Features / One Question Interviews

Joe Queer (The Queers)

SPB: What is the weirdest venue you've ever played a show at?

Joe: Hands down the weirdest club I've ever played was Cafe Mokka in Thun, Switzerland. It's run by the freakiest dude I've met in many a year. A guy we call Mokkaman. One of the gayest fuckers in the world. Makes my …

Jamie Coletta (SideOneDummy Records)

SPB: How did you choose the charities for the #TestPressThursdays auctions? Was it hard to find an organization that each band involved could support?

Coletta: We decided to split the proceeds from #TestPressThursdays with both MusiCares and Harmony Project. Both charities serve the greater good through the power of music, whether it’s helping struggling …

Sugar Stems

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

Betsy: I just like to try whatever the region's most popular carbohydrate is - for example New York Bagels. I also fell in love with Tim Horton's while on our recent trip to Canada. We don't have those here.

Steph: Why, Bo …

John No (Street Eaters)

SPB: How different is touring as a two-piece as compared to your previous projects?

No: Touring as a two-piece has been really liberating for Street Eaters. Both of us have been in many bands with 3-6 members, and such combos of many volatile personalities can grow very unwieldy on the road. Obviously, it is …

Wells Tipley (86'd Records)

SPB: What is the best reunion concert you ever saw?

Tipley: Punk and hardcore reunions usually feel like cover bands to me. Granted, they're cover bands that happen to have original members playing the instruments, so that's pretty cool. But I think context is a huge part of what makes a band. Even if …

Bryan W. Fleming (Lasting Impression)

SPB: What is the worst stereotype you encounter when others discover you’re in a band?

Fleming: The worst stereotypes I think we encounter as a band is that people think we are some crazy, evil people or even just that we are assholes. Our music is meaningful to us and can be dark …

Jeff Clayton (Antiseen)

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

Clayton: Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies. It was one of the first three records I ever owned in 1973 (the other two were Three Dog Night & Grand Funk) and after one play I was never the same. It shaped who/what I would become years …

Terence Hannum (Locrian)

SPB: What appeals to you most about collaborative projects as compared with working with your regular band?

Hannum: You know I don't collaborate as much as the other guys. I think it is because it appeals to me less. I really enjoy the work I get to do with Steven and André in Locrian. The …

Julian (Drunken Sailor Records)

SPB: What do you think of bands playing albums in their entirety as a tour concept?

Julian: I'm not really into it, it seems it's the thing to do when everybody is sick of seeing you and you need gigs. When I watch a band I don't even want to know the set list, …

Nato Coles (Nato Coles & the Blue Diamond Band)

SPB: What are your expectations for the Replacements reunion?

Coles: The Replacements were one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands of all-time, no exaggeration, so I'm sure they'll sound good playing those songs, and I hope Slim's doing better. I suppose anything Paul and Tommy decide is "The Replacements" is …

Brian Gorsegner (Night Birds)

SPB: Would you license your music for film, sports, or ads if given the opportunity? Are there exceptions to the rule?

Gorsegner: I would, and we have. Of course there are many exceptions. MTV used our song "Prognosis: Negative" for the intro credits to a new show they were doing with Will Ferrell as …

Steven Hess (Locrian, Pan American, Innode, Haptic)

SPB: What appeals to you most about collaborative projects as compared with working with your regular band?

Hess: The challenge of creating music outside of my comfort zone, as well as the opportunity to work with other musicians and artists that I might not normally get a chance to work with. …

Santos Montano (Old Man Gloom)

SPB: How do you choose your album art?

Montano: There are two things that make Old Man Gloom function: Breakfast and solidarity. There is one caveat to this. Well, two. Our solidarity is compromised when I use the word "caveat," as it makes Nate furious, and the other is album art. There is …

Eli Hansen (Real Numbers/Three Dimensional Records)

SPB: Who is your favorite pre-1960s artist?

Hansen: I'll have to go with Chuck Berry... but it's not easy picking a favorite from the BIG THREE: Chuck, Little & Bo.

Daniel Menche

SPB: Who is your favorite 1980s artist?

Menche: Well, in the entire ‘80s I was age 10-20. So, of course, that was a big chunk of time for a youngster like me. There were so many amazing artists to look up to. Too many to count or recall fully. How about I start with the earliest …

STV SLV (The Hood Internet)

SPB: What is the worst interview question you’ve been asked?

STV SLV: Usually we get annoyed with "How do you choose which tracks to mix together" or almost any question that leads with "What inspired you to..." but that irritation is just a product of being asked the same thing a hundred times. …

Brian Lake (Buildings)

SPB: What is the furthest you’ve ever driven to play one show?

Lake: Well, we sweated in 130 degree heat in Houston then drove 9 and a half hours to Birmingham. Needless to say it was a boring weed induced drive.

Henry Rollins

SPB: Have you found that your background as a musical performer has influenced your ability or technique in other media endeavors, such as acting, hosting, and interviewing subjects?

Rollins: Yes. In my opinion, they are all basically the same thing. They all require honesty, focus, guts and discipline.

Worthwhile Way

SPB: What is the biggest difference you experience between Japanese and American audiences?

Chegeno: I think the biggest difference is the mind of positive or the negative.

Aki: No offense to everybody who is Japanese and American, Japanese audiences [are] rather quiet. American [audiences are] always cheerful.

Justin Foley (The Austerity Program)

SPB: What’s the last record you didn’t care for on first listen that has grown on you since?

Foley: Terrence Dixon's From the Far Future, pt. II. Here's the very little that I know about it: Dixon is a legendary Detroit techno DJ who put out From the Far Future Pt. 1 twelve …