Features / One Question Interviews

Pharaoh

SPB: To what extent does ritual/tradition/mythology play a part in Pharaoh's music?

Pharaoh: We met and grew up for the most part in Catholic schools together. Every day as kids we prayed with everyone else before class, got dragged to church, sang the songs. Drinking blood and eating flesh between math and study hall. They don't try …

Cameron (Malta)

SPB: As a songwriter, at what point does drawing influence from another subject become too close to mimicking?

Malta: When we write, we take cues from subjects everywhere, real life and every aspect of media and art, but I'll try to talk specifically about how we deal when we feel like we're mimicking songwriters and players …

Ian (Vexx)

SPB: How much does location and history (specifically Olympia, WA) influence you?

Ian: I grew up in Singapore but the majority of my extended family lives in Washington, so I would go to shows in Seattle when I came back to visit. Olympia was always in the ethers, kind of haunting literature and politics in my music …

Port of Sound Records

SPB: How important is it to set yourself apart from other stores on Record Store Day?

PoS: Most importantly, we work months ahead of the actual date, reaching out to all sorts of labels and distributors so that we can get every title in stock. We open up early at 5am, and make sure …

Patrick Kindon (Drug Church)

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

Kindon: I typed up a whole thing about “Crazy In Love” by Beyoncé (feat. Jay-Z), then realized that song came out in 2003, more than 10 years ago. Which brought on a certain clarity about the fact I’m A) old as shit …

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 …

War on Women

SPB: Basements or bars (or both)?

War on Women: That's like asking “day or night,” “loud or quiet,” “happy or sad.”

You can't appreciate one without the other, regardless of preference. But no one has ever chipped their tooth moshing to us in a bar...but a guy did stick his head inside our kick …

Marc Weinstein (Amoeba Records, co-owner)

SPB: What shift in listening format has been the most surprising in your run as a store?

Weinstein: The most surprising shift was back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s when everybody was convinced they needed to buy their collection over again on this new "improved" format called a "CD..." CDs offered a degree …

Freeman (Benny the Jet Rodriguez - vocals/guitar)

SPB: Do you wear earplugs when you play? Why/why not?

Freeman: I do wear ear plugs. For a long time I used to wear construction headphones at practice and on stage. Once I saved up enough I bought custom noise canceling earplugs that helped level out noise for me. I've had …

Dorian Williamson (Northumbria)

SPB: You recorded your first album in a church - what was it about the space that appealed to you and what kind of spaces would you like to utilise in the future? 

Williamson: The main reason we chose to record in a church was because we wanted to track at a very high volume …

Parks (All Them Witches)

SPB: What is your favorite book about music?

Parks: The way I feel about books on music is the same way I have always felt about music classes, and that is that they have no place in my life. That being said, I do remember the first time I fell in love with the …

Jerome Reuter (Rome)

SPB: You're playing some anniversary shows this year and visiting some interesting places - How did you decide which countries to play in? 

Reuter: I have to admit that there is a certain amount of randomness to some of it, but we are trying to play most of the European capitals and we want to …

Matthew Turner (My America – guitar/vocals)

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

Turner: This actually came up very recently when we were in the studio recording our new album with Kevin Bernsten. We were pretty aligned in terms of musical taste with Kevin. We liked a lot of the same …

Dennis Callaci (Rhino Records/Mad Platter/Video Paradiso-General Manager)

SPB: When do you start planning for Record Store Day on a given year?

Callaci: Record Store Day falls on Saturday April 18th this year, and for this year's event we have been working since late last year to get things in line. Besides all of the nifty releases for the …

Robert Gowan (Wasted Wine) 

SPB: Who is your favorite 1990s artist?

Gowan: Probably an obvious choice, but perhaps not for us: Tupac Shakur. As far as characters and universes, I get into Tupac the same way I do Zappa or Tom Waits. He has an extremely dynamic and defined character that constantly evolves, very rapidly, through the breadth …

Michal Palmer (Bilinda Butchers)

SPB: Was there a historical or real-life inspiration behind the concept for Heaven?

Palmer: Yes, both. The album's concept was inspired by various works of Lafcadio Hearn as well as some travel diaries written between the 15th and 20th Century in Japan, researched and written about by Donald Keene. I became very interested …

Emi Knight (Strawberry Runners)

SPB: What was the inspiration to start the band?

Knight: The inspiration to start the band really began with living in Bloomington, Indiana, where most of my friends were in bands whose music would keep me up at night thinking of all the possibilities of my life as an artist and would wake me …

Nathalie Haurberg (Rat Storm/Closet Burner/Reality is a Cult Records)

SPB: Do you wear earplugs when you play? Why/why not?

Haurberg: I don't wear earplugs. I sometimes think I should, because my hearing is important. However, I just think it makes things sound different. If I'm playing it totally distorts how I hear the guitar tone and if I'm …

Botanist

SPB: In the recent years you have included musicians in order to perform live as Botanist. I wonder if that change has also affected your songwriting in any way? Do you compose now having a more clear idea that these songs will be played live?

Botanist: The backlog of material written and recorded as a 1-man outfit …