Features / One Question Interviews

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.

Patrick Delaney (Nastie Band)

SPB: The name Nastie Band kind of speaks for itself. Where there any runner-up names?

Delaney: Nastie Band was, iz, and will be the only name. We all surrendered to it joining the band as the name preceded us. NASTIE is the iron rod that rules us.

Jamie Stillman (EarthQuaker Devices - President/Product Designer)

SPB: EarthQuaker has a reputation for high quality, versatile builds that artists can use in the studio, live, and in experimental environments, ie writing. What did the collaboration with Sunn O))) mean to Earthquaker on a personal level, and did you approach this project with goals related to a specific aspect of …

AEF (Starless Domain)

SPB: What electronic equipment/synthesisers do you use and what led you to those in particular?

AEF: On the album EOS I went fairly simple with synthesizers and only used a Roland JP-8000. This was mostly due to my gear being in storage and, since this was our first run writing music for Starless Domain, I …

Josh Fleming (Vandoliers)

SPB: Take us through your gear setup from your last tour? 

Fleming: We roll around the country as a six-piece band, stuffing everything in to the back of a Ford Transit named Vannah Montana. I play a Gibson SJ200 and SJ100 ‘cause they are giant and I love swinging them around, Dustin our lead guitarist …

SPB: A lot of bands in this scene only exist for a short amount of time. 69 Enfermos has been active for over 20 years. What's the secret to that success? 

Dalin: Well, It's been such a long ride since we were just a bunch of kids dreaming about playing with the Fat/Epitaph bands and touring around the world…and …

Anthem Grief

SPB: The two of you recorded the album on your own. How does the band’s live setup work?

Anthem Grief: The two of us met through a previous band that was around for a short time. The two of us were the only ones who really clicked in that band. Throughout the years after that project …

Russ (Good Riddance)

SPB: What do you remember of playing your first live show?

Russ: I remember it being euphoric, the sense of watching people move and go crazy to the music my band was playing. 

We weren’t very good at our instruments then, but it didn’t seem to matter. 

Almost our entire set consisted of …

Martin Bisi

SPB: What is your preferred guitar model for personal playing, and how has your production work affected that choice?

Bisi: I started way late on guitar. I was a drummer during my teens, through my early years recording. It was drumming that helped me work with the early hip-hop I did (Afrika Bambaataa, "Rockit," etc.) And …