diff --git a/rules/alerting.go b/rules/alerting.go
index 94f266dd9f..e927d399f9 100644
--- a/rules/alerting.go
+++ b/rules/alerting.go
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ func (r *AlertingRule) Eval(ctx context.Context, ts time.Time, query QueryFunc,
 		expand := func(text string) string {
 			tmpl := template.NewTemplateExpander(
 				ctx,
-				defs+string(text),
+				defs+text,
 				"__alert_"+r.Name(),
 				tmplData,
 				model.Time(timestamp.FromTime(ts)),
diff --git a/scrape/target.go b/scrape/target.go
index 6241d52281..3ead167327 100644
--- a/scrape/target.go
+++ b/scrape/target.go
@@ -135,16 +135,16 @@ func (t *Target) URL() *url.URL {
 		ks := l.Name[len(model.ParamLabelPrefix):]
 
 		if len(params[ks]) > 0 {
-			params[ks][0] = string(l.Value)
+			params[ks][0] = l.Value
 		} else {
 			params[ks] = []string{l.Value}
 		}
 	}
 
 	return &url.URL{
-		Scheme:   string(t.labels.Get(model.SchemeLabel)),
-		Host:     string(t.labels.Get(model.AddressLabel)),
-		Path:     string(t.labels.Get(model.MetricsPathLabel)),
+		Scheme:   t.labels.Get(model.SchemeLabel),
+		Host:     t.labels.Get(model.AddressLabel),
+		Path:     t.labels.Get(model.MetricsPathLabel),
 		RawQuery: params.Encode(),
 	}
 }
diff --git a/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go b/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go
index ab4603ea3c..92e8cadd3e 100644
--- a/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go
+++ b/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ func (a adapter) StartTime() (int64, error) {
 	if len(a.db.Blocks()) > 0 {
 		startTime = a.db.Blocks()[0].Meta().MinTime
 	} else {
-		startTime = int64(time.Now().Unix() * 1000)
+		startTime = time.Now().Unix() * 1000
 	}
 
 	// Add a safety margin as it may take a few minutes for everything to spin up.