Features / One Question Interviews

Hannah Blumenfeld (White Murder)

SPB: What is the worst job you’ve ever had?

Blumenfeld: Substitute teaching. I was way too young and it was just complete chaos all the time: all grades all categories. One day in the middle school I lost it and called a student a bitch. I was so freaked out, thinking I was going to get …

Alan Sparhawk, Low

SPB: What's a record you love that would surprise people?

Sparhawk: Barbara Streisand's Greatest Hits

Mike Riley (Toxic Pop Records/Firestarter Records)

SPB: While the meaning of Toxic Pop's name is fairly obvious, how has its meaning changed to you since the label was first formed?

Riley: The label was formed in 2007 as a "sister" label to Firestarter Records, which I had been running since 2002. The first release, the Sick Sick Birds - "Chemical …

Paul Needza Friend

SPB: What do you think of band’s playing a record in its entirety for a tour concept?

Paul: I suppose that depends on the integrity of the album in question. If there's only a couple choice tracks on the latest record, then maybe the band should consider performing their "Best Of..." album, if they even have one …

Kolin (The Rackatees, drums)

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

Kolin: Our nine-day tour throughout the Southeast U.S. last September is the most consecutive days we've toured thus far. We know that's not much at all, but we try to make up for that by mini-touring as much …

Dan Abbott (Bobby Joe Ebola)

SPB: What is the furthest you've traveled to play a single show (vs setting up a corresponding tour)?

Abbott: Driving or flying? Somewhere around 1997 or so, we were contacted by a private college in Ohio. They offered us $900 to come play in their student events hall. Our tech-bubble housemate had the weekend off …

Chris Clavin (Plan-it-X Records, Ghost Mice)

SPB: You released the DVD with all of your releases in a digital format. Where did the idea come from?

Clavin: We didn't, we talked about it, but we didn't. The idea was and still is, when the label ends, to make all the music available for free, but since the digital revolution happened, …

Matt Arbogast (The Gunshy)

SPB: What is your favorite restaurant to hit while on tour?

Arbogast: Spiral Diner, Ft. Worth, Texas

Spiral Diner is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. Whenever we're nearby I make it a point to stop here for some awesome, healthy food. They're a vegan restaurant, but even the most burger-loving folks in our crew have …

Adam Davis (Gnarboots)

SPB: What is your least favorite genre of music? Is there an artist who is an exception to said rule?

Davis: My least favorite genre lately has been punk rock. For all of the chest thumping about originality, rebellion and chaos, you would be hard pressed to find a more stagnant, elitist, and safe/boring musical landscape today.  …

Joseph Ross Camuglia

SPB: What is the largest crowd you have played to? Did you approach the set differently?

Camuglia: Well, I played a 3 song set at the 25 the Anniversary of Woodstock at the original site in Bethel, NY in 1994 to an estimated crowd of 70,000 people.       

I don't know the exact number except I heard that …

Bo Hansen (Heavy Times)

SPB: What club (that you've played) has the worst bathroom?

Hansen: There used to be this DIY show spot/skateboard ramp in Chicago called the Beerics.  During shows, to accommodate all of the attendees, one of the "bathrooms" in that place was just a 5 gallon bucket in a pantry. That was pretty fucking gross.

Tom Loftus (Modern Radio Music Label, co-owner)

SPB: What was the biggest mistake you made when starting up/learning how run a record label?

Loftus: My biggest mistake was overestimating quantity when putting out releases. There are all sorts of price breaks when you manufacture vinyl, CDs or print that make the cost per unit much cheaper. I always had a …

Clay Reed (Subsonics)

SPB: It seems that the hyphenated genre "garage-punk" keeps popping up more and more. What do you think of the term?

Reed: The term garage-punk...is as meaningless and subjective as all genre labels are. Kierkegaard said: "When you label,me you negate me"...but he was maybe kinda extremist. Maybe when you label me you negate the label. The …

Loren Shumaker-Chupp (Signals Midwest, bass)

SPB: What do your parents think of your music?

Loren Shumaker-Chupp: My parents have always appreciated that I play music and what I get out of it. It was something that they encouraged me to learn when I was younger and supported throughout grade school when I began to draw serious interest into music. Now …

Wesley Henderson (Yankee Brutal)

SPB: What's your favorite band you discovered on your most recent tour?

Henderson: That question is not one I can answer outright. In the span of a 3-month US tour, you'd hope to play with a lot of awesome bands. And we absolutely did! I can only break it down to a top 5 in no …

Johnny Bonnel (Druglords of the Avenues, Swingin’ Utters, Filthy Thieving Bastards)

SPB: Where does your band name for Druglords of the Avenues come from?

Bonnel: I was watching a documentary on a Jewish community in Alphabet City, New York and the narrator mentioned "Druglords of the Avenues" more than a couple times. I thought it sounded like a cool band …

The Devil

SPB: In your debut album you are using a wide variety of vocal samples from famous speeches. Do you believe that a vocal performance can be adequately replaced by such samples? Or, do you believe that there is something else that attracts people within those famous words?

The Devil: Seeing we are technically an instrumental band that uses …

David Adelson (20 Buck Spin)

SPB: What is the worst job you’ve ever had? 

Adelson: Worst job I ever had was one of my first. When I was 16 I was suspended from school for smoking weed on campus. Since I could not go to school for 3 days my Dad said I'd have to make use of the time …

Evan (Vacation)

SPB: What is your primary tour food?

Evan: Our primary tour food is PIZZA. Like as much as your town has to offer, and if you know where we can get a New Jersey-style slice let us know! Been achin' to try some. Also see this:

...except no riboflavin for us.

Ezra Arrow Kire (Morning Glory)

SPB: What do you think of Record Store Day?

Kire: Record Store Day? It should be an official national holiday! Why? Because every child of the '80s and '90s remembers going down to their local record shop and listening to those big, shiny black, magic pieces of vinyl with those gigantic headphones on, going over …