Features / One Question Interviews

Chris Mason (Faulty Cognitions)

SPB: Was the mic’ing of your kit for the recording of Somehow, Here We Are fairly straight forward, or were there some techniques or experiments used to capture the sound? 

Mason: We didn't do anything too fancy. I do remember that we didn't mic the toms though -- we just captured them via the overheads after a …

Fog Lamp

SPB: What is your favorite stretch of highway to drive while on tour?

Fog Lamp: While it's not the most scenic, the I-5 is the best way to get up to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. The whole stretch is called the grapevine because it runs through farmlands and vineyards. You can really zip down it. If …

Yole (Faulty Cognitions)

SPB: Who came up with the band name (and if it wasn’t you, what was your first impression)?

Yole: When Chris and I were scrimmaging for names for the band, he mentioned Faulty Cognitions. My first thought was that it could be a tongue twister and or that people wouldn’t get it, we stuck to our guns …

Flesh Produce

SPB: What is your go-to tour food?

Karl: Tacos. You can't really fuck them up, they're light enough to have right before you go on, but you can make them a heavier meal if you want by just having more tacos. Also, shout out Situ Tacos, owned and run by Lupe, the drummer of Wild Powwers, LORBO, and …

Rafa (Flores y Fuego)

SPB: What are some of the best venues to play at in Mexico?

Rafa: We are from Guadalajara. Here, the best venues for playing underground music is the “Foro Indepencia” and for bigger bands there is “C3”.

Ben Green (Fairweather-keyboards/vocals)

SPB: Did you experiment with different sounds in the studio for Deluge, or did you enter knowing exactly what equipment you wanted to capture it? (Do you have any examples of equipment that helped to define this EP?)

Green: Lots of different guitar sounds went into the recording of this record. I think my guitar parts …

Johnny Waylon Porcupine (Friends of Cesar Romero)

SPB: You’re averaging about a record per year over a 10+ year span. What keeps you motivated?

Johnny Waylon Porcupine: Short answer- death. Long answer- I like writing and recording songs. Seneca said it best “It is not that we have a short space of time but that we waste much of it.”

Aaron Charles (Falls of Rauros)

SPB: What is your favorite part of the recording process?

Charles: Recording is probably my single favorite part of being a musician. You not only get to hear tangible results of your hard work, but there's also a chance to indulge in some off-the-cuff creativity in the studio. I love the whole experience of recording …

Forever Unclean

SPB: Who is your favorite 1970s band?

Forever Unclean: We took it to a vote.

Apparently our collective answer is Deep Purple.

Keunyoung (Full Garage/UltraLazy)

SPB: What is a city or country you would love to play in but never have?

Keunyoung: The Fest in Gainesville, Florida: Full Garage had a chance to play back in 2018, and I really wanted to join the festival, but other members’ couldn’t make it for the show because they were too busy with their jobs.

Lindsay DeGroot (Fox Face - lead guitar, vocals)

SPB: How old were you when you first learned an instrument?

DeGroot: I started playing guitar when I was 25 years-old. A few years before that, I played drums for the first time for "All Messed Up." All Messed Up is a yearly "randomized musical experiment" in Milwaukee, WI, where total novices …

Vincent (Faux Depart)

SPB: Which records do you consider essential for the development of Faux Depart's music?

Vincent: Well, we're big music nerds but if I have to name 3 albums that are key influences in our music, I'd say WIPERS "Is this real", WIRE "pink flag" and FEELIES "crazy rhythms."

They all have both punk and indie vibes.There's a …

Frank Turner

SPB: What guitar do you play and what do you like about it when performing solo, versus with a full band?

Turner: I play Martin D45 acoustic guitars live these days, I have four of them. They are spectacular instruments. I went through a lot of other types of guitar, many of them excellent (special shout out to …

Ryan (fotocrime)

SPB: How do you preserve your voice while on tour?

Ryan: Years ago I used to shred my vocal chords. Then I started singing at a volume level and in a range of pitch that suits my voice. I’ve had no problems or concerns since then.

Jordan Guerette (Forêt Endormie)

SPB: Who is your favorite 1990s artist?

Jordan: Among the hundreds of artists that I continue to cherish from the 1990s, if I must choose one it would be Jeff Buckley. His sole completed album, Grace, completely changed my life when I was a teenager - I was obsessed with every aspect of the record. …

Father Murphy

SPB: In the past you have mentioned that religion is one of your main inspirations. What is your opinion on the influence of religion on the arts? Do you believe that great works of arts, like Michelangelo’s Last Judgement or Dante’s Divine Comedy would never come to be if it was not for the influence of religion, or …

Whit (Fallow Land)

SPB: How do you choose your album art?

Whit: Fallow Land chose the album cover of Pinscher to mirror the overall attitude I had when writing it. My friend Andrea Calvetti is a fantastic photographer and videographer. I saw a photograph of his dog he had taken and posted on Facebook and I knew it had to be …

Deni Krstev (Fonija)

SPB: Fonija is changing their sound on every record so far. There is a certain risk attached to that: alienating your fanbase. How is this turning out for Fonija, do you have a strong fanbase that sticks around? And are you inspired by certain bands that kept changing and developing?

Deni: Heraclitus wrote that you cannot enter …

SPB: What song (by any artist) has the best use of bongos?

Felix: That would be “Funky Nassau,” the version by The Blues Brothers. Never has bongoing been so succinctly demonstrated as a musical force. It’s in the second Blues Brothers film that I saw when I was ten, and it made me want to never sleep until I could …

Tim Martinkøvixxx (Fast Break! Records – label manager)

SPB: What is the best pop song of the last 10 years?

Martinkøvixxx: I'm going to cite a track that I found wholly by accident but not, not entirely by design.. Independent music is where my heart lies, so an argument can be made for many tracks form many labels / artists …