One of our features here at Scene Point Blank is our semi-daily quickie Q&A: One Question Interviews. Follow us at facebook or twitter and we'll post one interview every Monday-Thursday. Well, sometimes we miss a day, but it will be four each week regardless.
After our social media followers get the first word, we'll later post a wrap-up here at the site and archive 'em here. This week check out Q&As with Franz Nicolay, Dan Padilla, Where My Bones Rest Easy and Radon.
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Franz Nicolay
SPB:What instrument is the hardest to tunefully amplify in a larger venue?
Franz: It doesn't come up very often, but the musical - or "singing" - saw is next to impossible to successfully mic. The sound is soft and high-pitched and has no obvious point of creation, so you just have to point a mic at it and turn it up as loud as you can without feeding back. The problem is especially acute since for the performer, to accurately set and hold the pitch you need to hear it pretty well, so you need monitors turned up as well. Basically it becomes a feedback machine. Better to use a theremin. Or just a violin.
J. Wang (Dan Padilla, Shallow Cuts)
SPB: Have you ever forgotten lyrics mid-song? If so, how did you recover?
J: Of course I’ve forgotten lyrics. Haven’t you seen how drunk we are when we play? I've not only forgotten lyrics, but forgotten entire songs while the rest of the band just stares at me like I’m an idiot. Not much to do at that point...It doesnt happen often, and everyone is human.
"Imperfection is what makes us unique." That's what my friend Matty told me.
Anthony Manella (Where My Bones Rest Easy)
SPB: What’s your favorite book?
Anthony: I'd have to say the book that has stuck with me and held a lot of weight in helping me process things in life as a young teen/adult would have to be Albert Camus' The Stranger. I first read it when I was 15 or 16. So at an early age the book was more intriguing to me from a religious standpoint more than anything. I was adamantly atheist as a teenager, because I needed something to rebel against, haha. So when I was younger I was just really excited on all the symbolism (of what I thought at the time was a rejection) of organized religion. Growing up and re-evaluating my thoughts on such topics of faith and how it ties into living one’s life. I've taken Camus' use of religious symbolism in The Stranger as more of an effort to stray away from the focus of a promised afterlife being the sole reason to be a "good" person with the lives we have. But rather live your life on your own terms defining what is "good" and healthy along the way, knowing that the only thing that is ever promised to you is death. That may be morbid to some, but it gives me a little comfort in knowing that I'm doing what I know makes me happy and gives me some sort of life.
Bill Clower (Radon, drums)
SPB: How did your set at Fest 12 come about? Any surprises in store for #13?
Bill: That's 2 questions.
Tate, the owner of The Lunch Box restaurant, asked us to play.
[For Fest 13,] if we told you, it wouldn't be a surprise (you're really going to have to start thinking this whole thing through from now on) J/K. More than likely, we will be doing an entire set of Bruno Mars covers...SURPRISE!
