Features / One Question Interviews

Kurt Midness (Volcom)

SPB: How do you determine which bands go into the singles series?

Midness: To start with we try to pick artists that we think are doing something cool that we like. In an ideal world we could just pick and choose from what we consider to be the best music happening now. Since that is …

Alex (Silver Snakes)

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

Alex: My favorite band I discovered on our last tour is Third Seven. We were playing our last show with HRVRD at The Launchpad in Albuquerque, NM and I was captivated by the music playing over the PA after sound check. Layers …

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 …

Melissa B

SPB: You work as a network engineer. Are there many musicians or artists within your field/Are there many creative-types?

Melissa B: I find that there are a lot of people in the technology field that are truly musically inclined. I happen to work with several people that actually are in bands or have been working on …

Brent Eyestone (Magic Bullet Records, Highness, Bleach Everything)

SPB: Who is your favorite current band to see live?

Eyestone: For the last 13 years, my absolute favorite band to see live is Sigur Rós, without question. I've seen them 38 times all around the world and their performances have always put me in a headspace that I've genuinely …

Eric Scobie (Great Reversals)

SPB: How did you get involved with Jay Maas for the To the Ends of the Earth 10"?

Scobie: We got involved with Jay because we all absolutely loved the first two Defeater records, and when we heard he recorded them we admired them even more. Jay's ability to capture both the heaviness and …

Brandon Helms, guitar (From Oceans to Autumn)

SPB: Whose idea was it to make an album based on Pareto analysis?

Helms: Pareto Analysis was our guitarist Brandon's idea. It is a concept that more can be done in less time. That was the main basis for volume 1 of the series: 5 songs in 5 minutes; volume 2 …

Lesbian

SPB: Is your band name in reference to the sexual orientation, the Greek island, any of the three ships that bore the name SS Lesbian, or the mason rule that can be bent to measure curves with an astonishing degree of accuracy?

Lesbian: It's actually all four of those, especially the last, but also the fifth option …

Brad Perry (Worn in Red, drums)

SPB: What do you remember of playing your first live show ever?

Perry: The first show I ever played was with my high school punk band, Officer Friendly. I was 15 and played bass. Ryan Geis (who works at No Idea and was in Rehasher & Savage Brewtality) played guitar -- it's …

Chucho (Vultress)

SPB: What is your assessment of the current status of progressive rock as a genre?

Chucho: I would say that progressive music is somewhat blossoming right now. More and more I'm seeing bands incorporating new ideas and pulling from both past and present, especially on the metal side. I think that what we're seeing is a …

Ron Rochondo (Ice Dragon)

SPB: How much recording time is spent purposefully making your music sound artfully dirty, and how much of it is pure happenstance?

Rochondo: I love this question, mainly because I think a lot of people think that we are just lazy about recording or don't know how to do it well and that is …

Rich Hinks (Aeon Zen)

SPB: What makes a band "progressive"?

Hinks: Progressive music, to me, is more of a mindset than a determined style. More often than not it means being able experiment and to allow the music to go wherever it naturally wants to. It's like its own organism. Of course there are certain staples that can …

Jeshua Marshall (Larry and His Flask)

SPB: What is the weirdest venue/setting you’ve ever played a show at?

Marshall: Several years ago we were asked to play the opening ceremonies for a local UFC cage match. We played inside the cage! The amps were falling over because of the bouncy platform. All the while we were locked inside …

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 …

David Bailey (CAGES/Gas Chamber) 

SPB: Who is your favorite band or artist from the 1980s?

Bailey: G.I.S.M. from Japan. They released two furious documents in the eighties, Detestation and Military Affairs Neurotic, both of which are heaving with violence. As a teenager I had picked up a bootleg cd of them based on the terrifying cover artwork, and …

Alan Licht (Solo, Run On, The Pacific Ocean, more)

SPB: What is your least favorite genre of music? Is there an artist who is an exception to that rule?

Licht: Opera is my least favorite genre of music (meaning traditional western classical opera, not including Peking Opera, or certain avant garde operas like Einstein on the Beach or …

Var (No Idea Records)

SPB: As No Idea has become an established DIY label, what is the more tiresome stereotype you’ve encountered as a result of that success?

Var: The short answer would be that "all the bands sound like Hot Water Music." *

The long answer is that "success" is a tricky word. Our daily lives …

Oren Ambarchi

SPB: What is the most thankless job in the music industry?

Ambarchi: One of the many thankless jobs would be working as the house sound engineer in a club. You'd be exposed to plenty of shitty music played by obnoxious assholes at a loud volume on a regular basis. Even if you somehow enhanced the sound …

Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, Brokeback, Eleventh Dream Day)

SPB: What, for you, defines a successful tour?

McCombs: A successful tour for me means that there is good playing being played and everyone is enjoying being on the tour. It sucks touring with a sourpuss who doesn't want to be there.

I play in a few different bands, some …

Andrew Burnes (San Agustin, Haunted House, SATMC)

SPB: What is your all-time favorite record (and why)?

Burnes: I'd like to think that my tastes are broad and deep, but the one record that immediately comes to mind upon reading that question is probably not an unusual answer: the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced. The first music …