Features / One Question Interviews

Corporate Citizen

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

Steve Diaz (guitar): Bus boy at a Mexican food restaurant for 1 day. They tried to make me recycle the chips and salsa from used tables back in the mix. Even at 16 I knew that shit was fucked.

Louis Ramsey (guitar): I worked at a …

Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation)

SPB: What is the worst you’ve been screwed by a venue or promoter? (No need to name names…unless there is.)

Ryan: There's a guy named Mitch that runs a venue called Ground Zero in Spartanburg, SC. We were on a tour that was booked during a gigantic boom in tours at the time -- …

Dan Jones (California X)

SPB: How many vans have you had? (Any related “death of a” stories?)

Jones: The short answer is: One. 

Our main touring vehicle during the first few years of the band was a Red Jeep owned by Lemmy-The-Singer. It was a tight fit, and we had to borrow gear at a lot of …

Ryan Knowles (Coarse)

SPB: A goal with this band was to be distinct from previous projects. To follow-through on this, did you change your overall approach or mostly just the musical style elements? 

Ryan: We did change our entire approach to this project, in all aspects really. We quite literally forced ourselves into this small room that felt …

Miski Dee (City Mouse)

SPB: What is the most irritating thing that reviewers say about your band or that you overhear in the crowd?

Miski Dee: I think the most annoying thing is hearing us being compared to another band just because there is another female in it when the band has absolutely nothing in common with us …

Tyler Taormina (Cloud)

SPB: Do you see a natural end for Cloud or so you think you'll continue with the project for a while?

Tyler: This is a funny question because I feel that Cloud has reached a natural end. I’m fairly certain that Plays with Fire will be the last of the Cloud records. The reason being …

Cindy Marabito (The Dicks From Texas)

SPB: Living in Austin and being a part of South by Southwest for the last several years, I'm often struck by the, what I might label, "niche" music documentaries that pop up, in seemingly increasing numbers, from year to year. How would you assess the market for these types of documentaries, have things …

Jeff Bobula (Crushed)

Raymondo (Collision Course Records)

SPB: What is your dayjob and how does it affect/influence/interfere with your label operations?

Raymondo: Well....I'd like to say I sit around in my sunglasses drinking lattes and looking at my phone all day...but running an indie punk label isn't that lucrative!!!! Soooo...I get up at the crack of dawn with my faithful partner, …

Kelly (Cayetana)

SPB: If you could universally (and magically) fix one item at venues around the world, what would you upgrade or change?

Kelly: If I'm being very honest, I would want to wave a magical wand and make all venue bathrooms private, single use, clean, beautiful, great smelling with ample amounts of toilet paper! I think we …

Juan Hernandez (Colombian Necktie – guitar)

SPB: What band has been your favorite to tour with? 

Hernandez: We actually don't have a favorite but we definitely have a most memorable. Last year we went out on tour with friends Black Sheep Wall and we were playing in SLC. We went to this wing spot that had a spicy …

CHUCK

SPB: What do you like to do on a tour off date?

CHUCK: It's kind of a funny question for me because, I've never properly toured, I've only played about 6 shows. There's a few reasons why. First and foremost, I have very little confidence in myself as a live musician. I think I can be a …

Indy (CoinTossRecords)

SPB: What was the first punk show you attended?

Indy: It was a Split Lip show in Indianapolis. I was in middle school, a long time ago.

Russell Edling (Cherry)

SPB: What was your first show?

Edling: It was July 1999, I was 11. The show was an all-day thing called "Suckfest," run by a local guy in Barnesville, PA.

Pretty much every band within 30 miles came and played. I was blown away, I saw this band called Nine Lives from NY that …

Craig Taylor-Broad

SPB: All creative people invest something of themselves into their work, but this seems especially true with regard to your solo work. Do you find it difficult to get into the right mood or mindset to perform these songs either when recording or in a live setting?

CTB: I think in terms of playing my songs …

BJ Moore (Crab Legs)

SPB: What’s the biggest secret about the Fargo scene (unbeknownst to outsiders)?

Moore: So, that question could be answered numerous ways, but since every member of Crab Legs plays in at least one other band, I focused on the music scene here.

What’s the biggest secret about the Fargo scene?

That a …

Brandon (Cloud Rat)

SPB: Do any of your musician friends have tinnitus?

Brandon: Absolutely! Actually, Rorik himself apparently has a mild on and off case of it. I've mostly heard of folks getting it that way where it's not necessarily permanent but sort of a reoccurring spell that gets really obnoxious. Definitely 'heard' (pun intended!) some gnarly stories …

Joel (City States)

SPB: How do you find the time to work on so many projects and do your regular day job (if you have one)? 

Joel: At the risk of sounding overly technical, a lot of my productivity just comes down to really rigorous planning and time management. I do have a full-time job as an art …

Francis Beringer (Caustic Casanova)

SPB: Do you get nerves before you play a show?

Beringer: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I used to get nerves before every show, now it happens only once in a while. There are different kinds of nerves - the "no one is here" nerves, the "there are so many people here" nerves, and the …

Cape Noire

SPB: What prompted you to choose a black cape as a sartorial statement and a band name? 

CN: Cape Noire came out of me one day as it is. The black cape is not a garment, it’s a character in itself. We don’t really know who is under the cape: a man, a woman, or dozens …