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 Volcom Entertainment, Lawrence Arms x2 and Somos.
Kurt Midness (Volcom)
SPB: How do you determine which bands go into the singles series?
Kurt: To start with we try to pick artists that we think are doing something cool that we like. In an ideal world we could just pick and choose from what we consider to be the best music happening now. Since that is hardly the case, other factors come into play. Questions such as... Does this band have a single they want to put out? Would they like to work with us? What can we do to make this record exciting for the bands and their fans? If everything lines up then it’s a go. We are currently working on our 35th and 36th release. We pride ourselves on using the vinyl club as a means to showcase a broad range of sounds, so we are always looking for new sounds and different approaches to music. I like to think that we are providing a service that shines a light on under-represented artists while simultaneously contributing curios from better known bands. Once we agree to press a record it should be as good as possible because vinyl is permanent.
Brendan Kelly (Lawrence Arms)
SPB: Do your kids listen to your music at all? And what do they think about it?
Brendan: My kids like to listen to my music in the car. They also like to listen to it on occasion in the house if it's a recording. They HATE when I play the guitar.
SPB: What Slapstick song holds up the best for you 15ish years later?
Brendan: The Slapstick song that holds up the best, to me, is probably “Broken Down.” It's just a cool, simple pop song.
Phil (Somos)
SPB: What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
This is tough because I have had a lot of shitty jobs. But first would have to be babysitting rich kids. I was 18 and had just moved to San Francisco from Massachusetts. I was desperate for money and was looking for any kind of work at all. A friend of mine knew a family looking for a babysitter at $12/hr. I didn't care about details, just the $12/hr part. It turned out it was for this very wealthy family in Berkeley. The kids were 6, 10 and 13, snobby, spoiled little brats whose parents gave them whatever they want. On my first day, the 10 year-old boy demanded that I wipe his ass when he was done shitting, literally screaming at the top of his lungs. He was 10 years-old! I refused; we didn't get off to a good start. After two months of hell wiping the asses of rich kids (metaphorically of course) I got a job offer scooping ice cream downtown for minimum wage. It felt like I had gotten into college or something. I quit babysitting that day.
