One of our newest features here at Scene Point Blank is our semi-daily quickie Q&A: One Question Interviews. Follow us at facebook or twitter and we'll post one interview every Monday-Thursday. Well, sometimes we miss a day, but it will be four each week regardless.
After our social media followers get the first word, we'll later post a wrap-up here at the site and archive 'em here. This week check out Q&As with Bobby Joe Ebola, Gnarboots, The Gunshy and Plan-it-X Records.
Dan Abbott (Bobby Joe Ebola)
SPB: What is the furthest you've traveled to play a single show (vs setting up a corresponding tour)?
Dan: Somewhere around 1997 or so, we were contacted by a private college in Ohio. They offered us $900 to come play in their student events hall. Our tech-bubble housemate had the weekend off and, like a madman, offered to drive us the 4,000 miles round trip in his sports car. Even after paying for gas and a couple of speeding tickets, we came back with enough money to put out a 7".
A couple of years ago we were approached by an English fellow about putting on a free festival in London. We thought it was a practical joke at first, but he was dead serious. He had zero experience with show organization, but he was throwing a ton of money around. And hey, London for free! So he flew us and a bunch of other East Bay bands to London for a single show. Imagine 40 or so drunken weirdos on the same fancy airplane and the same fancy London hotel. It was surreal. I think we were in the UK all of 72 hours.
Adam (Gnarboots)
SPB: What is your least favorite genre of music? Is there an artist who is an exception to said rule?
Adam: My least favorite genre lately has been punk rock. For all of the chest thumping about originality, rebellion and chaos, you would be hard pressed to find a more stagnant, elitist, and safe/boring musical landscape today.
Punk should be about danger, about taking abrasive sounds and ideas to the next level. However, anytime a group tries to step outside the safe zone of leather jackets, fuzzy guitar based rock music and Johnny Thunders-style posturing, it is immediately dismissed and filed away into a new subcategory.
Everywhere else, the limits are being tested. Pop music has gotten super weird, ditto for hip-hop. Country is doing some things that, while I personally don't want to listen to, at least show that the genre is willing to expand. Meanwhile, punk rock alienates any group who dares to use acoustic guitars, or keyboards, or horns. Divide, divide, divide.
Don't get me wrong, I love punk rock, I would just like to see it be more than people are letting it be.
Thanks. Our twitter handle is @gnarb00ts (with zeros, not o's).
-AdamD
Matt Arbogast (The Gunshy)
SPB: What is your favorite restaurant to hit while on tour?
Matt: Spiral Diner, Ft. Worth, Texas
Spiral Diner is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. Whenever we're nearby I make it a point to stop here for some awesome, healthy food. They're a vegan restaurant, but even the most burger-loving folks in our crew have loved it. Their menu is large and I've never had something there that wasn't really tasty. Their Jamaican Jerk BBQ San'ich is one of my favorites.
Some of my favorite days on tour were spent eating at Spiral Diner, then playing at the Chat Room across the street and hanging out with the good people there all night. Our van decided to break down after a show at the Chat Room one time. I think it wanted to stay there forever.
Chris Clavin (Plan-it-X Records, Ghost Mice)
SPB: You released the DVD with all of your releases in a digital format. Where did the idea come from?
Chris: We didn't, we talked about it, but we didn't. The idea was and still is, when the label ends, to make all the music available for free, but since the digital revolution happened, it doesn't make sense to do a DVD now.
