Features / One Question Interviews

Kelly (Dreadnought)

SPB: What is the weirdest venue/setting you’ve ever played a show at?

Kelly: The strangest setting is tied for either a fighting ring in the basement of a bar in Kansas or one of my best friend's wedding. I'm not sure the basement was actually used as a fighting ring, but it felt like we were …

Timo Ellis of Netherlands

SPB: What is the weirdest description you’ve heard others say of your music? Do you think it’s accurate or can you see where the idea came from?

Timo: “You’re like the Sybil of music, with some sort of dissociative identity... I feel like you’re dancing on some sort of “post-sensibility” ledge. Often with regard …

Spotlights

SPB: What’s a record you love that would surprise people?

Spotlights: Gonna go with – Braid’s The Age of Octeen. We love this band and especially this time in their career.  

Jarboe

SPB: Given your long list of collaborations, which is the one band/artist not around anymore that you would have wanted to collaborate on a release with and why? 

Jarboe: The artist with whom a collaboration both adventurous and outside all comfort zones would have been a role in a film by Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell.

…

Edward Ricart (Monotrope)

SPB: Who is your favorite band to see live (currently active)?

Edward: Portland, Oregon's U Sco are an awesome band. These guys deliver all the muscle, power, and propulsion anyone could ever want, and essentially always have since we first saw them six years ago. Ryan Miller is an amazing, blistering guitarist, and Phil Cleary …

Pistoleros

SPB: What is a city or country that you would love to play but never have? 

Lawrence Zubia: Tokyo, Japan

Mark Zubia: Paris!

Father Murphy

SPB: In the past you have mentioned that religion is one of your main inspirations. What is your opinion on the influence of religion on the arts? Do you believe that great works of arts, like Michelangelo’s Last Judgement or Dante’s Divine Comedy would never come to be if it was not for the influence of religion, …

Nate Erickson and Jordan Compton (After Hours Radio)

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

Nate Erickson: Greg, our bass player, and I both got our first CDs as gifts from our parents so they aren't very representative of our music taste at the time. Most of my music exposure growing up was …

Chris Moore (The Rememberables)

SPB: Playing in more bands can be complicated planning wise. What will happen with your other bands if The Rememberables will really take off? Or the other way around? 

Chris Moore: Haha. The question of the ages! Well fortunately out of the six bands I play in (Coke Bust, Repulsion, D.O.C., Guilt Parade, Sick …

Eddie Roxy (Department S)

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

Eddie: The first Department S concert was at the MUSIC MACHINE (now KOKO) in Camden. I was playing keyboards in those days. My main memory was having Boy George standing next to me dancing, he was wearing his Romanesque/Britannia costume with a roman …

Mike McGinnis (Plaque Marks-guitar/vocals)

SPB: Has being on a stage regularly changed your social interactions? Are you more/less social because of your stage experience?

Mike: Not in anyway that's very noticeable. I'd say if it has changed my social interactions then it's happened like a callous that slowly builds over time. You would think it would make someone …

Becca Richardson

SPB: What is the most touching or memorable thing a fan has told you about your work?

Becca: A fan sent me a video of her daughter singing along to one of my songs in the car and it was pretty adorable.

Sally Grayson (Black Swift)

SPB: What did participating in The Voice bring you, both personally and artistically?

When the talent scout approached me asking if I would audition for The Voice of Germany, I was very skeptical. I honestly really didn't think that this was something for me. I'm more of a punk rocker and not a …

Will Prinzi (Broken Bellows)

SPB: What drummer (not your own band) stands out to you the most?

Will: Thomas Haake (Meshuggah) is the greatest drummer of all time. That is all.

Perry (The Travoltas)

SPB: Should more punk bands listen to Beach Boys and use their influences? And which album would you recommend to start listening?

Perry: That's an absolute yes. If you want to be schooled in songwriting and come up with great harmonies, this is it. Especially with the early records it's just back-to-the-basics: bare-bones production with …

Whit (Fallow Land)

SPB: How do you choose your album art?

Whit: Fallow Land chose the album cover of Pinscher to mirror the overall attitude I had when writing it. My friend Andrea Calvetti is a fantastic photographer and videographer. I saw a photograph of his dog he had taken and posted on Facebook and I knew it …

Shilpa Ray

SPB: What is the strangest trend you see in modern music (or in the industry)?

Shilpa: Baseball caps. Too many baseball caps.

Deni Krstev (Fonija)

SPB: Fonija is changing their sound on every record so far. There is a certain risk attached to that: alienating your fanbase. How is this turning out for Fonija, do you have a strong fanbase that sticks around? And are you inspired by certain bands that kept changing and developing?

Deni: Heraclitus wrote that you …

Dick Rubin (MINKA)

SPB: What is the worst stereotype of musicians that you encounter when people discover you’re in a band?

Dick: When people discover you’re in a band, they always think to themselves: “I bet he wouldn’t be a good accountant.” well, I’m here to tell you…that’s a bunch of hogwash.

I know all about credits …

Hector Martinez (Spider-lead vocals)

SPB: What is the best TV theme song? 

Hector: Without a doubt, I gotta say the theme song for the HBO show John From Cincinnati is the best theme song ever.

The song used is “Johnny Appleseed” performed by the inimitable Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros.

I always loved The Clash …