Features / One Question Interviews

Siebe (Coral Springs)

SPB: What is your favorite record store (this can be local or not)?

Siebe: I want to preface this by mentioning that I rarely buy records at stores these days. Most of the local stores aren't big on pop-punk/skate punk/emo and it's rare that they carry records I'm looking for. And while I could ask …

Mikey (Eddy Current Suppression Ring)

SPB: Australians seem to love Canada, when are ECSR coming to play here?

Miked: as much as i'd dearly LOVE to go to Canada, it doesn't look super likely on my or the band's immediate radar. we only just played interstate down here for the first time in 16 years, so anything international …

Maarten (Oskoed Slotters)

SPB: What is your favorite Ramones song?

Maarten: My favorite Ramones song is probably “53rd & 3rd.” The debut Ramones album is one of the first punk records I heard. My dad bought a copy when it came out when he was about 16 years-old. When I was about 13, I started to listen to …

Chris (Paths 2 Glory)

SPB: What is your favorite Bad Religion song?            

Chris: It's hard to just have one favorite Bad Religion song. I have a few but the one that will always be my favorite or go to answer is "You." I first heard that song while playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 and it absolutely blew …

Luke Blanton (The Sleights)

SPB: Do you have any vinyl that you own strictly for collector’s purposes and never listen to?

Blanton: I have never really bought a record specifically to collect it but I have bought a few records that ended up falling under that category. I was in Berlin, Kreuzberg, specifically on a tour with another …

Dez Dare talk about his studio gear including the Knas Moisturizer and Death By Audio's Echo Master and Space Ensemble. 

Aemilia (ELDP)

SPB: In your experience, what band has been the most fun to play with?         

Aemilia: Our most favourite band to have played with so far has been Dutch band All Dogs Go To Heaven. They're not only great people off stage, but they also make amazing music! When we're driving to a show, their EP woof.wav …

Sarah (Quattracenta)

SPB: Which of your songs is the most difficult to play live?

Sarah: “In Dust,” from our new record III. It’s not necessarily difficult in a technical sense, but because it is a very quiet and intimate song, playing it in a noisy club or bar can be a real challenge. We have a lot …

Joao (Illuminati)

SPB: What inspired Illuminati to reform?

Joao: The original lineup disbanded in 2004 after I migrated to the United States. We self-released a demo in 2003 that was intended to be a literal "demonstration" of our songs rather than a definitive statement of what we wanted to do as a band. We had originally hoped to …

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 …