Features / One Question Interviews

Alex (Lemuria)

SPB: What do you think when fans run onstage and sing into the mic while you’re on stage?

Alex: I think it's fun when people jump up on stage and sing along. It brings a great energy to the set for us. But with anybody who does this, they must know when enough is enough. There …

Grant Purdum (Tiny Mix Tapes, Gumshoe Grove, Signal to Noise, Onion AV Club)

SPB: What kinds of topics or tone do you like to see when you read an interview with a band?

Purdum: Good question. I was just thinking about this the other day while killing ants in my bathroom actually (Texas + summer = ant party). …

Mike Wiebe (Riverboat Gamblers, High Tension Wires)

SPB: In addition to your multiple bands, you've taken to stand-up comedy recently too. What drew you to the medium, and what has struck you the most about it?

Wiebe: I was drawn to it initially just from being such a huge fan of good stand-up since I was a little …

Way to End

SPB: Who is the first musician whose technique or technicality really stood out to you?

Way to End: Cziffra and, as a consequence, Liszt. When I was very young, my father bought a cd of Liszt played by Cziffra. It was the Hungarian Rhapsodies. I was so struck by the way piano was played, there …

Mike Hall (Sick Sick Birds)

SPB: If I’m not mistaken, one or two of you in Sick Sick Birds have children, correct? What do your kids think of your band?

Hall: Yes, we all have kids. There are five of them now, ranging from 2-10 years old. Mostly, I think my kids just think of the band as …

Toby Jeg (Red Scare Industries)

SPB: What is your favorite book or author?

Jeg: Man, these aren't supposed to be easy, huh? That's so hard for me because I take different things away from every book I read. I also try and oscillate my readings between something classic/scholarly and something hip and trashy. For example I was recently …

Joe Steinhardt (Don Giovanni Records)

SPB: How big is your record collection?

Steinhardt: Steph and I own about 3,000 records, 3,000 CDs, and 200 tapes.

Dennis (INVSN, formerly of International Noise Conspiracy and Refused)

SPB: INVSN is a markedly different sound than your previous bands. What do you like most about playing a variety of styles of music?

Dennis: That it is never boring! Only cowards or narrow-minded people stick with the same sound/idea forever. Or maybe very one-dimensional people.

I am …

Chris Moore (Coke Bust/Sick Fix/D.O.C.)

SPB: What is your favorite music-related film or documentary?

Moore: It's a toss-up between Last Days Here, the documentary about Bobby Liebling the singer of Pentagram, and Hit So Hard about Patty Schemel, the drummer from Hole.

Daniel (Bad Sports)

SPB: Who is the best band in Denton right now?

Daniel: The answer is obvious, Bad Sports. In fact, if you asked me who the best band in the world is, the answer would be Bad Sports. There's none better, none greater, and none better looking. We are the be all, end all of good …

Spoonboy

SPB: Do you still get nervous before you play a show? How do you address your nerves?

Spoonboy: Sometimes. I just try to remember that I've played like 1000 shows and I just mentally teleport myself to after the show is over, where I see that everything went fine. Because, even if some shows go better than …

Mitch Clem (artist)

SPB: How do you approach drawing an album cover as compared to a comic?

Clem: That's actually a solid question. Since I started doing comics as my primary thing like a hundred years ago, most of my growth as an artist happened within the confines of panels and, as such, I think in panels now. …

M. Lehto (October Falls)

SPB: What is your day job and how does it fit (or conflict) with your artistic goals?

M. Lehto: Basically I work as a branch manager at financial sector and, as I'm not a touring artist, it's quite easy to fit any band-related things into my daily schedule. Naturally sometimes the job takes a …

Russell Emerson Hall (Tyranny Is Tyranny, vocals/guitar)

SPB: Do you do anything to reduce gas consumption/cost while on tour?

Hall: We downsized our speaker cabinets slightly and got the smallest vehicle we could all fit into (Honda Odyssey). It's a bit weird to think that promotion and distribution can all be handled with a laptop at home, but …

Monet Wong (L’Assassins, guitar)

SPB: L’Assassins definitely utilizes style as an element of the band in addition to the music. How do you feel the two are intertwined?

Assassins: It’s funny that we seem to be able to get asked this type of question a lot - even though style is intertwined almost universally with every band: even …

Westin Glass (The Thermals)

SPB: Who is your favorite band you discovered on your last tour?

Glass: The most recent Thermals tour was in Europe. We played with a lot of good bands on that tour, at festivals and club shows all over the place. Our favorite was a band called Brawlers that opened our show at the …

Andy Nelson (Paint It Black, Ceremony)

SPB: It seems that Philadelphia is consistently turning out new bands and rejuvenating the scene with new blood. What do you think keeps the scene active with new bands (and who are some of your current favorites)?

Nelson: Philadelphia is perhaps advantageously situated equidistant from two other major East Coast cities -- …

Adam Sonderberg (Haptic)

SPB: What is the worst stereotype you encountered when people find you’re in a band?

Sonderberg: That the band must "rock." While I'd occasionally like to rock, I don't.

Jenks Miller (Horseback, solo)

SPB: What part of your live show do you find the hardest on sound engineers?

Miller: The biggest challenge in Horseback's live shows is getting the vocals to sit right in the mix. Most bands feature vocals at the front of the mix; I prefer our harsh textures to sit further back and blend …

Ryan Woods (High Dive/Defiance, Ohio)

SPB: After playing in a larger band (in terms of # of people in the band), how is it to tour with a 3 piece?

Woods: This is a perfect question for High Dive. In fact, we started the band with the purpose of traveling light, only three of us in Toby's station …