Adrian Tenney (Badlands, ex-Spokenest)
SPB: How did you get started in Badlands?
Adrian: Badlands (as a solo project) started when playing my music with other people ended.
I had been writing music in numerous other bands with my friends, and although it was super fun, it was always very hard to coordinate! Gradually it became more difficult, or impossible to collaborate with people (friends moved away, people got new jobs etc.) and as that happened, it became more of a necessity to record and perform on my own.
I've never felt the same kind of energy playing on my own as I do playing in a band, and I do miss that, but everything is so much more under my control now. At this point in my old (not a teenager anymore) age, it's worth it to not feel totally exhausted by all the elements of performing.
Rick Jiminez (Extinction A.D./This Is Hell – guitar/vocals)
SPB: After music, what other arts interest you?
Rick: Although music has been the focus of my life for as long as I can remember, it hasn't been the only "art" I've been interested and even consumed by. Art is such a fluid term, but to me, the only thing that I've ever really cared about that didn't fall under the umbrella was baseball.
Since I was little(er) I always loved to draw. Of course that started with cartoons which then became comic books and then went into full on illustration which then became graphic design. Around my early 20s, though I was faced with following graphic design or music full-time, and I easily chose music.
Graphic design was fun and fulfilling to me when based around my bands but as a career seemed too bullshitty and... well, I guess too "adult career." I think if I would have stuck with comic book penciling I could have very well made the decision to pursue that as a career but at some point I decided regular graphic design was more stable then comics, even though the stability of that wound up being a strike against it while the instability but much more satiating feeling of playing music was a pro.
Another art that piqued my interest in the late ‘80s and continues to enthrall me is professional wrestling. And many would argue that's not an art, and they are welcome to think that, but I am welcome to acknowledge that I care not for the judgments of the employee of the month at Duane ass Reade. Talk about something that is never the same twice: a story, an athletic display...it’s like surfing, where the wave is always different, but instead of conquering the wave, you have to work together with it, or like a movie or a play where, yes everyone knows it’s a complete fabrication of real life and staged, but you have to entertain thousands at once and make them believe for 10-30 minutes that what they're viewing is somehow plausible.
It’s also extremely hard to give the illusion you're physically decimating someone while trying to have them feel as little as possible in reality... which doesn't make something art per se, but man that shit is difficult as fuck. It’s much easier to make a punch look real if it’s actually real, but you ever see grown men punch each other in real life outside of a MMA or boxing match? Believe me, it usually looks like creamed crap... and I'll also take the underwear/kneepads/boots motif over the marked out guido look or flat brim with teal sweater from the smith haven mall outfit. I'll also take a punch being followed by a steel cage match for the world title as opposed to it being followed by 3 dudes yelling "don't you dare touch Gina again, I'll end you bro!!" at each other while being separated by a few really nice cars that their parents bought them that have brakes that work and no check engine light on.
Is fixing cars that are complete jokes an art? I know some mechanics but have yet to find one that can ever make any of my shit boxes work or pass inspection. If that’s an art I'd be interested in that too.
Maybe I should have stuck with graphic design.
Kelly (Cayetana)
SPB: If you could universally (and magically) fix one item at venues around the world, what would you upgrade or change?
Kelly: If I'm being very honest, I would want to wave a magical wand and make all venue bathrooms private, single use, clean, beautiful, great smelling with ample amounts of toilet paper! I think we can all relate to venue bathrooms being some of the absolute worst we've ever been in. And having an inclusive, gender-neutral toilet situation would be amazing.
