Features / One Question Interviews

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 …

Taylor Iversen (Abrams)

SPB: What’s your favorite stretch of highway to drive in the US?

Taylor: When we were leaving Joshua Tree after our most recent show there, some sagely person told us to take a scenic route to get to where we were going. 

We ended up cutting through the Mojave National Preserve on our way …

Greg (All People)

SPB: What are the origins for the band name All People?

Greg: We first came up with the name for our band while waiting in the airport on our way home from the Asian Man Records 15 year anniversary shows in 2011. D-Ray and I were in San Francisco, waiting to fly back to New …

Amirtha Kidambi

SPB: Your new album features a fair deal of spiritual themes, for instance the themes of creation, destruction, rebirth and repetition. Do you feel that themes from your own background, such as Hinduism, bring a more personal and unique tone to your concepts, and act as an aid in the construction of your music?

KidambI: Absolutely. …

Mike Park (Asian Man Records)

SPB: What gives you the biggest sense of accomplishment through your years at Asian Man and as a part of the overall music scene?

Park: Developing lifelong friendships even when money and fame and power are usually the root of success in this corrupt business called the music business. This is my biggest …

Adam Gnade & the Hot Earth All-Stars

SPB: Do you approach writing lyrics differently than you approach fiction?

Gnade: With fiction I have this big well of a story I draw from. A lot of it is planned out already--how my characters interact, where their lives go, their deaths, births, marriages, their struggles, their ambitions and their failures. …

Eric Fisher and Arlie Carstons (Atoms and Void)

SPB: When collaborating with so many artists, how do you draw the determine when to allow a “guest improv” vs pre-composed music?

Atoms and Void: Our approach to recording is both guided and spontaneous, and our reasons for working with a specific musician (or combination of musicians) are always very …

Ali Muhareb

SPB: It seems like there's been renewed interest in psychedelic music in recent years. Have you noticed any differences between the psychedelic scene in the United States and that which you've encountered while touring overseas? 

Muhareb: I find the question you asked me very interesting! It's got me thinkin' all sorts of thoughts. Nostalgic memories of …

Elias (Afraid of the Basement)

SPB: Your label and zine seems to take pride in nice-looking product. Talk about the difficulties funding such consistently aesthetically pleasing product at the DIY level. 

Elias: It's funny that you bring that up man. I don't like complaining about it, but funding a zine is a fuckin’ money pit. But I still …

Tyler Forsythe (Axis)

SPB: What was your first musical instrument? How old were you?

Forsythe: I started playing bass when I was 11 and it was the first instrument I had ever really had an interest in playing. My older brother had already been playing for years so it was somewhat easy for me to feel motivated to …

Valenten (Askrinn)

SPB: What is your favorite music related film or documentary?

Valenten: Probably, it would be Whiplash, the recently-released jazz drumming movie. Although jazz is a genre I almost never listen to, I can only but acknowledge the quality drum patterns in this film, and I was truly mesmerized by the intense drum solo at the …

All Eyes West (Justin)

SPB: Have you ever forgotten lyrics mid-song? How did you recover?

Justin: Oh yeah! Totally. It's happened more times than I'd like to admit. Sometimes during a show, my mind will just wander off on random thoughts. Especially on a long tour. You're playing the set every night for a couple weeks straight and …

A Death Cinematic

SPB: What is the fewest people you’ve ever played to? How does the crowd size affect your approach?

ADC: I have only played a handful of shows and playing live is a fairly new development for A Death Cinematic. Tthe fewest people i played for was 10 or so.

At this point, I don’t really …

Taylor Iversen (Abrams)

SPB: What club has the worst bathroom?

Iversen: Some notable Denver bands on the road like to take pictures of the various bathrooms they encounter with the addendum #TourBathrooms, so I'd say this question pitches right to our wheelhouse. 

The worst bathroom we've found on the road so far is at The Blue Lamp …

Lachlan R. Dale (Adrift for Days, Art As Catharsis)

SPB: How has the increasing digitisation of music changed your listening habits?

Dale: A very good question, and one I often reflect on.

There is no doubt that the digitisation of music has dramatically increased access while also increasing supply through reduced production costs.

The effect for …

Marc Weinstein (Amoeba Records, co-owner)

SPB: What shift in listening format has been the most surprising in your run as a store?

Weinstein: The most surprising shift was back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s when everybody was convinced they needed to buy their collection over again on this new "improved" format called a "CD..." CDs offered a degree …

Parks (All Them Witches)

SPB: What is your favorite book about music?

Parks: The way I feel about books on music is the same way I have always felt about music classes, and that is that they have no place in my life. That being said, I do remember the first time I fell in love with the …

Jamie (Audio Antihero)

SPB: What is the best pop song of the last 10 years?

Jamie: I'm not deliberately rockist (I swear!) - but since “teen” started appearing in my ages, I've never really liked radio/Top 40 music all that much, so I'm probably not the best person to ask. Firstly I was going to say "Crazy" by …

Matt Sweeting (Asshole Parade, No Idea Records)

SPB: What’s the last record you didn’t care for on first listen but has since grown on you?

Sweeting: Here's two answers (and this happens to me constantly by the way falling in and out of love with records).

Veronica Falls - s/t LP (Slumberland)

So first off, I …

Zock (Astpai – vocals)

SPB: What is the furthest you’ve ever traveled to see a show (and who was it/where was it)?

Astpai: In May 1999, I woke up on what I thought was gonna be yet another lousy school day (I was 12 years old at the time), preparing myself for eight hours full of incompetent teaching …