Features / One Question Interviews

Itai (Sweatshop Boys)

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

Itai: Touring with another band is a complex matter, which makes this question a bit difficult to answer. Should we choose a band that we really love or people that we know that we'll surely get along with? Our problem is …

Steven Rathbone (Lair of the Minotaur)

SPB: Since your lyrical themes are also rooted in Greek mythology, what was it that attracted you on the subject? 

Rathbone: I have always been into mythology, also horror and science fiction. The Greek myths were once passed on through storytelling around the campfire. Now the campfire has been replaced with the …

Chris Brokaw (solo, Wreckmeister Harmonies, The New Year, The Empty House Collective, ex-Codeine)

SPB: Rank these listening formats: cd, vinyl, cassette, digital, (other?)

Brokaw: 1) Vinyl. For so many reasons. But I guess the best is that I recently concluded that this is the best piece of art that exists. I consider music to be the most …

Dan (True Widow)

SPB: Are genre labels important to assign to music? 

Dan: I don't think genre labels are important. I do think they are helpful. When I get asked what kind of music we play I always say rock music. Not very helpful. Then I start saying things like 'it's heavy and slow. But not aggressive heavy. …

Karl Hartwig (Hope Drone)

SPB: What is the feeling of the current Australian black metal climate? It seems that Brisbane is shaping up to be a kind of epicentre for the genre, and it would be interesting to hear thoughts from a band of that area. 

Hartwig: I can’t really comment on the Australian black metal climate, as …

Ali (Vapour Night)

SPB: What’s the last “grower” record you heard that didn’t impress on first listen but has, since, grown on you?

Ali: Burials by AFI. I love AFI but I found this album to be such a horrible disappointment on first listen. I've listened to the album lots of times since and I really like the …

Bill Clower (Radon, drums)

SPB: How did your set at Fest 12 come about? Any surprises in store for #13?

Clower: That's 2 questions.

Tate, the owner of The Lunch Box restaurant, asked us to play.

[For Fest 13,] if we told you, it wouldn't be a surprise (you're really going to have to start thinking …

Anthony Manella (Where My Bones Rest Easy)

SPB: What’s your favorite book?

Manella: I'd have to say the book that has stuck with me and held a lot of weight in helping me process things in life as a young teen/adult would have to be Albert Camus' The Stranger. I first read it when I was 15 …

J. Wang (Dan Padilla, Shallow Cuts)

SPB: Have you ever forgotten lyrics mid-song? If so, how did you recover?

Wang: Of course I’ve forgotten lyrics. Haven’t you seen how drunk we are when we play? I've not only forgotten lyrics, but forgotten entire songs while the rest of the band just stares at me like I’m an idiot. …

Franz Nicolay

SPB: What instrument is the hardest to tunefully amplify in a larger venue?

Nicolay: It doesn't come up very often, but the musical - or "singing" - saw is next to impossible to successfully mic. The sound is soft and high-pitched and has no obvious point of creation, so you just have to point a mic …

Frank Rosaly

SPB: What's the worst (or strangest) stereotype you encounter from people when they find out you're a musician?

Rosaly: “It must be so fantastic to be following your dream!”

This response is probably the strangest of them all. I mean, it really bums me out. I understand that some people don’t have a calling to …

Derek (Sneeze)

SPB: What do you parents think of your music?

Derek: Honestly, both of my parents love Sneeze much much more than my older bands, haha. They're finally happy I'm in a band that doesn't just "scream bloody murder." Sometimes they're a little iffy on the lyrics ‘cause now they know I do drugs, drink excessively, smoke, …

Isaac Thotz (The Arrivals, Treasure Fleet)

SPB: Have you ever hooked your dangling earrings on anything?

Thotz: I've hooked them on countless things all over the universe that I'm unaware of; I've misplaced at least thirty or forty. I was down to one earring for about six months there a little while back. It was my favorite, so …

Autry Fulbright II (Midnight Masses, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead)

SPB: How did you settle on the name Midnight Masses for the project?

Fulbright II: My dad was raised Catholic and my favorite Black Sabbath song is “War Pigs” ("generals gathered in their masses/just like witches at black masses").

Jason (Young Turks)

SPB: How big is your record collection?

Jason: I have about 250 records. I started collecting when I was about 16. I hated high school so I started doing independent study so I could play in a punk band with older guys, and get a full time job so I could buy more gear. That …

Mike McColgan (Street Dogs, FM359)

SPB: How much space in your home is dedicated to music storage (instruments or records)?

McColgan: One entire room in my house is dedicated to all of the vinyl, CDs, instruments, stereo equipment, posters, flyers etc. that I own.

Kemble Walters (Æges)

SPB: What is your day job/how does it affect your schedule as a musician?

Walters: This is a funny question for me being that I am a working musician. I've been on the full-time musician kick since 2003 and it's definitely a struggle. For one, I am my own boss: I make my own schedule, …

Cam Merton (Hidden Shoal Recordings)

SPB: What is your go-to karaoke song?

Merton: My initial impulse is to put on something from Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s Ambient 2/Plateaux of Mirror and hum along but apparently that’s against the strict rule set of karaoke. Failing that I have to find something in my very limited range so if …

Josh (Raging Nathans/Rad Girlfriend Records)

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

Josh: I think if we could pick to go on tour with one band it would probably be Iron Chic right now. I get along really well with all of those dudes and they are a ton of fun …

Herra Terra

SPB: What's the most interesting thing that has happened to the band this summer, any show horror stories or has it all been good so far?

Herra Terra: On a weekend tour in Providence RI, our manager Marcus was helping us load the van on the side of the road. The side door was open and …