Features / One Question Interviews

Jenn L. Beckwith (All Good Cretins Go To Heaven: The Enduring Spirit of the Ramones – author)
                                       
SPB: Do you remember the first time you saw the Ramones live (or, alternately if it’s a better story, the first time you heard them)? 

Beckwith: My collaborator and researcher Gary Lynn Clevenger and I met up on a Ramones Facebook …

Fail Harmonic Records

SPB: What is your turntable set-up?

Our office turntable is vanilla. Audio-Technica, maybe? What we’re spinning is what counts: and that’s Savageheads - Service to your Country (Social Napalm Records), an FHR HQ staple. If you wanna pack records at a fast pace, this is the album that’ll get the job done every time. 

Andresa Nugraha (Andresa One Man Band)

SPB: What instrument has been the hardest to add into your set?

Nugraha: Kazoo. It's funny because it seems like an easy instrument to play, but when you scream through the entire set and lose your voice, you can't play it right.

So, I always ask the audience to sing the …

Alexandros Anesiadis (Tear It Down, Crossover, New Wind – author)

Was there a particular record or moment that inspired the genesis of Tear It Down, about crossover?

It wasn't the day I first heard the opening track on side two of the Cro-Mags' The Age of Quarrel. It wasn't when I bought Lethal Aggression's Life Is Hard... But …

Denny Bartlett (The Drolls – guitar/vocals)

SPB: You’ve been in multiple bands. What is the origin story of The Drolls? What was your radioactive spider?     

Barltett: I hadn’t played live in almost 20 years and other people I knew from back in the day were getting back into it and it looked like they were having fun so …

Shane (The Mistakes)

SPB: What is the most tiresome stereotype about punk rock?

I think for me the biggest stereotype about punk rock music is that it's simple music for with one core message of Anarchy, but it's so much more. 

Punk rock is where people can get an education about the world, whether that be politics, …

Trash (Hot Pennies)

SPB: What venue is your favorite to play (and why)?   

Trash: This is a challenging question. We have a lot of great venues in the Phoenix area. My personal favorite has gotta be Chopper John's for its wily crowd and good times. There's always a great mix of bands, bikers, and regulars from the neighborhood. …

Fureigh (Middle-Aged Queers)

SPB: What is a “greatest hit” that you wanted to include in the live set or album but the rest of the band shot down?

Fureigh: We’ve received requests for “Pump Up the Jam” [by Technotronic], but the world’ll just have to wait. 

And “Keep On Livin”’ [by Le Tigre] feels really …

Tell us about your bagpipes?

Travis (Bitters and Distractions – guitar / backup vocals)

SPB: It seems you’re mostly releasing singles, as compared to EP/LP. Is there a personal preference or deeper reason why?

Travis: You’re correct that we’ve released a significant number of singles over the years. To be more specific, we’ve put out five EPs and five singles, one of which …

Monet (Whiplass Records)

SPB: I imagine you’d been thinking about starting this label for a while before it happened. What was the final push or aha! moment that turned it from idea into reality?

Monet: Our origin was actually a series of events: The wheels started turning when I decided to write an article for a punk zine …

Marco (De Kleine Opstand – bass)

SPB: A lot of Dutch bands opt to sing in English, you go against the grain by choosing for the Dutch language. What are the pros and cons for this decision? 

Marco: It just occurred to me that we never actually decided to sing in Dutch; we just started doing it. For …

Paul Warner (Crash Outfit)

SPB: How much space in your home is dedicated to music (media or instruments)?

Warner: I would say it equals the exact dimensions of a well-fed woolly mammoth.

Constantin (General Chaos)

SPB: What is a lesson you learned from the making-of your first album that directly influenced how you approached album #2?

Constantin: I think when we came into studio the second time, we already had an idea of what to expect since we knew the studio and we had already recorded an album there. This …

Cory (Bat Leather)

SPB: What is your favorite music-related film or documentary?

Cory: It’s a tie between The Color of Noise and Some Kind of Monster.

TCON is possibly the greatest snapshot of the ‘90s noise rock scene. Great interviews and amazing footage.

SKOM….Love ‘em or hate ‘em, but watching the unraveling of a …

Maria (Sacrosanta Decadencia Occidental – vocals/artist)

SPB: The artwork of your album took over a year to make. What was this long experience like for you?

Maria: If I were to put it shortly, the first thing that comes to mind is a long and winding road: exhausting but exciting at the same time. It’s having multiple things …

Brux

SPB: You choose to skip English and sing in your mother tongue. What are the pros and cons of this choice for you?

Brux: Our songs are mostly in our mother tongue (spanish / catalan), we just have a few in English. 

Pros: they sound more natural, the link with your local audience is stronger. 

…

Serge (The Goons - vocals)

SPB: How did writing the new material compare to when you sat down and started work on your last record – 19 years ago?

Serge: The old stuff was written more collaboratively than the recent songs. These days we don’t get together as often as we did ‘cause we’re a bit more spread …

Abe Brennan (Dead Pioneers)

SPB: How many Nazi teeth do you think you could knock out in a single punch?

Brennan: Hi, Chuck, nice to hear from you, and thank you for the opportunity to discuss the dislodging of Nazi teeth. I appreciate it.

So knocking Nazi -- or any -- teeth out of someone’s head is, …

Rob David (Death Of Youth – vocals)

SPB: What is the weirdest description you’ve heard of your music and could you see where the commenter was coming from?

David: One outlet once described our single “Fix Your Heart or Die” as “An emotionally charged piece of heavy rock combining 80's New Wave Guitars, Metalcore emotional vocals and just …