Features / One Question Interviews

Dick Lucas (Subhumans UK)

SPB: You’re at least somewhat active in three different bands. Do you make a point with Subhumans to differentiate your vocal sound or delivery from your other bands? How so?

Lucas: No. What sets the vocal sound for any song [is] whichever band is the music I'm singing to: so hard and fast leads to fairly …

Marissa (Screaming Females)

SPB: How does your choice of guitar define the Screaming Females sound?

Marissa: I never put much thought into what sort of guitar I wanted to play in Screaming Females, because I didn't have much of a choice. My G&L was a gift given to me when I first began playing, and it always seemed to suit my …

Vytautas Leistrumas (Solo Ansamblis)

SPB: Walk us through your gear setup from your last tour. How do you implement the mix of live and electronic elements?

Leistrumas: Let's start with a very important, beloved and sometimes hated Elektron Octatrack MK2, which serves as a midi host, effects machine and also plays some backing tracks as well as gives tempo for our …

Kevin (Sutekh Hexen)

SPB: Walk us through Sutekh Hexen’s setup.

[Here] is a sketch and quick video clip of the primary noise setup that I have used in Sutekh Hexen 2010-present.

This sketch represents the absolute base setup. Various distortions, delays, or reverbs are switched out depending on what we're going to do. It has been an integral part of my …

Tom (Smash The Statues)

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

Tom: Covers could be really fun to play. Back in the days we played a bunch of covers that suited us both musically and lyrically. As a political band, you want to get your message through, so it wouldn't make sense for us to play coversongs without …

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 felt it …

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 hearing a …

Kevin White (Squarecrow – bass)

SPB: To you, what is the best thing about the San Diego scene right now?

White: It’s hard to identify. It’s just a group of musicians exhausting through a subsidiary fragmented universe of ego and alienation, entitlement and reproach, where diuretics and laxatives are employed to produce on a sidewalk; a San Diego scene.

Redmer (Sun-0-Bathers)

SPB: Sun-0-Bathers sounds very true to one particular scene or sound (and mocks a couple of others just by naming the band as you did). The more truly a band presents itself, the more it makes me wonder: what guilty pleasures are hidden? So: what are your guilty pleasures outside of your general style?

Redmer: Our guilty pleasure …

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

SPB: Which venue has the best food for touring artists? 

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers: The Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC, those cats make dope tacos and have vegan options.

Andrea (Sect Mark)

SPB: How did you get involved with Iron Lung Records? 

Andrea: We already got in touch by email with Iron Lung previously and we knew they enjoyed our demo recording in 2017.

When we recorded "Worship", Iron Lung was on the top of the list of labels we hoped for. When they said, "Cool, let's do it!" I …

Deanna Belos (Sincere Engineer)

SPB: Who is your favorite 1980s artist?

Deanna: My favorite 1980s artist is probably Tears For Fears.  I think "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" is one of the greatest songs ever written.  I saw them open for Hall and Oates last year.  It was pretty incredible.

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.  

Shilpa Ray

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

Shilpa: Baseball caps. Too many baseball caps.

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 as a kid. London …

David Wilson (Sarin - guitar/vocals)

SPB: How likely are you to pick up a record based off its cover with no knowledge of the band or music?

David: I generally treat cover art as indicative of what's inside, as presumably that's the imagery the band wants me to associate with their music. It's not unusual for me to buy an …

Eric Carlson (Steppe People)

SPB: What is your primary or go-to tour food?

Carlson: Touring allows bands the opportunity to venture out into the world, see new and exotic scenes, meet fans and future friends, and of course taste far out and local delicacies. None of those bands are Steppe People. Steppe People are a delicate ecosystem. In order to …

Leo Ashline (Street Sects)

SPB: There is a fair amount of your new album that was written focusing on the subject of addiction, which stemmed also from personal experiences. Do you feel that Street Sects has aided you, in that it acts as an outlet for your emotions?

Ashline: Definitely. For my end, Street Sects was created specifically to be …

Shane Handal (Set and Setting) 

SPB: There are a lot of stereotypes about post-rock. How do you approach genre and expectation when composing?

Handal: For whatever reason, post-rock sometimes has a negative stigma attached to it. Which is weird to me, because a lot of bands are proud to proclaim certain genres. Anyway, we never really felt like we've …

Tobias Sinclair (Soft Kill)

SPB: How did you meet the new members and how did they get on the Soft Kill ship?

Sinclair: Owen & Conrad have been with the band since the Heresy LP.  I met Owen when I was nineteen and playing in grind core / noise bands.  We spent our initial time together playing with …