Features / One Question Interviews

Avery Okamura (One Armed Joey - singer/guitarist)

SPB: Is there a particular musician who inspired you to start playing your instrument?

Okamura: To be totally honest, I saw School of Rock and thought Jack Black was super cool, not picking up on the fact that in the movie he’s supposed to be like, a total loser…

But shortly thereafter, I …

Doki Doki

SPB: Who is a band that’s been taking too long to release their next record?

Randy Moore (guitar): Alkaline Trio!!

Donnie Walsh (bass): Yes! He ain’t wrong!!

Lucy Giles (drums/vocals): I would say Henry Chadwick, because I cannot wait for him to put out new stuff! His last record was amazing. I was also thinking about Cub. …

Rafa (Flores y Fuego)

SPB: What are some of the best venues to play at in Mexico?

Rafa: We are from Guadalajara. Here, the best venues for playing underground music is the “Foro Indepencia” and for bigger bands there is “C3”.

Paul (Long Relief)

SPB: What inspired the seemingly baseball-ish name?

Paul: I was an enormous nerd about baseball as a kid, and pitching long relief is a weird kind of purgatory for a pitcher to be in. It’s usually either someone who used to be a starter but can’t pitch for that long/well anymore, or someone who’s younger and isn’t …

Logan Hammon (Small Crush-vocals/guitar)

SPB: How do you choose your album art?

Hammond: I love to design my own album art to reflect the feeling of the album. Making it handmade is my favorite way to do it, so it really feels like my art coming to life. I love when it has a lot of texture and personal flair. …

Alyssa Moore & Randy Moore (The Moore Family Band – vocals/guitar)

SPB: Was the plan always to go with the name The Moore Family Band, or did you start with something else in mind and move toward the obvious?

Alyssa & Randy: It was pretty organic. We made the record before we had the name, so after going back and forth …

Coen (Harsh Realms)

SPB: If you had to introduce someone to good music, which five records would be included in the homework assignment you'd give them?

Coen: Something new, something old?

We've been listening a lot to the new record by fellow Dutch punkrockers Antillectual. Their new album Together has been well worth the 7 year wait and sounds really …

Chris X (Reptilian Records)

SPB: What’s an often overlooked but essential skillset for running a label in 2023?

Chris X: With the side job I picked up two weeks ago on top of label/mailorder, I'm kinda fried. I thought about it over the last day or so, but I got nothin'. In fact, if someone has a good answer to …

Jaake Margo (Sweet Gloom – vocals/guitar)

SPB: You covered “Jaded” for the Operation Ivy tribute. Why that song (and did you have a second choice)?

Margo: "Jaded" was always my favorite Operation Ivy song, so when the opportunity came to cover it, I jumped on the chance. I grew up a little less than an hour from 924 Gilman …

King Yosef

SPB: What is a city or country that you would love to play but never have?

King Yosef: I have not played a show in mainland Australia yet, but would love to. Specifically Melbourne, as I have quite a few friends there, get a lot of love from Australia and have yet to visit the city that everyone …

Keaton Rogers (Raised on TV)

SPB: What’s a record you love that would surprise people?

Rogers: That's a cool question. Hmm, a rock record, or any record along those lines, probably wouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I'll go with The Slim Shady LP from Eminem, his first big record. It's such a raw, angsty album, with a lot of …

Jake (Lightweight)

SPB: You just released The Next One’s on You, the third in a series of EPs. What inspired the trilogy concept with these (and what will follow it up)?

Jake: So the answer to this question is really two fold: there’s the creative answer and the practical/promotional answer. 

The creative answer is that, when we wrote these songs …

David Schellenberg (Tunic)

SPB: How has COVID/illness-risk changed how you tour? Do you take any precautions in terms of health, diet, housing, etc?

Schellenberg: The biggest change for us is we now stay in motels/hotels as a way to keep us out of strangers’ houses -- as when you're a punk band on tour you typically stay in punk houses …

Christopher Archuleta (Box Elder – guitar/vocals)

SPB: Do you have a favorite lyric/snippet ever? (What and why?)

Archuleta: Probably from the song “Minimums.” off of our EP of the same name. "Finding places to reset again. It all just felt so permanent. Just you and me in the backseat. Finding more in these minimums." 

It means a lot because it …

Ben Coleman (Hunting Lions – vocals)

SPB: You’ve played with many musicians in your career. In this band, whose songwriting process or stage mannerisms were the biggest adjustment for you to adapt to?

Coleman: Between the spark of an idea and the realization of 2 or 3 minutes of music, can be moments, months or even years. 

Not to go …

Tommy Rehbein (Toilet Rats)

SPB: What inspired the theme behind Toilet Rats and how did it evolve from that first concept?

Rehbein: The world was on lockdown. Solitude. A one-person project beneath the sleepy streets of Minneapolis, MN. Songs that are grimy and to-the-point. How has it evolved? Better production, more focused themes, and refined melodies. When you spend a …

Sam Black (The Tunnel - bass)

"What's That Noise?" is a series about gear. Show us some of your key pieces.

Curran Reynolds (Body Stuff)

Tell us what piece of gear “makes the Body Stuff sound,” in your opinion.

Jeff Byers (Northeast Regional)

SPB: What is your favorite workplace-set TV show?

Byers: While not set in the workplace, I've mostly been watching Survivor of late, which inspired the lyrics to the hit Northeast Regional single "The Archivists." But my wife and I have also been slowly rewatching Mad Men, which is firmly set in the workplace. I've been …

Eric Urbach (States of Nature)

SPB: Which song that you wrote are you most proud of (and why)?

Urbach: States of Nature has been working on a new LP now for quite some time, and I feel most proud about the fact that we were able to put together a fantastic, cohesive body of work that I believe will resonate. …