Features / One Question Interviews

Radical Fun Time

SPB: What does DIY mean to you in 2020? How has it changed since you started playing music (has it)? 

PunX Rock $@M (guitar/vocals): !Radical Fun Time! is still living the Do It Yourself lifestyle!

In this new Decade !RFT! attempts to do as much as we can ourselves! Writing our own music and …

Nate Cook (The Yawpers)

SPB: What’s the worst or harshest thing that’s happened to you in the middle of a tour? 

Cook: We were in Bern, Switzerland. I’d spent the last 6 months unable to move due to a collapsed disc in my neck. It had finally stopped crippling my movement about 2 weeks prior. We were playing …

Shanti Wintergate (Play Date)

SPB: What is the biggest different in how you approach writing a song for children as compared to writing a song for adults?

Wintergate: I would have to say the actual approach and process is pretty much the same. We set out to make authentic, thoughtful music for kids and families. So as much …

Dries (Loud Love-vocals)

SPB: Is the recently released EP reason for extensive touring or are you more focused on releasing more material soon(ish)? 

Dries: Well yes and..no :)

The aspect of bringing your music on a live stage: the aspect of connecting with your peers and audience, the sense of community and togetherness created during a live …

Ray (Drunktank)

SPB: You took time to write this second album. What are your plans for the near future (or to put it bluntly: are you planning on working a third album soon)? 

Ray: At the moment we are really happily promoting our latest release, Return of The Infamous Four. We're playing shows, festivals, doing some tours …

Lazerbeak (Shredders / Doomtree)

SPB: To you, what is the most important element in your setup to get the best live sound?

Lazerbeak: By far it's the MPC Rennaissance. I grew up making beats on the MPC 2000XL and it's really all I know as far as production is concerned. When AKAI released the Renaissance it was a …

Ben (Much Worse)

SPB: What was your first live show?

Ben: First concert: Oasis/Black Crowes at Roy Wilkins [Auditorium] when I was in 7th grade. My old man got tickets through his work or something like that.

John Erik Kaada (Kaada, Cloroform)

SPB: What is your favorite album cover of all time?

Kaada: We are currently planning the release of a new Cloroform album, and on band meetings we have discussed what to do next in terms of design and visual appearance. We dug up the album cover we made for a release of a …

David Stickney (Pound – drums)

SPB: Walk our readers through your kit and offer insight as to how you arrived at your sizes (shells and cymbals)? 

Stickney: The best way to think of my kit is actually as 2 separate kits. The main kit is a typical, traditional kit: just kick, snare and two toms. My shells are …

Brianda (Just Friends)

SPB: Did you intentionally choose a name that’s impossible to Google?

Brianda: Hahahahahahaha I had no part in that *three laughing emojis*

Will Butler (Tired of Everything – vocals)

SPB: Tired Of Everything is your first time singing in a band. Between your first show and today, what have you done to shape how your voice sounds live? 

Butler: I would say, honestly, I still don't know what I'm doing as far as my voice as an instrument. My first …

Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation)

SPB: What is the worst you’ve been screwed by a venue or promoter? (No need to name names…unless there is.)

Ryan: There's a guy named Mitch that runs a venue called Ground Zero in Spartanburg, SC. We were on a tour that was booked during a gigantic boom in tours at the time -- …

Jim Blaha (The Blind Shake - guitar)

SPB: What type of guitar do you play with The Blind Shake and how did you pick that model? 

Blaha: For The Blind Shake I always was drawn towards the cheaper models like Univox, Tiesco and Danelectro (they were cheap when the band started at least). I never wanted the guitar …

Ryan Schutte (Pound – baritone guitar)

SPB: What led you to the baritone guitar as your instrument of choice? 

Schutte: I do a fair amount of hybrid picking which is more difficult on larger gauge strings. The baritone 9 string allows me to use lighter gauge strings, which is easier on my fingers. The thinner strings also help …

Dan Jones (California X)

SPB: How many vans have you had? (Any related “death of a” stories?)

Jones: The short answer is: One. 

Our main touring vehicle during the first few years of the band was a Red Jeep owned by Lemmy-The-Singer. It was a tight fit, and we had to borrow gear at a lot of …

Bobby Hussy (The Hussy, Fire Heads, Cave Curse)

SPB: Are you partial to a specific model of guitar? 

Bobby: I am partial to a few guitars depending on the project. In The Hussy I almost exclusively used offset Fender guitars like jaguars and jazzmasters, until rather recently when MPLS Guitars made me a custom guitar with a Fender …

Frank Turner

SPB: What guitar do you play and what do you like about it when performing solo, versus with a full band?

Turner: I play Martin D45 acoustic guitars live these days, I have four of them. They are spectacular instruments. I went through a lot of other types of guitar, many of them excellent (special shout …

Rob Huddleston (Ann Beretta)

SPB: Did you use a different model guitar on the recordings of your old material (Old Scars, New Blood) than on the original recordings? How did it affect the overall sound, in your opinion?

Huddleston: The answer is yes and no. Old Scars, New Blood is a collection of rerecorded songs from …

Joshua Fleming (The Vandoliers)

SPB: How do you describe your sound to strangers? 

Fleming: It’s Texas Music.

Tierney Tough (The Pauses)

SPB: Where did you learn to drive? And what kind of car was it? 

Tough: My dad taught me how to drive in empty parking lots in some sort of dad-like truck, probably like everyone else's parents did with them. He also showed me how to drive and park with a trailer, which I …