Features / One Question Interviews

Jarrett D (Screaming Females)

SPB: What song in your active playlist requires the most practice? What part is the hardest to get down?

D: Screaming Females plays a different setlist every night. We have a catalogue of about 70 songs.

I'd like to be able to say that we could play any of those songs at any …

David Yow (the Jesus Lizard, artist, Qui, Scratch Acid)

SPB: How has aging affected your musical performance?

Yow: Dunno if it's due to aging, but I have almost no desire whatever to play in some full-time musical outfit.

SPB: Is touring a larger physical burden?

Yow: I haven't done any touring in a few years, but, …

Ben Greenberg (The Men)

SPB: What’s a record you love that would surprise people?

Greenberg: Bill Frisell - Have A Little Faith

Bill Frisell is an amazing guitar player who has released many, many, many records that I never listen to. Have A Little Faith was the first one I heard, and continues to be my favorite. …

Sara Landeau (The Julie Ruin)

SPB: Did joining The Julie Ruin feel like a new band, or like you were joining one with an already-established identity?

Landeau: It felt like a brand new band, which it was. In retrospect, we probably should've changed the name because it’s the same name as Kathleen's 1998 solo moniker (Julie Ruin), but …

Mike Riley (Toxic Pop Records/Firestarter Records)

SPB: While the meaning of Toxic Pop's name is fairly obvious, how has its meaning changed to you since the label was first formed?

Riley: The label was formed in 2007 as a "sister" label to Firestarter Records, which I had been running since 2002. The first release, the Sick Sick Birds …

Kolin (The Rackatees, drums)

SPB: What is the longest (in time) that you have been on tour? Would you do it again?

Kolin: Our nine-day tour throughout the Southeast U.S. last September is the most consecutive days we've toured thus far. We know that's not much at all, but we try to make up for that by mini-touring …

Matt Arbogast (The Gunshy)

SPB: What is your favorite restaurant to hit while on tour?

Arbogast: Spiral Diner, Ft. Worth, Texas

Spiral Diner is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. Whenever we're nearby I make it a point to stop here for some awesome, healthy food. They're a vegan restaurant, but even the most burger-loving folks in …

The Devil

SPB: In your debut album you are using a wide variety of vocal samples from famous speeches. Do you believe that a vocal performance can be adequately replaced by such samples? Or, do you believe that there is something else that attracts people within those famous words?

The Devil: Seeing we are technically an instrumental band …

Mike Watt (Bass, The Stooges, Minutemen, Solo, more)

SPB: How have the Stooges shows gone? Is it difficult to step into a group where the other members have an existing relationship and you’re the new guy?

Watt: I have served 125 months with The Stooges. Of course I owe them my best notes and total focus when helping …

Luke McNeill (The Copyrights, Attorney)

SPB: Did you choose your band name partially because of your interest in law?

McNeill: No. It was actually a name we almost called me and Adam's old band, Moloko Plus. That name was a popular one for obvious reasons, and a dumb jazz band from Philadelphia sent us a cease and desist …

Joe Cardamone (The Icarus Line)

SPB: What is your drink of choice?

Cardamone: Fizzy water

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 …

Mustafa Daka (The Brokedowns)

SPB:Are there any Albanian bands you’d recommend?

Daka: Unfortunately, Albania hasn't produced much in the way of rock, metal or thrash bands. There are a few that I'm like, "Yeah, these guys aren't so bad..." but that's kinda like when you go to Big Lots and you buy a turntable/cassette player in a box …

Grant Purdum (Tiny Mix Tapes, Gumshoe Grove, Signal to Noise, Onion AV Club)

SPB: What kinds of topics or tone do you like to see when you read an interview with a band?

Purdum: Good question. I was just thinking about this the other day while killing ants in my bathroom actually (Texas + summer = ant party). …

Russell Emerson Hall (Tyranny Is Tyranny, vocals/guitar)

SPB: Do you do anything to reduce gas consumption/cost while on tour?

Hall: We downsized our speaker cabinets slightly and got the smallest vehicle we could all fit into (Honda Odyssey). It's a bit weird to think that promotion and distribution can all be handled with a laptop at home, but …

Westin Glass (The Thermals)

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

Glass: The most recent Thermals tour was in Europe. We played with a lot of good bands on that tour, at festivals and club shows all over the place. Our favorite was a band called Brawlers that opened our show at the …

Will Butler (To Live a Lie Records)

SPB: What’s your favorite music-related film or documentary?

Butler: Most of the time I respond to a question and ramble off all the potential ones until I arrive at a conclusion. To save you me actually mentioning ten movies before I get to the one I've chosen I'll just go ahead …

Jim Blaha (The Blind Shake)

SPB: What is my day job and how does it affect my schedule as a musician?

Blaha: Well, right now I work at a coffee shop on East Lake St. in Minneapolis. It's gold to me because the owner lets me tour whenever I need to. The shifts vary enough that I can …

Phil (The Taxpayers)

SPB: What is the band’s most common junk food while on tour?

Phil: From scratch....(heavy sigh)...workin' on it...um...would eat a snake...let's see....mostly snakes...I don't know man, I'm just off this flight, my creative juices...I think mostly we eat creative juice...

Dave Drobach (Careeners fka Grabass Charlestons)

SPB: If you met your character Dale in real life, would you hang out with him/have a beer?

Drobach: Absolutely. Complex characters are always worth getting to know over a beer. Don't get to know Dale as a specimen in a cage. Let him in. He has great stories, will probably turn …