Features / One Question Interviews

Gino Bambino (Gino and the Goons)

SPB: Who is your favorite lyricist?

Gino:

I walk 47 miles of barbed wire,

I use a cobra-snake for a necktie,

I got a brand new house on the roadside,

Made from rattlesnake hide,

I got a brand new chimney made on top,

Made out of a human skull,

Now come on take a …

SPB: What do you think of bands playing albums-in-full as a tour concept?

Great Cynics: We think it's great! If it's a celebration of that album then more power to them. It's always strange going back to something you did in the past. You realise how much you've changed as a person and/or musician. It's a bit like dipping your toes into …

Kyle (Geometers)

SPB: What’s the most recent “grower” record you picked up that took a while to click?

Kyle: "Prey," the latest from Planes Mistaken for Stars. It's one of those records that feels so dense on the first play through but keeps rewarding over repeat listens. Sonically, the songs tend to bleed into each other (brilliantly so, as I've …

Arthur Smilios (World Be Free, Gorilla Biscuits)

SPB: What strikes you as the biggest change in recording an album between now and your first few recordings?

Smilios: One word: technology. Analog tapes have been replaced by computer programs. When we were recording the GB 7" and Start Today at Don Fury's, we were using what was then cutting-edge technology: video …

Justin Smith (Ghostlimb)

SPB: It seems people are often surprised when they hear of musicians holding higher degrees. Why do you think that is? 

Smith: I think the common view of music and “art” culture is that it is a crew of degenerates or hippies. I would argue that at the crux of these initially DIY scenes and whatever …

Gareth Dickson (solo, Vashti Bunyan)

SPB: Is it unusual to be considered a "cult" artist or almost semi-legendary while still recording music? What kind of pressures does that produce?

Dickson: Ha, nice question, I had to check that it was actually intended for me. I never think of myself in that way, I always feel like I'm still struggling to …

Jason Schmidt (Graf Orlock)

SPB: Rank these listening formats: cd, vinyl, cassette, digital, (other?)

Schmidt: I would rank these in the degree to which they are both visually and aurally pleasing. I would say vinyl would be top in that it has an expandable format and has a lot of low end that an MP3 would lack, squeezing it into …

Kyle Bishop (Grade)

SPB: Who is your favorite 1970s artist?

Bishop: Black Sabbath

Nathan Kearney (Gonzovillain)

SPB: Is there a particular record you’ve heard this year that surprised you? In a good or a bad way?

Kearny: I'd say that the record that's surprised me the most this year is Institute's EP Salt. They're a band from Texas who, for me, represent what I first got into when I got into "punk" …

Georgia Maq

SPB: What song would you want played at your funeral? 

Maq: I'd like “Two Worlds” – Tiger’s Jaw played at my funeral. 

Austin (Grand Vapids)

SPB: Which of the Athens bands have had the most impact on the music industry as a whole and/or which have inspired you the most?

Austin: There are too many bands from Athens to reference who have had major impacts on the industry without stating the obvious round of usual suspects. I suppose if I had to …

Jeremy (Girl Scout)

SPB: What varieties of Girl Scout (the band) cookies would there be? 

Jeremy: We always talked about making weed versions of Girl Scout cookies and selling them as merch because there is nothing more Girl Scout than getting high, turning up the fuzz and having some fun. We just wanna put the "tree" in trefoils, y'know?

Jesse (Gay Witch Abortion)

SPB: You’ve played shows out of your van and on a boat, among other locations. What setting has been the most fun or the most challenging to orchestrate?

Jesse: Playing 7 short sets outside 7 different bars in a van in one night was fun. The raft show was great. They just let us drift down the Mississippi …

Digestor (GHOUL)

SPB: How's Creepsylvania this time of year? 

Digestor: Moist

Gypsy Eyes

SPB: What's your favorite movie sequel?

Gypsy Eyes: I'd have to say my favorite movie sequel is "2046" by Wong Kar Wai. It's the second in a trilogy of films, the first being "In The Mood For Love" and the third being "Days of Being Wild." The film is about a science fiction author struggling to write his …

Aaron Whitfield (Great Reversals – vocals)

SPB: If you could experiment in any one genre that's far removed from what you do now, what would it be?

Whitfield: I feel a little ashamed to say it, but other than "singing" in a hardcore band, I don't play any other instruments. I've wanted to dabble in drumming or bass-ing, but between …

Erik Ziedses des Plantes (Gazer, bass/vocals)

SPB: How do you find new music?

Erik: My current music discovery system has two tiers that I think does a good job of covering stuff happening more "above ground" and things happening on a more DIY level. 

Tier 1: I have a regular rotation of websites that I've visited daily for years at this …

Aaron Carnes (Gnarboots) 

SPB: What is the ideal format to a show line-up? (How many bands, genres, etc.?)

Carnes: I always liked lineups that were diverse. Shows with only one style of band is so boring. Back in the day when G.N.A.R.B.O.O.T. Adam and I were in ska bands, every other fucking band we played with was ska. We love …

Andrew Schubert (Ghostbot Records, recording engineer)

SPB: Besides music, what other arts are you into?

Schubert: Music is what I'm most passionate about. It's how I mark time and set placemarks in my life. I can remember events by what song was playing on the car stereo. But I love visual art as well. I'm not as good at remembering …

Seiji (Guitar Wolf)

SPB: How did your recent US tour with The Coathangers go?

Seiji: The girls are wonderful. Their songs are full of great ideas. They inspired us a great deal. The way they raise the excitement in the later half of the show was simply great, like pink typhoon. I'd love to invite them to Japan.