Features / One Question Interviews

Bleu (Chateau Chateau)

SPB: How much space in your home is dedicated to music storage (instruments or records)?

Bleu: Most of our house is dedicated to music storage. Our “master bedroom” is actually our recording studio now, so it houses our day-to-day equipment, writing and recording computers, pianos, guitars, drum kit, trombone, keytars, etc. Basically everything you've heard on our …

Michael Allen (Sundown – guitar/vocals)

SPB: What is your favorite stretch of highway to drive on tour?

Allen: There's a bridge in Florida heading into Tampa called the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It's on 275, I believe, and it was when we finally saw the ocean. Bowie had just come on the radio and we had the windows down in February. …

Serge Nakauchi Pelletier (TEKE::TEKE – guitar)

SPB: You use a variety of instruments. Were there any mic challenges or unique studio setups to require the sounds you achieved on Shirushi last year?

Nakauchi Pelletier: I don't recall any “challenges” per se in terms of set ups or even choices of microphones. Obviously, you want the best option for each instrument …

Eric (Some Became Hollow Tubes)

SPB: How did COVID impact the recording of this collaborative record?

Eric: COVID gave us the gift of time. We worked slower than usual, since we were adjusting to life at home and finding other things to occupy the mind from all the gloomy stuff. After the initial shocks, cancelations, uncertainties and figuring out …

Mariel (Church Girls)

SPB: What is your favorite record store, either locally or one you’ve discovered on the road?

Mariel: I like Creep Records in Philly. 

They have a great used section that's not too overwhelming. I seem to get lucky and find something on my list every time I go in.

Caleb Nichols

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

Nichols: I’m going to answer this question via a “first thought = best thought” method, and my honest first thought when I read the question was “Cranes In The Sky” by Solange. 

When I think “best pop song” I think I’m thinking about timelessness and a …

Solilians

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

Solilians: German filmmaker Claudia Heuermann’s Sabbath In Paradise (on Tzadik) explores the question of what it means to be a modern experimental Jewish musician from all angles, capturing Radical Jewish Culture and downtown NYC’s East Village golden age of the early ‘90s in all it’s breath, depth and …

Eli Hansen (Real Numbers)

SPB: What type of guitar are you playing with Real Numbers and how did you choose it?

Hansen: I play a 1965 Hagstrom I. Many years ago I was guitar shopping in Milwaukee with my Dad (also a musician and guitar collector) and stumbled across one at Rockhaus Guitars. It was so cool and unusual and …

Joey Affatato (The Carousers)

SPB: What is the furthest you’ve ever traveled to see a show (and who was it/where)?

Affatato: The farthest I've travelled for a show was about two hours away. It was to see Badflower at the Pat Garrett Amphitheater in Strausstown, PA

Jason (Riot For Romance)

SPB: Were there any amps, cabs or anything else that stood out when you recorded the self-titled EP?

Jason: Something different for me than in past lives, is that I recorded my guitars from home for the first time ever. Previously, I've done scratch tracks at home but final recordings in a professional studio. After testing …

Gabriele (Deaf Lingo-bass)

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

Gabriele: Maybe there's already a lot of talk about it, but this is one of the best examples of record covers that complement the music.

You might not even listen to it, but you already know what to expect.

The first big visual impact from that saturated …

Eric Robel (Moral Panic)

SPB: You recently covered “Colombian Necktie” by Big Black. What made you pick that song from Big Black’s catalog?

Robel: I thought of the idea, looking through my records. I was purposely trying to come up with a cover that was different. Something not what you are supposed to do. I feel like it’s my job …

Conner Rush (Auric Echoes)

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

Rush: To me, the first musician who really stood out to me as something unique was Thom Yorke. My whole life I had only really had experience with classic rock and sort of thought that was “the music to like” and …

Jason “Lumbergh” Lundgren (Little Lebowski Urban Achievers – bass)

SPB: What is your favorite “deep cut” quote or scene from The Big Lebowski?

Jason: Just one, wow it’s impossible to even choose but I’d say this is my favorite “deep cut” back and forth between Walter and The Dude…

Walter Sobchak: Also, let's not forget - let's *not* forget, …

Antoine (Chalk Hands - guitar/vocals)

SPB: How did you “discover” punk rock?

Antoine: I'm old enough to be one of these people who had a cool friend who burnt a CD with loads of bands on it. I remember it was a girl I had a crush on, which is pretty fitting given the fact that that CD contained mostly …

Bryan (Powerviolet – synths/drums/programming)

SPB: What is the weirdest description you’ve heard of your music? Could you see where the comparison came from?

Bryan: Of course, we get the usual suspects -- M83, My Bloody Valentine, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are at the top of the list -- but the weirdest and best I’ve heard was “Factory Records meets 4AD.” …

Prayer Group

SPB: Where do you make a point to bring visitors when they pass through your hometown?

Prayer Group: We always like to take people from out of town down to the James River when we can. It runs right through downtown Richmond, so it's kind of our trashy city beach, and it's the spot to hang and drink …

John Brhel (Other Dangers - guitar/vocals)

SPB: Have you ever forgotten lyrics (or another part) mid-song? How did you recover?

Brhel: I’ve forgotten lyrics a few times over the years. It’s usually when performing a new song we haven’t played live much yet. Usually I’ll just sing the melody and repeat a line from earlier in the song (or sing …

Nathaniel (Spaceships)

SPB: Tell us about your amp pairings and how you chose them.

Nathaniel: I run a stereo rig with a Vox AC15 and a 1960s Gibson Falcon. I encountered a Falcon while helping a friend who runs an amp repair shop. He had me put it together and test it, and I fell in love -- only to …

Ashton Prescott (Naturalist)

SPB: Pretending we don’t have pandemic issues: basements, bars, or both?

Prescott: Regardless of the venue we are playing, the energy and atmosphere is most important to us. I think I speak for the rest of the band when I say that we just love playing shows. Whether it's a bar, basement or festival as long as …