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Brian (Entropy)
SPB: What do you think the internet has done for the word of mouth punk scene?
Brian: As far as how it effects underground punk rock, the internet is both a blessing and a curse.
It's obviously made it way easier to spread news, learn about shows and, most importantly, discover new music. But it's that easy for everyone to get the word out, so there ends up being an overload of information. Suddenly people just dipping their toes in are being invited to every show from Boston to California and every band on earth is vying for their attention which predictably gets to be a bit much.
When I started going to shows in the ‘90s, I would be stoked to get a flyer and know when and where the next show was. I'd wonder about the band I'd never heard of with “from Boston” under their name and would be excited to see them. Now when promoting shows, the dynamic has shifted so that you're basically bothering people who may or may not even be interested. I mean, half the people logging in to look at porn for three minutes to get a proper wank in before getting on with their day just aren't that interested that Puking Chloroform are playing at the Ritz next Thursday night.
The ease of internet promotion can cause a lazy complacency that belies the urgency in message that should always be present in punk rock, and that part of it just plain sucks. The ability to quickly reach people the world over is an amazing force that's easy to underestimate, however, so it's a mixed bag.
Tobias Sinclair (Soft Kill)
SPB: How did you meet the new members and how did they get on the Soft Kill ship?
Tobias: Owen & Conrad have been with the band since the Heresy LP. I met Owen when I was nineteen and playing in grind core / noise bands. We spent our initial time together playing with broken synthesizers in his basement and in a lot of ways he taught me how to create some of the sounds I had in my head at that time. This lead to me starting my first project of my own which was how I came into contact with Conrad who was making similarly fucked up noise. Eric started playing guitar with us in 2012 and is on the Seven Hundred 7" but never played with us until recently. I met him when I sprayed his other band down with a fire extinguisher when they played my warehouse six years ago. It looks like my old band and room mate Drew will be playing drums for us starting in 2017 as well. I met him when he was sixteen and have watched him grow into a total savage... one of the most brilliant players and skaters I've encountered.
Curran Reynolds (Body Stuff)
SPB: Do you make a conscious decision to reference or deviate from past material when working on Body Stuff?
Curran: The Body Stuff approach is to make music from the gut, without consciously thinking about any other music at all. After it's made, then I can reflect and say, "Hey, this sounds like it's referencing this or that." Looking at the two EPs I've made so far, in hindsight I can say that some of what's being referenced is the big rock and pop hits of the late '80s. This is the music I grew up with as a little kid and naturally it comes through. But those influences are buried under the noise of other influences, like death metal drumming and various New York City vibes. And to compare the first EP and the second, I think the second has some dreamy Maine woods isolation vibes in it too, because that's where I was living the year I wrote it.
