Features / One Question Interviews

Drew (Brain Tumors, singer)

SPB: What’s the best reaction you’ve gotten from a crowd when you left the stage and started interacting with them?

Drew: I'd like to hear the other guys' responses to be honest. I'm the singer so I'm naturally a fuckwit of all sorts with self-esteem issues, so my take on things will be pretty slanted.

But …

Adam Goren (Atom & His Package, Armalite)

SPB: As a performer, what do you think when fans run onstage and singalong at the microphone?

Goren: Most of my performances are in the context of teaching high school science students these days. Usually I'm flanked with enormously muscular bodyguards to keep any overzealous scienteens from getting too close to me and …

Grant Hart (solo, Husker Du)
SPB: How do you feel about the Twin Cities music scene today? Local and national media seem stuck in a comparison mode, endlessly bringing up Replacements and Husker Du without as much mention to the local musical history over the past 20 years. How do you feel the scene has evolved, changed, or stayed the …

Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, House of Low Culture)
SPB: Can you like a musician whose politics you disagree with?

Turner: There's a great many artists I listen to whose personal ideology, if not directly opposed to my own, is often quite different. If I chose to listen only to music made by folks with a worldview that mirrored …

Leo (Plagues, singer)
SPB: Who is your favorite 1990s band or artist?

Leo: My favorite band from the ‘90s, hands down, is Refused.

Colin (Amenra)

SPB: What is your favorite band you’ve discovered on a recent tour?

Colin: Lento, from Roma Italy.

Joe Lally (solo artist, Fugazi)
SPB: What is your favorite Roman (food) dish?

Lally: I don't eat cheese or meat so that rules out me knowing about most dishes Romano. I don't know how they came up with such heavy dishes in a place that is hot most of the year.

I can tell you a favourite Italian summer time …

Todd Congelliere (Toys That Kill/Underground Railroad to Candyland/Recess Records)
SPB: How many vans have you had?

Congelliere: I've had 8 vans. Two band members that I've had in the past have accounted for two more vans that we used for tours.

Brandon (Amarok)
SPB: What is your staple tour food?

Brandon: It’s usually pizza. I say this because its something you can find meat or vegetarian. Available almost anywhere, and available late night like after our shows. May not be our favorite tour food but its one that we end up eating frequently. I think we would all prefer burritos though.

Erik Stenglein (Northless)
SPB: What part of your live show is the hardest on sound engineers?

Stenglein: I would say the hardest aspect of our live sound would be the mix between our instruments and the vocals. We play loud with a lot of bass, and depending on how bright the room sounds, sometimes getting the vocals to cut through …

Anne Elizabeth Moore (zinester, writer, former Punk Planet editor)

SPB: What do you miss about running a zine? What has changed the most in music since Punk Planet ceased publication?

Moore: For folks who've followed my work, they'll realize that since we folded Punk Planet in the middle of 2007 very little has changed about what I do except it …

Ben Crew (In Defence-vocals, Profane Existence Records)

SPB: Do you get nervous before you play a show?

Crew: No. Not any more. I use but that was back when I wanted people to like me. Now I don't give a shit what people think. I'm going out there to have a good time. I'm going out there for my own …

Chris (Nothington)
SPB: How many vans have you had?

Chris: We have owned 4 vans. They usually die after about 2 US tours, and oddly enough they always seem to bite the dust in the last couple of days of tour. I guess that makes us lucky, because we've never been stranded 2,000 miles from home with a busted van.

Cory Von Bohlen (Halo of Flies)
SPB: What do you think of band’s playing an entire album as a touring concept?

Von Bohlen: I think its fine. considering everyone's fascination with the "glory days" of most bands and the times in which said records occurred, it makes sense. That, and I think we've all wished such and such band would …

Jihad Rabah (Twelve Gauge Records)

SPB: What is the most thankless job in the music industry?

Rabah: The role of preparing a new release for distribution while meeting their 10,000 requirements.

Pete Adams (Baroness)

SPB: Who was your favorite band in high school? How do they influence your songwriting today?

Adams: The Stray Cats. I love rockabilly and psychobilly. Brian Setzer has been my only real inspiration as far as guitarists are concerned. I've always tried in corporate something Setzer might have done/ sounds like he would have done in just …

Buzz Osborne (Melvins/Melvins Lite)

SPB: After music, what other arts are of prominent interest to you?

Osborne: Painting holds a deep interest with me. My favorite painter is Francis Bacon with Manuel Ocampo running a close second. I wish I could paint but instead I will simply enjoy them!

Trevor Dunn (Tomahawk, Melvins Lite, Fantomas, and formerly of Mr. Bungle)

SPB: What part of your live show is the hardest on sound engineers?

Dunn: I wouldn't know because 1) I stand in front of my 8x10 so that I have the best possible sound in the entire place and that's all I care about and 2) we bring our …

Mike (Pentimento)

SPB: Will the new Arrested Development season meet expectations?

Mike: Life is perception. You are only disappointed if you set yourself up to be by forgetting that there is an art to everything, and within that art is true beauty. Whether it is familiar, or not.

Haha, no I'm kidding. I've never watched that show and I doubt …

Dick Lucas [Citizen Fish/Subhumans (UK), singer]

SPB: What is the fewest people you've ever played to? Have you returned to that city or venue?

Lucas: Two!

Citizen Fish headed to Duisberg, in Germany, on a soaking wet day in September 93, on a tour with The Gr'ups from Oakland/SF, and arrived at 'Efendi', a Turkish bar with a hot snacks …