Our newest feature here at Scene Point Blank is our semi-daily quickie Q&A: One Question Interviews. Follow us at facebook or twitter and we'll post one interview every Monday-Thursday. Well, sometimes we miss a day, but it will be four each week regardless.
After our social media followers get the first word, we'll later post a wrap-up here at the site. This week check out Q&As with members of Asva, Iron Chic, Planning For Burial/Music Ruins Lives, and the Decemberists/Perhapst.
Stuart Dahlquist (Asva, ex-Burning Witch)
SPB: What is a city or country you’d love to play but never have?
Dahlquist: One city or country is tough because there are so many places I'd like to play and haven't...
I guess you could throw a dart at a world map and say ,"You’re going here, Stuart. Pack appropriately," and I'd be pleased as punch. That said, Japan would have to be #1 on my list of countries for a tour worth of shows with Australia coming in a close second. If that dart hit a city square on the nose I'd hope for the cold of Oslo or Reykjavik or the heat of Mexico City or Rio de Janeiro. If I'm laying over somewhere a good museum and coffee is all I ask.
Mike (Iron Chic, Dead Broke Rekerds)
SPB: What was the first tape/cd/record you bought with your own money?
Mike: Green Day - 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours CD
Thom Wasluck (Planning For Burial, Music Ruins Lives)
SPB: What is the last record you didn’t care for on first listen but has grown on you since?
Wasluck: At first this will sound bad because they are my friends, but I'm going to say Sunbather by Deafheaven, though not because I didn't care for it, but because I had such a deep emotional connection to Roads To Judah around a very specific time in my life that it was just hard to beat for me. It didn't stop me from constantly listening to it and, holy fuck, do these songs kill live.
John Moen (Perhapst, Decemberists, Stephen Malmus & the Jicks)
SPB: Writing a solo record is a much different project than writing with a band. How did your approach on the new record vary from when you put together the self-titled release? What did you learn or adapt in the five years in between?
Moen: Quite a lot of time went by between projects, but neither were written with a band—so I don't think my method really changed all that much.
Before I start recording it is easy for me to declare that I will take a different approach to a record, but once I'm down the road with it, I'm using the same instincts I did the last time around. (I suppose my overall taste in music is pretty much the same as it was five years ago.) The two things I did try to do differently were to turn up the vocals even if I was feeling shy about the lyrics, and to try to simplify the musical arrangements. I also tried to "release the kraken" a bit more...Know what I mean?...Me either.
