Features / One Question Interviews

King Yosef

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

King Yosef: I have not played a show in mainland Australia yet, but would love to. Specifically Melbourne, as I have quite a few friends there, get a lot of love from Australia and have yet to visit the city that everyone …

Kepi Ghoulie

SPB: Noting that Terry Hall recently passed away, what is your favorite song by The Specials and what does it mean to you?

Kepi: My favorite Specials song may be an obvious choice, but “A Message To You, Rudy“ is my jam! It is ALWAYS in my head, so I am glad you asked!! 

It is their “Blitzkrieg …

Slim Moon (Kill Rock Stars)

SPB: Which of the anniversary covers, so far, has surprised you the most – either in song choice or in how the covering artists reimagined the original (or replicated its magic)?

Moon: It isn’t out yet but TEKE::TEKE’s cover of Unwound’s “Corpse Pose” is a revelation -- I swear they are somehow channeling Los Lobos, and …

Kaada

SPB: For Misinterpretations, you used a grand piano that was (as I understand it) modified with something called Putty Kit, which leads to a unique sound. What is your experience using this and what inspired this project?

Kaada: Putty-Kit goes under many different names : Heftemasse/Klebemasse, Tack-it, Multi-Tac to name a few. It’s that thing you use to hang …

Kaelan Mikla

SPB: What piece of equipment is most essential or definitive or “the Kaelan Mikla sound”?

Kaelan Mikla: We feel like all our instruments and vocals are equally important as they all combine to create the Kælan Mikla sound, but the MF DRIVE by MOOG bass effect is one of our favorites. It has a brutal and heavy drone …

Kepi Ghoulie

SPB: What guitar do you use in your solo material, and how did choose this model?

Kepi: Lately is has been a Martin 00-15M acoustic. I am on my 2nd one! I got one a little over 10 years ago, I think. I played over 500 shows on it and it was signed by Daniel Johnston! It got …

Avery (Kira Jari)

SPB: What was your favorite band in high school? Would you say they influence your ethics or songwriting in some way today? 

Avery: Out of everything occupying my headphones during high school, I’d say the most important band to me would have to be Against Me!. I wanna say I saw them 5 or 6 times back …

Kitten Forever

SPB: You change instruments at points in your set. How do you make sure that you have the best setup for all 3 of you on a given instrument (and don’t require too much time re-tuning or adjusting when you move)?

Kitten Forever: Here is Laura, Corrie, and Liz answering the question via video:

John Erik Kaada (Kaada, Cloroform)

SPB: What is your favorite album cover of all time?

Kaada: We are currently planning the release of a new Cloroform album, and on band meetings we have discussed what to do next in terms of design and visual appearance. We dug up the album cover we made for a release of a remix album …

Sean McVay (King Buffalo - guitar)

SPB: What model of guitar do you play and how did you choose it?

McVay: My main guitar is a Hagstrom Deluxe D2f. I found it dirt cheap at a local shop in Rochester and thought it looked interesting. It played well so I bought it and swapped out the pickups and fell in …

Solveig Matthildur (Kælan Mikla)

SPB: How do fine arts, besides music, influence your approach to making music?

Matthildur: Art for me is like taking something from everyday life, a landscape, a situation, a thought, a dream or whatever you want to take, process it and put it out in another form. And I see it like all art and creations are divided by …

Known Cowboy

SPB: What is your favorite 1970s artist?

Known Cowboy: My favourite 1970s artist without question has to be no other than David Bowie!

God, I love Hunky Dory.

The fun fact is that I didn’t discover Bowie´s work until last year after he died. When I found out about him it was a revelation. 

I would say …

Jake Smith (Knife Hits)

SPB: Who is your favorite flyer/gigposter artist?

Smith: I narrowed my answer to a tie between two amazing artists and they happen to be two of my best friends. From my earliest days of playing shows in Florida (about 15 years ago), Vivek Vasudeva made the coolest flyers for our bands, I remember one that looked …

Karen Haglof

SPB: After much time away from music, you've released 2 records in 3 years. Why the rush of new material after such a delay?

Haglof: Yes, I did spent years away from music, going to school and entering a different career. But once the bug to play hit again, and I climbed the fairly steep learning curve of doing all my …

Bryan (Koo Koo Kanga Roo)

SPB: You see to perform on a lot of varied bills from kids stuff to hip-hop shows and Warped. Do you prefer to mix up the audience you play to or do you prefer a headline-type club show?

Bryan: We prefer everything. It helps keep the show and the concepts fresh and helps us keep our …

Erin Page (Kill Hatsumomo)

SPB: Is there a specific poster that got you interested in the medium yourself?

Page: What initially led me to making posters was the DIY cut and paste flier and zine movement of the mid ‘90s music scene of Peoria, Illinois -- where I grew up. After I moved to Chicago, a poster by Kathleen Judge …

Kepi Ghoulie (Groovie Ghoulies, solo)

SPB: What is your favorite Christmas song?

Ghoulie: Anything from A Charlie Brown Christmas, anything from Bob Dylan - Christmas in the Heart, or "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" by Neil Diamond

OR

"The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" by Bowie/Crosby

Kyle Hall (Kitten Crisis)

SPB: What is the longest (in time) tour you’ve been on? Would you do it again?

Hall: I've been on a few tours that have been over a month but so far, never much more than that. Yes, I would do it again! In a heartbeat. I love being on tour. My band Kitten Crisis is …

Stephen Pierce (Kindling, Ampere)

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

Pierce: 8 track, floppy disc, player piano, minidisc, wax cylinder.

From worst to best. 

Scott (Kowloon Walled City)

SPB: Do you think that more bands are getting robbed nowadays? Has it happened to you?

Scott: It seems like lately you read about another band's van getting stolen or broken into every week. Fortunately, it hasn't happened to us yet. We try to be careful. We don't leave our van unattended when it's loaded …