Patrick Kindon (Drug Church)
SPB: What is the best pop song of the past 10 years?
Patrick: I typed up a whole thing about “Crazy In Love” by Beyoncé (feat. Jay-Z), then realized that song came out in 2003, more than 10 years ago. Which brought on a certain clarity about the fact I’m A) old as shit and B) I don’t care very much about pop.
I’m going with “Pursuit Of Happiness (Extended Steve Aoki mix)” by Kid Cudi. Let’s talk about this beast of a teen house party anthem! You got Kid Cudi NEVER using a word over a 2nd grade reading level! Your nephew could’ve written this, except he probably doesn’t have the life experience to make his content as dark as Cudi who spends this dance remix talking about driving drunk and waking up in cold sweats. Fuck, bro! This makes me wish I drank, because I’d so hold a red Solo cup over my head while THE BEAT hits my body! Time to grind on that sophomore from that class I don’t attend! Fuck. I love this song. I’ve never heard another Kid Cudi song, but if all of them have these fun-as-shit WalMart beats and suicide talk, I’m in.
Port of Sound Records
SPB: How important is it to set yourself apart from other stores on Record Store Day?
PoS: Most importantly, we work months ahead of the actual date, reaching out to all sorts of labels and distributors so that we can get every title in stock. We open up early at 5am, and make sure to abide by the RSD rules when it comes to no preorders, holds, purchasing multiple copies of coveted titles, and overpricing. Our staff works very hard to keep the records and the incoming crowd organized so that everyone involved has the best experience possible. We are also diligent about posting images of the titles we have available on our social media sites so that customers can keep up to date with what is going on at the shop all day long during Record Store Day.
Instagram: @portofsoundrecords
Twitter: @portofsoundOC
Ian (Vexx)
SPB: How much does location and history (specifically Olympia, WA) influence you?
Ian: I grew up in Singapore but the majority of my extended family lives in Washington, so I would go to shows in Seattle when I came back to visit. Olympia was always in the ethers, kind of haunting literature and politics in my music scene back home and when I would go to shows in Washington.
My sister lives in Tacoma. When I moved from Idaho after college and was living with her I would visit my friends who lived in Olympia and go to shows. It's cheap, has a ton of places to play, and has a college so it is a perfect place to be to focus on self—which accounts for its concentration of hyper-competitive narcissistic whiners, but also nurtured artists.
2011-2012 Olympia had a profound impact on me: Christian Mistress, HPP, Gun Outfit, White Wards, Gag, Bone Sickness, White Boss—Olympia was killing it! Of course past bands like Funerot and Sex/Vid had been things that I was way into, but being able to see those ’11-12 era bands (except White Boss) was exciting. I'm not too concerned with Olympia's ancient history. Bikini Kill was a good band. I don't listen to them anymore but they were there when I was a teen. I think Olympia has that pop-punk scene but that positivist youth group setting mixed with the cannibalistic nature of white, suburban "radical politics" negates my presence. Olympia's location is indicative of its culture, musical and social, water logged, rotting, and grey with moments of salient brilliance.
Cameron (Malta)
SPB: As a songwriter, at what point does drawing influence from another subject become too close to mimicking?
Cameron: When we write, we take cues from subjects everywhere, real life and every aspect of media and art, but I'll try to talk specifically about how we deal when we feel like we're mimicking songwriters and players when we compose. One way we try to judge that one is to imagine ourselves in front of any influential artists we've been “ripping off” to any degree, and to imagine if we all listened to the track together and had to talk afterward, is it a conversation anybody would want to have? There has to be enough of ourselves in there to make the general feeling different somehow from the "original." If somebody's sounds make us respond in a personal way, and we get inspired to emulate something about an approach or sample a recording, if the sounds we make in this influenced/derivative/mimetic state feel like they don't personally add to or complicate the feelings that inspired us to get to work, we think they probably won't inspire much from anyone else either.
