Features / One Question Interviews

Vinnie Fiorello (Less Than Jake)

SPB: Would you license your music for use in film, sports, or ads if given the opportunity?

Fiorello: We already have been involved in all of the above. Fact for a band like LTJ or hell most bands: you want everyone and anyone to hear what you've done creatively. Licensing songs allows bands …

Peter Mielech (Modern Radio Record Label)

SPB: You re-released old STNNNG records on the Playbutton format. How did you decide to try that format?

Mielech: It's an experiment of sorts. We've always tried to stay on top of the different ways people listen to music. Although we've always stayed true to the only time-tested format in vinyl, we …

Sean Carswell (Razorcake)

SPB: How has working on a zine changed how you listen to or value music?

Carswell: When I first started doing record reviews for Flipside back in the '90s, I learned to really listen to music in a way I hadn't before. Doing reviews taught me to sit down with an album and …

Jesse (The Black Lantern)

SPB: How do you choose your album art?

Jesse: Our music is trying to be chaotic but still have a common thread of rhythm. We were all drawn to glitch art and started following Rob Sheridan and also the Year of the Glitch tumblr. We got apps on the phones, most importantly Decim8, and …

Jared (Sundowners)

SPB: What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you on a tour? Have you ever been stranded or forced to cancel?

Jared: Great question! and really annoying memories to look back on. Hahaha.

Sundowners were on an eight-to-ten hour drive to Salt Lake City maybe three weeks into the tour. We had already been missing …

Phil (Somos)

SPB: What is the worst job you’ve ever had?

Somos: This is tough because I have had a lot of shitty jobs. But first would have to be babysitting rich kids. I was 18 and had just moved to San Francisco from Massachusetts. I was desperate for money and was looking for any kind of work …

Brendan Kelly (Lawrence Arms)

SPB: Does your child listen to your music at all? What does s/he think (sorry, I can't remember if you have a son or daughter--or both)?

Kelly: My kids like to listen to my music in the car. They also like to listen to it on occasion in the house if it's a recording. …

Kurt Midness (Volcom)

SPB: How do you determine which bands go into the singles series?

Midness: To start with we try to pick artists that we think are doing something cool that we like. In an ideal world we could just pick and choose from what we consider to be the best music happening now. Since that is …

Alex (Silver Snakes)

SPB: Who was your favorite band that you discovered on your last tour?

Alex: My favorite band I discovered on our last tour is Third Seven. We were playing our last show with HRVRD at The Launchpad in Albuquerque, NM and I was captivated by the music playing over the PA after sound check. Layers …

Bundy K. Brown (ex-Tortoise)

SPB: What is the weirdest description you’ve heard of your music? Do you think it had some accuracy or could you see where the reviewer came up with it?

Brown: Whew. A decent answer to that question would require my brain to be filled with a lot less information than it typically is these …

Melissa B

SPB: You work as a network engineer. Are there many musicians or artists within your field/Are there many creative-types?

Melissa B: I find that there are a lot of people in the technology field that are truly musically inclined. I happen to work with several people that actually are in bands or have been working on …

Brent Eyestone (Magic Bullet Records, Highness, Bleach Everything)

SPB: Who is your favorite current band to see live?

Eyestone: For the last 13 years, my absolute favorite band to see live is Sigur Rós, without question. I've seen them 38 times all around the world and their performances have always put me in a headspace that I've genuinely …

Eric Scobie (Great Reversals)

SPB: How did you get involved with Jay Maas for the To the Ends of the Earth 10"?

Scobie: We got involved with Jay because we all absolutely loved the first two Defeater records, and when we heard he recorded them we admired them even more. Jay's ability to capture both the heaviness and …

Brandon Helms, guitar (From Oceans to Autumn)

SPB: Whose idea was it to make an album based on Pareto analysis?

Helms: Pareto Analysis was our guitarist Brandon's idea. It is a concept that more can be done in less time. That was the main basis for volume 1 of the series: 5 songs in 5 minutes; volume 2 …

Lesbian

SPB: Is your band name in reference to the sexual orientation, the Greek island, any of the three ships that bore the name SS Lesbian, or the mason rule that can be bent to measure curves with an astonishing degree of accuracy?

Lesbian: It's actually all four of those, especially the last, but also the fifth option …

Brad Perry (Worn in Red, drums)

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

Perry: The first show I ever played was with my high school punk band, Officer Friendly. I was 15 and played bass. Ryan Geis (who works at No Idea and was in Rehasher & Savage Brewtality) played guitar -- it's …

Chucho (Vultress)

SPB: What is your assessment of the current status of progressive rock as a genre?

Chucho: I would say that progressive music is somewhat blossoming right now. More and more I'm seeing bands incorporating new ideas and pulling from both past and present, especially on the metal side. I think that what we're seeing is a …

Ron Rochondo (Ice Dragon)

SPB: How much recording time is spent purposefully making your music sound artfully dirty, and how much of it is pure happenstance?

Rochondo: I love this question, mainly because I think a lot of people think that we are just lazy about recording or don't know how to do it well and that is …

Rich Hinks (Aeon Zen)

SPB: What makes a band "progressive"?

Hinks: Progressive music, to me, is more of a mindset than a determined style. More often than not it means being able experiment and to allow the music to go wherever it naturally wants to. It's like its own organism. Of course there are certain staples that can …

Jeshua Marshall (Larry and His Flask)

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

Marshall: Several years ago we were asked to play the opening ceremonies for a local UFC cage match. We played inside the cage! The amps were falling over because of the bouncy platform. All the while we were locked inside …