Features / One Question Interviews

Dan Gardner (Four Lights)

SPB: What is your favorite 1980s artist?

Gardner: The Replacements. Westerberg is one of the greatest American songwriters. My parents were big fans of theirs and I grew with Let It Be and Tim playing in the house, in the car, everywhere. Those records were a big part of my growing up and continue to be …

Flagpolers

SPB:What is a flagpoler?

A Flagpoler is a nickname/kind of slur to that border guards give to people renewing their immigration status in Canada. At the point of starting this band 3/4 of us we're flagpolers and from Ireland. Now half the band is still Flagpolers and from Ireland. I hope that helps!

Jon DeHart (Fight Amp) 

SPB: What are your expectations, emotionally, for your final tour? How do you think it will feel different than the countless tours before this one?

Jon: I think this last tour will be about as bittersweet as we could expect. It's gonna suck to not play these songs anymore, but at the same time it's a …

France Camp

SPB: Who is the most overrated musician/band of all time?

FC: Answer:

Charles "the man" Manson. Not a big fan of his music, really dug his side project lol

I'm giving you two.

2nd answer: Our answer would have to be Devin Gregory and the Fire Department.

There’s a band that took off in the ‘90s and really …

Jonathan Ashwell (Flannel Gurl Records)

SPB: What is your favorite record store? How did you discover it?

Ashwell: Like coffee shops where ever we go, we try to visit any and all independent record stores when visiting a city we have never been before. We try and treat any visit to any record store as something that is particularly special …

Tom White (Frog)

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

White: We played 15 second covers as a house band for a live improv comedy show. We played between acts, but most of the acts didn't know we were going to play, so they would walk out and start talking, and then have to stop so we …

Joshua Lozano (Fashion Week – guitar/vocals)

SPB: Rank your preferred listening formats: cd, vinyl, cassette, digital, (other?)

Lozano: At home: vinyl

In the van: CD

Running on the street: iPod. 

In the ‘90s: Cassettes (mixtapes)

Neil Debnam (Fighting Kites)

SPB: Is there a particular record you've heard this year that surprised you? In both a good or a bad way?

Debnam: Speaking from a strictly personal point of view rather than as the mouthpiece of four individuals now separated geographically by a few thousand miles, I think it has to be Robert Turman's Flux. …

Franz Nicolay

SPB: What instrument is the hardest to tunefully amplify in a larger venue?

Nicolay: It doesn't come up very often, but the musical - or "singing" - saw is next to impossible to successfully mic. The sound is soft and high-pitched and has no obvious point of creation, so you just have to point a mic at it …

Frank Rosaly

SPB: What's the worst (or strangest) stereotype you encounter from people when they find out you're a musician?

Rosaly: “It must be so fantastic to be following your dream!”

This response is probably the strangest of them all. I mean, it really bums me out. I understand that some people don’t have a calling to a particular career …

Chris Farren (Fake Problems)

SPB: What makes a good host when you sleep on a stranger’s floor?

Farren: I'll preface this by saying anyone who asks or lets a band stay at their house is a very kind and gracious soul, and we appreciate it immensely. We've been saved numerous times from costly hotel rooms and Walmart parking lots.

That …

Jonny 5 (Flobots)

SPB: When did you opt to make your living as a musician/did you quit a regular day job in doing so?

Jonny 5: Yes! I was working as a paraprofessional at East High School, a job I thoroughly enjoyed. I helped with the A+ Angels Mentoring program, Link Crew, and a Peer Tutoring program, and also was …

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 was about …

Dylan Walker (Full of Hell)

SPB: What do you think when fans run onstage and sing into the mic during a song?

Walker: I think it’s cool. It means the kids actually enjoy the music and the lyrics mean something to them.

Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer, House of Low Culture)

SPB: Is there a record you love that would surprise people based on the music you create?

Coloccia: My answer would not necessarily be a record, but a series of found recordings and weather radios. Usually I find these at thrift stores, but sometimes they are inherited or found in abandoned houses and …

Frank Turner
SPB: How old were you when you first picked up an instrument?

Turner: The first instrument I came across I couldn't pick up - it was my mum's piano, which had been her 21st birthday present from her folks when she was younger. It was in the corner of the living room and I used to mess around …