Features / One Question Interviews

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 …

Distillator

SPB: You've been touring a lot including some interesting support tours. What's your absolute dreamband to tour with and why? 

Distillator: We've had the pleasure to tour with many of our favorite bands already: Vektor, Pestilence and Metal Church. Since we are a band with 3 people we have 3 different opinions. We'd love to do a …

Chris Mason (Low Culture/Macho Boys – guitar)

SPB: What guitar do you play and how did choose it? 

Mason: A few years ago I bought a 1969 red Gibson SG and that's been my go-to ever since. It is far and away the most expensive piece of musical equipment I own, and I only bought it at the …

Blag Dahlia (Dwarves – vocals)

SPB: What is the most important vocal element when doing sound check for a Dwarves show? 

Blag Dahlia: A sound man who isn’t profoundly retarded. They do exist, but to find them you have to travel far and wide sorting through countless buffoons until, like the princess and the pea, you find one …

Chris (Rational Anthem – bass/backing vocals)

SPB: How do you determine who sings in a given song?

Chris: These days Noelle sings all of the songs. Chris does harmonies and backups. We split writing duties but since Noelle has the stronger voice we let her sing all the songs these days. We used to toy with the idea …

The Cactus Blossoms

SPB: Who is your favorite currently active country musician?

Jack and Page: Willie Nelson

Roddy Bottum (Nastie Band - keyboards)

SPB: With Nastie Band, what keyboard do you play and how did you make this choice?

Bottum: I play an Oberheim reissue by Dave Smith. It's called an OB-6. I play it cause it's a reissue of the first keyboard I owned. like to keep things close to my history.

Divided Heaven

What is the strangest trend you see in modern music (music-wise or industry-wise)?

The strangest trend I see in modern music is the return of the cassette tape. Who would've thought? I know, I know...there are cassette tape purists that will claim the media format never really went away and that's true. But one cannot deny …

Ryan (fotocrime)

SPB: How do you preserve your voice while on tour?

Ryan: Years ago I used to shred my vocal chords. Then I started singing at a volume level and in a range of pitch that suits my voice. I’ve had no problems or concerns since then.