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 High Dive/Defiance, Ohio; Jenks Miller/Horseback; Haptic; and Paint It Black/Ceremony.
Ryan Woods (High Dive/Defiance, Ohio)
SPB: After playing in a larger band (in terms of # of people in the band), how is it to tour with a 3 piece?
Woods: This is a perfect question for High Dive. In fact, we started the band with the purpose of traveling light, only three of us in Toby's station wagon. It's less wasteful and you can really spend some quality time together. It's been an amazing experience these last couple years. But, I have to say I'm back to my old ways and High Dive just added two new members. Ginger Alford (Good Luck, One Reason) on guitar and Richard Wehrenberg Jr. (Monster House Press) on piano. So the future holds the return of big vans and complexity but, hopefully, some more interesting music as well. Our first show as a five piece will be at this year’s fest in Gainesville.
Jenks Miller (Horseback, solo)
SPB: What part of your live show do you find the hardest on sound engineers?
Miller: The biggest challenge in Horseback's live shows is getting the vocals to sit right in the mix. Most bands feature vocals at the front of the mix; I prefer our harsh textures to sit further back and blend with the wide-open, harmonic (i.e. tube amp) guitar sound. This allows the hypnotic repetition of the rhythm to be the focus.
Adam Sonderberg (Haptic)
SPB: What is the worst stereotype you encountered when people find you’re in a band?
Sonderberg: That the band must "rock." While I'd occasionally like to rock, I don't.
Andy Nelson (Paint It Black, Ceremony)
SPB: It seems that Philadelphia is consistently turning out new bands and rejuvenating the scene with new blood. What do you think keeps the scene active with new bands (and who are some of your current favorites)?
Nelson: Philadelphia is perhaps advantageously situated equidistant from two other major East Coast cities -- that festering toilet of lobbyism and that ersatz capital of the universe (out of kindness, I won't name either) -- and as such seems to attract a lot of youngsters who don't want to spend their lives having their souls crushed by proximity to government workers or slaving 16 hours a day to pay rent in a 40 sq. foot bedroom. The freedom one gains by choosing to live in Philadelphia yields the free time to play in multiple bands, tour, release music, etc. within a pulsating scene of DIY spaces that is constantly turning over, always on its toes. At the moment, I can count dozens of creative, hard working people actively engaged with seeing to it that nearly each night of the week there multiple spaces available to people for the exchange of music, energy and ideas, apart from bar or corporate culture. If that's not enough to keep you interested, then nothing will.
While not a new band, Radiator Hospital's debut LP has gotten more spins around the HQ than just about anything else this year and is, truly, wonderful. Bad Side will also make their vinyl debut this fall and it's as awesome as one would expect. Congenital Death continue to stun as a live act. Attitude Era are perfect. The magic of the Crutchfield sisters (Swearin' and Waxahatchee) has been well detailed in the mainstream press, proof that this world is not entirely without justice. Of course, those willing to venture outside the Golden Tea House will be delighted by Pissed Jeans, Kurt Vile, Watery Love, Purling Hiss, Hop Along...the list is thousands long.
