Our newest feature here at Scene Point Blank is our semi-daily quickie Q&A: One Question Interviews. Follow us at facebook or twitter and we'll post one interview every Monday-Thursday. Well, sometimes we miss a day, but it will be four each week regardless.
After our social media followers get the first word, we'll later post a wrap-up here at the site and archive 'em here. This week check out Q&As with Magic Bullet Records, Melissa B, Tortoise and Silver Snakes.
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Brent Eyestone (Magic Bullet Records, Highness, Bleach Everything)
SPB: Who is your favorite current band to see live?
Brent: For the last 13 years, my absolute favorite band to see live is Sigur Rós, without question. I've seen them 38 times all around the world and their performances have always put me in a headspace that I've genuinely never felt elsewhere in life. In fact, I brought my dad the last time I saw them and remember asking him, "Does this change the way you think about music?" He non-jokingly responded that it was changing the way he thought about life! Afterward, he demanded that we go with my brother and mom next time and that we all "biochemically alter" ourselves in advance. On the drive back, we were able to openly and candidly talk about things we've never discussed together in my 37 years on the planet.
I've often seen them play over 3 hours at a time and have it feel like 10 minutes because they are absolutely the best in writing set lists and knowing how to ebb and flow in a manner that is constantly engaging. There was even a time where myself and my girlfriend of the time hopped a train in DC up to NYC to see them play one single song on that crappy Carson Daly show (when it was filmed out of 30 Rock and he was trying to be some man's man bro-dude instead of some pallid non-prescription glasses-wearing indie blog dork to fit modern trends). We got off the train, walked over to 30 Rock, endured and suffered through Daly and Tom Sizemore trying to throw footballs through tires for over an hour on camera (seriously), and finally had respite when Sigur Rós took the stage and played "Vaka." Just the one song. We got right back on the train to DC and went straight to the bedroom, not even once thinking it wasn't worth the effort.
Bless those spritely Icelandic geniuses. Life wouldn't feel nearly as full without them.
Melissa B
SPB: You work as a network engineer. Are there many musicians or artists within your field/Are there many creative-types?
Melissa: I find that there are a lot of people in the technology field that are truly musically inclined. I happen to work with several people that actually are in bands or have been working on Broadway.
There are some creative type of people like one person I worked with has been a writer and [is] actually in the middle of writing a new novel. I also have a friend whom I work with that basically plays drums and guitar as well. Music and math mesh well together that's why there are so many of us in music. We see beyond what is truly there looking outside the box.
Bundy K. Brown (ex-Tortoise)
SPB: What is the weirdest description you’ve heard of your music? Do you think it had some accuracy or could you see where the reviewer came up with it?
Bundy: Whew. A decent answer to that question would require my brain to be filled with a lot less information than it typically is these days...you know: what's for dinner tomorrow, son's soccer schedule, odd work-related deadlines, half a dozen random shopping lists, etc.
I am quite certain at some point someone leveled a description against my music that I felt was not just weird, but inappropriate or deeply misinformed (though in truth, I don't feel like I ever really got much press). And no matter how out there it was, it was not so egregious that I have carried it around with me. I think that has more or less left me without a real answer to your question. I tend to wear my influences on my sleeve, and have never shied away from co-opting/regurgitating someone else's good (and occasionally bad) ideas, not to mention the fact that, musically, I haven't really demonstrated much growth or evolution, so what would be weird to me is if someone did not notice that obviousness. And in my outlook, I can wax towards relativism too strongly at times, so no matter how off the mark someone's critique may have seemed at the time, at worst, I probably just dismissed it as "everyone's entitled to their own opinion."
Well, actually in hindsight, I may have gotten wound up about something like that once or twice, but it probably manifested itself as me muttering to myself about it when no one else is around, or perhaps a small outburst among folks who I felt could withstand a tirade. Wait...scratch all that. A long time ago Mitch Myers wrote what was ultimately a very favorable piece about Pullman for the New City, but he framed it in this kind of historical fiction that just didn't make any sense. So what he said wasn't weird, but how he said it was. Does that count?
Alex (Silver Snakes)
SPB: Who was your favorite band that you discovered on your last tour?
Alex: My favorite band I discovered on our last tour is Third Seven. We were playing our last show with HRVRD at The Launchpad in Albuquerque, NM and I was captivated by the music playing over the PA after sound check. Layers of cello, rhythmic and haunting vocals, all the things I love. I asked the sound guy about it and he pulled out a burned cd that said "Cascadia"--turns out it was the title of the release. I did some research and found out it was a one man band under the name Third Seven. I bought the record online and marked my calendar for Oct 9th, the day he was playing a bar in Los Angeles. He put on an incredible show and he actually knew about our band! I'm hoping to play shows with him in the future.
