Features / One Question Interviews

Fotis Tzanakis (The Contenders – guitar)

SPB: Can you walk us through your guitar gear?

Tzanakis: Here's a more detailed way of how I come to the sound for my guitar playing for Contenders: I play a Peerless solid body. I treat recordings and gigs quite differently when it comes to how my guitar will sound. 

Both …

Martin Defatte (Guerilla Ghosts)

SPB: Who is your favorite artist to see live?

Defatte: My favorite artist to see live these days would have to be Carnage the Executioner. Living in the Twin Cities, Milwaukee ends up being a tour stop for him a few times a year. I first saw him... must be 13-14 years ago now. …

Chuck (Bullet Treatment – guitar)

SPB: What kind of guitar do you use, and how/why did you choose this one?  

Chuck: My main guitar is a Gibson Epiphone Les Paul Model, it wasn't necessarily the guitar I set out to use but I like to try and buy cheaper guitars and then modify them to get a specific …

Sean McVay (King Buffalo - guitar)

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

McVay: My main guitar is a Hagstrom Deluxe D2f. I found it dirt cheap at a local shop in Rochester and thought it looked interesting. It played well so I bought it and swapped out the pickups and …

Michael Bertoldini (The Secret)

SPB: The band didn’t see each other or communicate with each other for years prior to the new EP -- What brought you back together and how did you then move forward with creating new music?

Bertoldini: Our friends that run Venezia Hardcore Fest really pushed hard to have The Secret to reunite for …

Travis (Time and Pressure – drums)

SPB: What do your parents think of your music? 

Travis: This is funny because none of our parents have checked out Time & Pressure -- although James' mom and Dave's family buy our merch! 

Personally, my parents have probably came to like 2 or 3 of my shows ever since I …

David (Nueva Fuerza)

SPB: What is your favorite cover to play? Why? 

David: Our favourite cover to play is DYS - “Open Up.” We haven't played it in a long time now but it used to be in every set. That intro with the bass is amazing, and the Boston-style riffs... Who doesn't like that? I think we …

Small Million

SPB: Can you enjoy the work of a musician if you disagree with their politics?   

Malachi: I don’t need to agree with someone 100% to enjoy their music, but I do think that I’m most drawn to art that shows empathy and a willingness to ask questions, regardless of politics. I think it comes down to …

United Ghosts

SPB: What was your first tape, record, or CD (as applicable)?   

Axel: Best of The Beatles 67-70 (the blue double album) I was about 9 and growing up in a tiny town in Germany where there wasn't a record shop, but the appliance store had a shelf with about 20 albums and that was one of …

Ivo (NIET – vocals/guitar)

SPB: How do you choose your album art?   

Ivo: Well, we didn't choose the artwork but we have choosen the artist. We really like to promote other artist in our hometown and so we asked to Ludovica if she wanted to think about the entire artwork of the EP.

We really like her …

Lazerbeak (Doomtree)

SPB: What strikes you as the biggest evolution in your production since you started to today?

Lazerbeak: When I first got into producing my biggest concern was always having a stockpile of beats for many artists to choose from. I wasn't custom making tracks specifically for each artist. I just figured as long as I always …

Orphanage Named Earth

SPB: If you could change just one thing in the human mindset today, what would it be and why?   

The desire to form hierarchy in the society. Once food became commodity and civilisation as we know it arrived, humans formed hierarchy and those in power started to control those less fortunate. This led to exploitation, …

Rob Piper (Darko-guitar)

SPB: Do you get nervous before you play a show? 

Piper: When I first started playing live in my early teens, I got so scared that I could hardly hold the instrument. The more I played, the less nervous I got, but it still depended on how prepared I was. If I was playing solo …

Noah (The Pretty Flowers)

SPB: What do you listen to in the van?   

Noah: We started doing a band-approved music playlist on Spotify this year called Sounds from a Sony Sports Walkman and this SPB question made us realize we need to update it for Feb. January's playlist should give your readers a good idea of our varied …

Eric Kreson (The Chairman Dances)

SPB: How old were you when you first learned an instrument?   

Kreson: I was in fourth grade, so about ten years old, when I began trumpet lessons at my public school. I kept playing regularly through college. My first years of lessons were, unwittingly, my introduction to music theory, melody, harmony, and (music) …

Coady (Murder City Devils)

SPB: Is there any particular older song that is frequently requested but you’d like to put to rest?

Coady: "Boom Swagger Boom" is probably the song that people comment on us not playing the most. We've always had a policy in this band that any one of us has veto power over the set …

Matt Cronk (Qui)

SPB: What kind of guitar do you use and how did you come to this choice?   

Cronk: What a fun question! I love guitars and can go on and on about them, ad infinitum. I have several that rotate in and out but if I had to pick one, it would be my ‘99 Gibson …

Burnt Tapes (Pan T-guitar/vocals)

SPB: Do you get nervous before you play a show? 

Pan T: Yeah for sure, even after years of playing shows I still feel differing amounts of anxiety before going on stage. I think it’s something that for most people never really goes away – there will always be a certain amount of nerves …

Maura (Ogikubo Station)

SPB: How did Ogikubo Station come to be? 

Maura: I was visiting my sister in Oakland and hanging out with my friend Danielle Bailey from the band Jabber in San Jose. Danny had posted some photos of us hanging out and Mike called Danny to ask if I'd sing some vocals on a song he …

Good Touch

SPB: What do your parents think of your music? (Related: Are they likely to read this?) 

Adrien: My mom has always been supportive. Like a lot of older folks, she wishes we'd write a "one hit wonder," haha.

She's more likely to read it if I show it to her.

Jason: They appreciate my …