Features / One Question Interviews

David Combs (The Max Levine Ensemble – guitar, vocals)

SPB: What’s the worst tour experience you’ve had? Have you ever been stranded?

Combs: On our first cross-country tour back in 2004 our friend's van, Black Betty, died in the mountains of Nevada. We got towed to Reno, but the tow truck driver couldn't take us all so some …

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 …

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 …

Nicole (Swahili Blond)

SPB: (Hypothetically) If your children were to start a band what would you tell them?

Nicole: "Let your mind go, and your body will follow"

(a quote from LA Story)

MC Lars

SPB: What is the “ET/Atari” of NES games?

Lars: I would say a Boy and His Blob is the ET of Nintendo. It’s well-conceived, but difficult to play if you don’t know the “hacks” to get ahead. The world is very elaborate, but easy to get stuck, just like in the ET game. I remember all …

Jamie van Dyck (Earthside – guitar, composer)

SPB: What is your favorite book about music?"

Dyck: My favorite book about music that I've read is The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross. I actually read this for a university music history class on western "Art" music in the 19th and 20th centuries (basically …

Matt Scifres (Not Half Bad)

SPB: What do you think of cassettes?

Scifres: Cassettes (often called “tapes” by young people, these days) are really cool because they’re kind of eternally rooted in DIY. Pressing records makes exactly zero sense for smaller bands. Yeah, they’re cool, but they’re ridiculously expensive, take forever to press and are a general pain …

Storm Ross

SPB: As a multi-instrumentalist, what is your composition process for a song and/or record?

Ross: While I don't have a set formula per se, I do seem to follow some familiar patterns when writing. Most of my compositions for the past number of years have a drone or repetitive phrase as the bed of the piece, and …

Øyvind (Livstid – guitar)

SPB: If you had your choice, which band would you love to tour with? 

Øyvind: A tour with Livstid and Icon of Evil would be a truly sick affair. They serve their slabs of death in the vein of Bolt Thrower. And if you got a grindcore band as well, Death Toll 80k …

Matt (Moñecho)

SPB: What’s the best movie you’ve seen this year?

Matt: Coherence. No other movie I've seen really communicates an almost paralyzing amount of uncertainty.

Brian Corn (QUOR)

SPB: Is there a regional food you look forward to on every tour?

Corn: The Pacific Northwest always has fantastic salmon. I particularly like the sashimi versions offered throughout the region. I have had amazing cuts of salmon in even the most unlikely of places up there between Portland and Vancouver, BC; everywhere from casino …

Jeff Noller (Skittish)

SPB: How has the increasing digitalization of the music industry changed how you listen to music?

Noller: I feel like I hear a lot less “deep cuts.” I used to be limited to only the CDs I brought with me on a trip, thus propelling me into the depths of an album rarely explored. Which …

Kyle Fisher (The Dirty Nil)

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

Fisher: “Little Metal Baby Fist”

The second verse is tough in that song to maintain a good tempo. Sometimes the snare roll can slow the song down. We've got it now though.

Patti Yang

SPB: Do you feel your experiences growing up in Communist Poland have shaped your views on the relationship between politics and art?

Yang: Art has always served as a powerful form of commentary on politics and on society. Back in the communist Poland anything released to the public had to go through strict censorship which made …

Justin Pearson (Three One G, Retox, The Locust)

SPB: How do you find new music?

Pearson: There is no one way to find music, or any art for that matter. Maybe the universe presents it or maybe your subconscious welcomes it. For me, I tend to find it within my friends and comrades, or by touring around the …

Eric Jernigan (Driftoff)

SPB: Would you license your music for use in another medium if given the opportunity?

Jernigan: We're open to the idea so long as we can stand behind the content of the film or commercial. The fact is, many bands in our genre have come to accept that the formerly modest goal of recouping recording …

Bryan (Koo Koo Kanga Roo)

SPB: You see to perform on a lot of varied bills from kids stuff to hip-hop shows and Warped. Do you prefer to mix up the audience you play to or do you prefer a headline-type club show?

Bryan: We prefer everything. It helps keep the show and the concepts fresh and helps …

Tempest

SPB: What was your favorite band in high school? How do they influence your songwriting today?

c.a: There are probably only a handful of bands that Tempest as a whole can agree on enjoying. Now, take that handful and whittle it down to bands that we have been listening to for the past 15 years. There really …

Bruno Sanfilippo

SPB: Though things like bandcamp have made it easier for artists to release music, I can't help but think that there are many out there who, like the main character in the film Mr. Holland's Opus, tirelessly work on writing and composing yet have no clue how to go about releasing their work to the public.  

Kate Eldridge (Big Eyes)

What is the most annoying recurring thing you read about your band (whether accurate or not)?

I am really bothered by the term "female fronted." Being a "FEMALE" has nothing to do with the music I write and play. It also sounds so unnecessarily scientific. Nobody says "MALE FRONTED" or asks how it is …