, you’re just wasting your time. It only takes a moment to realise what you have to be thankful for, and how great life can be. There’s a lot to be enjoyed, and I feel like I’ve wasted a great amount of life stuck in a bad spot. It’s a simple line to remind you not let a small mood ruin your time in this beautiful experience.’
“Humility always beats constant vanity // An idea that always seems too far out of reach” ‘Humility’, ‘Eternal Youth’ (2025)
“I have to greatly credit a Japanese movie called ‘The Face Of Another’ for this line. During the summer, my wife and I were having movie weekends, and she picked out that one. It was about a guy who had to have facial reconstructive surgery, and he got someone else’s face put on his face. He didn’t tell his wife, and he was trying to see if she would cheat on him with this other guy. She did, but it turns out she knew that it was him all along. It was a good film, but there was one line that really stuck out. The scientist doing the face-switch experiment asked the man what his take away from it was and he said, ‘humility is greater than vanity’. I immediately thought, ‘Okay, there’s a song there’. That sentiment is something that I feel in my heart of hearts though, and it rings true with the philosophy of the band. I have always said that I want zero pageantry in our live shows. I want people to see the humility on our band, and to know that we’re not perfect. I want them to see our mistakes, and to see us laughing about our mistakes. Really, I just want people to see that we’re having a great time up there.”
“If I could do it all again // I would” ‘Benchmark’, ‘Eternal Youth’ (2025)
“This is my favourite song I’ve ever written for this band, and it’s also a love song for my wife. There was a bench that was left on our property when I first bought the house. It has metal legs, but the planks of wood were dilapidated and rotten. Right before we made the record, I took off all that rotten wood and got some nice cherry wood planks. I sanded them down, measured the holes, drilled them, and I rebuilt the bench. That’s really all that this song is about, and it felt nice to do that. I never write in specifics, but here I’m writing about a real-life occurrence. It’s about my wife’s and I’s entire relationship, and the bench was this simple gesture for her. I wanted her to have somewhere to sit and chill, and we stamped our names onto it.
‘If I could do it all again, I would’ is about my relationship, but it also applies to everything that’s happened with this band. Where we have found ourselves is exactly where we should be. It’s wonderful to be at a point in time where you don’t have any regrets, and that’s how it feels right now.”
