Features / One Question Interviews

Wes Bentley (Doc Rotten)

SPB: Do you read press/reviews written about you? 

Bentley: Sometimes, for a review, I am more likely to read them because I want to see if it is a positive review. Interviews not so much because I was there and know what I said.  

Ray (Drunktank)

SPB: You took time to write this second album. What are your plans for the near future (or to put it bluntly: are you planning on working a third album soon)? 

Ray: At the moment we are really happily promoting our latest release, Return of The Infamous Four. We're playing shows, festivals, doing some tours and we …

Distillator

SPB: You've been touring a lot including some interesting support tours. What's your absolute dreamband to tour with and why? 

Distillator: We've had the pleasure to tour with many of our favorite bands already: Vektor, Pestilence and Metal Church. Since we are a band with 3 people we have 3 different opinions. We'd love to do a tour with …

Blag Dahlia (Dwarves – vocals)

SPB: What is the most important vocal element when doing sound check for a Dwarves show? 

Blag Dahlia: A sound man who isn’t profoundly retarded. They do exist, but to find them you have to travel far and wide sorting through countless buffoons until, like the princess and the pea, you find one that’s just right. Then …

Divided Heaven

What is the strangest trend you see in modern music (music-wise or industry-wise)?

The strangest trend I see in modern music is the return of the cassette tape. Who would've thought? I know, I know...there are cassette tape purists that will claim the media format never really went away and that's true. But one cannot deny their severe decline in …

Rob Piper (Darko-guitar)

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

Piper: When I first started playing live in my early teens, I got so scared that I could hardly hold the instrument. The more I played, the less nervous I got, but it still depended on how prepared I was. If I was playing solo shows I …

Del (Delmar & the Dedications)

SPB: What musician do you think had the greatest influence on Delmar’s sound today?  

Del: I've always been a huge fan of ‘60s girl-group pop bands, and at first, Delmar started as a cover band doing garage punk renditions of b-sides from The Chiffons, The Supremes, Lesley Gore, etc. I eventually realized that all of …

Eric Martinez (Dezorah)

SPB: What kind of guitar do you use (and why did you make this choice)? 

Eric: I play a Mexican made Fender Duo Sonic (Surf Green). I chose this guitar because I wanted something tonally versatile that would not leave me completely broke. So far it has given me everything I want in a guitar and in …

Frank Meriwether (Dark Oz)

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

Frank: I really can't think of any weird descriptions, unfortunately, but the weirdest comparison I got was comparing our music to Genesis. I started listening to music (in a way so as to form opinions) in …

DJ Scully (Dead Empires)

SPB: How did including a vocalist change your songwriting approach? Did it?

Scully: Ironically, adding Jason didn't change anything for us writing-wise because we thought the album was done before he joined! We had probably 90% of it written and arranged and we were making plans for where to record it when Jason came on board. …

Kelly (Dreadnought)

SPB: What is the weirdest venue/setting you’ve ever played a show at?

Kelly: The strangest setting is tied for either a fighting ring in the basement of a bar in Kansas or one of my best friend's wedding. I'm not sure the basement was actually used as a fighting ring, but it felt like we were in one. …

Eddie Roxy (Department S)

SPB: What do you remember of playing your first live show?

Eddie: The first Department S concert was at the MUSIC MACHINE (now KOKO) in Camden. I was playing keyboards in those days. My main memory was having Boy George standing next to me dancing, he was wearing his Romanesque/Britannia costume with a roman helmet with …

Jeffrey Blum (Drip-Fed)

SPB: When writing songs, how do you draw the line between taking influence and mimicking?

Jeffrey: Writing songs has always been and continues to be a frustrating process for me. It doesn't come easy like I see in a lot of people around me. I usually write by messing around on my guitar until I accidentally play …

Daniel Albaugh (Die Young)

SPB: What is the longest (in terms of time) tour you’ve been on? Would you be out for that long again?

Albaugh: In Die Young's touring hey-day, mainly 2004-2008, we did quite a few tours that were roughly two months long. Sometimes the tours that included international dates in Asia or Europe felt the longest simply because …

Arrica Rose (Dear Country)

SPB: Have you ever forgotten lyrics mid-song? How did you recover?

Rose: I have forgotten lyrics. If it's my song I'll do a 2nd verse same as the 1st, use what lyrics come to mind sort of thing, or mumble a bit until they come back. If it's a cover song I'll ask the audience for …

Andrew Barnes (Drunk Couples – drums)

SPB: Drunk Couples is a departure in sound from your previous project. Do you find it challenging to separate the different styles or associations that come with changing bands?

Barnes: It all came pretty naturally to totally shift musical gears when CJ and I started Drunk Couples. Not only is this band a different setup …

Damaged City Fest

SPB: Festivals are a continually popular concept, though varying in formulas. What do you think is best about a festival versus a “regular” line-up of 3-5 bands?

Nick and Chris: We don't see festivals as an "alternative" to normal shows and prefer to view the two types of events as separate entities. I think if every single …

DSGNS

SPB: What’s the smallest crowd you’ve ever played to? Is it hard when such a thing happens and how do you adjust?

DSGNS: The smallest crowd we’ve ever played for was about 5 maybe 8, can’t be too sure. It can sometimes be a bit of a hit to your ego, and the band morale may wane a bit. …

Ben Grey (Dear Boy)

SPB: What is your favorite TV theme song?

Grey: I'm afraid you've touched on a bit of a nerve because I love TV theme songs. I will give you three.

* Twin Peaks & Angelo Badalamenti -  Too much has been written about this piece of music, so I'm just going to go ahead and spare …

Eric Jernigan (Driftoff)

SPB: Would you license your music for use in another medium if given the opportunity?

Jernigan: We're open to the idea so long as we can stand behind the content of the film or commercial. The fact is, many bands in our genre have come to accept that the formerly modest goal of recouping recording costs is …