Features / One Question Interviews

War on Women

SPB: Basements or bars (or both)?

War on Women: That's like asking “day or night,” “loud or quiet,” “happy or sad.”

You can't appreciate one without the other, regardless of preference. But no one has ever chipped their tooth moshing to us in a bar...but a guy did stick his head inside our kick …

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 …

Freeman (Benny the Jet Rodriguez - vocals/guitar)

SPB: Do you wear earplugs when you play? Why/why not?

Freeman: I do wear ear plugs. For a long time I used to wear construction headphones at practice and on stage. Once I saved up enough I bought custom noise canceling earplugs that helped level out noise for me. I've had …

Dorian Williamson (Northumbria)

SPB: You recorded your first album in a church - what was it about the space that appealed to you and what kind of spaces would you like to utilise in the future? 

Williamson: The main reason we chose to record in a church was because we wanted to track at a very high volume …

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 …

Jerome Reuter (Rome)

SPB: You're playing some anniversary shows this year and visiting some interesting places - How did you decide which countries to play in? 

Reuter: I have to admit that there is a certain amount of randomness to some of it, but we are trying to play most of the European capitals and we want to …

Matthew Turner (My America – guitar/vocals)

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

Turner: This actually came up very recently when we were in the studio recording our new album with Kevin Bernsten. We were pretty aligned in terms of musical taste with Kevin. We liked a lot of the same …

Dennis Callaci (Rhino Records/Mad Platter/Video Paradiso-General Manager)

SPB: When do you start planning for Record Store Day on a given year?

Callaci: Record Store Day falls on Saturday April 18th this year, and for this year's event we have been working since late last year to get things in line. Besides all of the nifty releases for the …

Robert Gowan (Wasted Wine) 

SPB: Who is your favorite 1990s artist?

Gowan: Probably an obvious choice, but perhaps not for us: Tupac Shakur. As far as characters and universes, I get into Tupac the same way I do Zappa or Tom Waits. He has an extremely dynamic and defined character that constantly evolves, very rapidly, through the breadth …

Michal Palmer (Bilinda Butchers)

SPB: Was there a historical or real-life inspiration behind the concept for Heaven?

Palmer: Yes, both. The album's concept was inspired by various works of Lafcadio Hearn as well as some travel diaries written between the 15th and 20th Century in Japan, researched and written about by Donald Keene. I became very interested …

Emi Knight (Strawberry Runners)

SPB: What was the inspiration to start the band?

Knight: The inspiration to start the band really began with living in Bloomington, Indiana, where most of my friends were in bands whose music would keep me up at night thinking of all the possibilities of my life as an artist and would wake me …

Nathalie Haurberg (Rat Storm/Closet Burner/Reality is a Cult Records)

SPB: Do you wear earplugs when you play? Why/why not?

Haurberg: I don't wear earplugs. I sometimes think I should, because my hearing is important. However, I just think it makes things sound different. If I'm playing it totally distorts how I hear the guitar tone and if I'm …

Botanist

SPB: In the recent years you have included musicians in order to perform live as Botanist. I wonder if that change has also affected your songwriting in any way? Do you compose now having a more clear idea that these songs will be played live?

Botanist: The backlog of material written and recorded as a 1-man outfit …

Jon McKiel

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

McKiel: Yes, but it really depends on whether I've played the room before, how much practice the band has had leading up, whether or not the sound check was ok, or the PA even exists! Sometimes we sing through our amps and improvise a whole lot, …

Mikey Erg

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

Erg: For the most part I'm usually more excited than nervous. Sometimes I can get a little nervous if it's a big crowd or if it's a band that hasn't gotten to rehearse all that much, but that usually goes away after the first song. 

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 …

Jon Balun (The Brokedowns)

SPB: You scream a lot. Has that gotten easier or harder on your voice as you're no longer in your 20s?

Balun: I have talked to my personal physician. He strongly agrees with my strict regimen of cigarette smoking and whiskey shots to warm up the ol' vocal cords. He also recommends that Kris, …

Andrew (Caffiends)

SPB: How old were you when you first learned a musical instrument?

Andrew: Here at Caffiends we take every interview as a huge honor and we are hoping to one day be able to answer this question. However, no one in Caffiends actually knows how to play their instruments, we are just really good at faking …

Ty Vaughn (Broadway Calls)

SPB: What band has the best logo of all time?

Vaughn: The Ramones. I'm biased for two reasons. 1) I love this band and always will. 2) I met and hung out with Arturo Vega for the summer of 2008 while we were on Warped Tour together. He was a fascinating guy with amazing …

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 …