Features / One Question Interviews

Shilpa Ray

SPB: What is the strangest trend you see in modern music (or in the industry)?

Shilpa: Baseball caps. Too many baseball caps.

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 …

Dick Rubin (MINKA)

SPB: What is the worst stereotype of musicians that you encounter when people discover you’re in a band?

Dick: When people discover you’re in a band, they always think to themselves: “I bet he wouldn’t be a good accountant.” well, I’m here to tell you…that’s a bunch of hogwash.

I know all about credits …

Hector Martinez (Spider-lead vocals)

SPB: What is the best TV theme song? 

Hector: Without a doubt, I gotta say the theme song for the HBO show John From Cincinnati is the best theme song ever.

The song used is “Johnny Appleseed” performed by the inimitable Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros.

I always loved The Clash …

Will Ingram (Wieuca)

SPB: Who is the most overrated musician/band of all time? 

Will: Deerhunter aka Coldplay for hipsters

Kevin (Edgewise – drums)

SPB: How old were you when you first learned a music instrument?

Kevin: I was eleven when I officially started playing drums. In my mind, I had started years earlier. My oldest brother had a drumkit that he refused to let me play. I snuck a few hits in when I could, but it …

David Wilson (Sarin - guitar/vocals)

SPB: How likely are you to pick up a record based off its cover with no knowledge of the band or music?

David: I generally treat cover art as indicative of what's inside, as presumably that's the imagery the band wants me to associate with their music. It's not unusual for me to …

Eric Carlson (Steppe People)

SPB: What is your primary or go-to tour food?

Carlson: Touring allows bands the opportunity to venture out into the world, see new and exotic scenes, meet fans and future friends, and of course taste far out and local delicacies. None of those bands are Steppe People. Steppe People are a delicate ecosystem. In …

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 …

SPB: You and Bobby Kapp come from two different eras of the NY free jazz scene. What did you discover in your recording sessions, about either the past and the present of the scene? 

Shipp: The great thing about music is that, even though we are all a specific product of the time and environment we come out of, …

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 …

Cindy Marabito (The Dicks From Texas)

SPB: Living in Austin and being a part of South by Southwest for the last several years, I'm often struck by the, what I might label, "niche" music documentaries that pop up, in seemingly increasing numbers, from year to year. How would you assess the market for these types of documentaries, have things …

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 …

SPB: Has the change to more headphone listening of music changed you compose or mix your work?

Higgins: I can't say that the prevalence of headphones per se has changed how I compose or mix, but in general I am always very concerned by the spatial and immersive quality of my recordings, aiming for maximum depth and a sense …

Taylor Iversen (Abrams)

SPB: What’s your favorite stretch of highway to drive in the US?

Taylor: When we were leaving Joshua Tree after our most recent show there, some sagely person told us to take a scenic route to get to where we were going. 

We ended up cutting through the Mojave National Preserve on our way …

Greg (All People)

SPB: What are the origins for the band name All People?

Greg: We first came up with the name for our band while waiting in the airport on our way home from the Asian Man Records 15 year anniversary shows in 2011. D-Ray and I were in San Francisco, waiting to fly back to New …

Matt King (Illustrations)

SPB: What appeals to you about self-releasing records?

Matt: I appreciate the idea of self-releasing records because the entire process is handled by the artist. There is no middleman. It's all in your hands. That's probably my favorite part of the process, because I personally like to take care of the details myself to see …

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 …

Jeff Bobula (Crushed)

Terry Orlando (Hellkeeper)

SPB: If you had the choice, which song of yours would you want to hear covered by another artist? By whom? 

Orlando: First off I'd like to say that this was a really hard question for us because we all have fairly different ears for our own music and that caused a lot of hilarious …