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 Arcade Fire, All Pigs Must Die, Stranger By Starlight and Multiple Truths.
Sarah Neufeld (solo, Arcade Fire)
SPB: What are the biggest challenge you face in getting the sound you want live while playing with amplified instruments?
Sarah: I've always had a pretty good pick-up situation on my violin, so it hasn't really been an issue. It is fun to experiment with pushing the sound of that instrument in a band context. I've found the moogerfooger delay pedal warms the sound a lot and gives it a nice gritty edge. Also, reverb is an amplified violin's best friend- its a good idea to play around with a ton of different reverb pedals until you find one that really speaks your verb language..
Kevin Baker (All Pigs Must Die )
SPB: What is your favorite thing about international touring?
Kevin: In my opinion, traveling to different regions and absorbing the culture is the greatest thing anyone can ever do in life. I really miss that part of being in a band and am real fortunate I got to do it when I did. I remember one time we were in Tokyo and members of another band we knew at the time didn't want to leave the hotel! I kept thinking, "How many times are you gonna be in Tokyo" or wherever it is you are touring at the time? How could you not want to walk out the front door to the hotel and at least go for a walk down the street? I can't understand that mindset.
Anthony (Stranger by Starlight)
SPB: What is your favorite 1970s artist?
It's incredibly difficult to pick a favourite artist, album or even track from the entirety of the 1970s, so many things spring immediately to mind, all of which deserve to be mentioned: Leonard Cohen, The Stooges, Amon Duul II and Ash Ra Temple, Gang of Four, Joy Division...my head spins even trying to decide amongst them.
There are two pieces which I most strongly want to choose, but neither were actually released in the ‘70s, despite both being written and premiered in that decade.
Arvo Part - Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten
Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No.3
Both of these pieces of music make time stand still, but considering the fact that neither had wide exposure until a decade or so later...perhaps they don't count.
So instead I've decided upon a track which was released at the very tail end of the ‘70s, and set a benchmark for the decade to follow. It's also the first vinyl I ever asked my father to play, at the age of around 5. To me it symbolises both my own musical awakening and my family's influence in my life.
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead.
Eugene (Stranger By Starlight)
I can do one better...though this was the next to last decade when the album really ruled supreme and behind that the auteurs that created it, anticipating where music would go I am going to bypass my faves -- Eddie & the Hotrods, Lydia Lunch, Prince, the Plasmatics -- and instead not only focus on one act but one SONG and that song is a cover of Spencer Davis Group's "I'm a Man" by the Italian-French-American group MACHO. About 18 minutes of pure disco lunacy. Pre-AIDS, deep, deep disco. And total, total genius from many different perspectives.
Justin Wettstein (Multiple Truths)
SPB: After music, what other arts are you interested in?
Justin: Taking music out of the art spectrum is tough. I feel that music plays a large part in many forms of art, at least in some small capacity...so I must admit, I was a little stumped at first. When forced to think about it, though, I realized that my homosexuality has, over the years, led me to pursue various forms of queer art. I'm lucky to be surrounded by lots of amazingly talented homos who get out there and pursue their passions. Living in Chicago, there's no shortage of things to do so, on any given night, you could find me at a drag show, a photo show, or an art show that a friend of mine is either performing at or showing pieces in. A lot of people close to me have been productive with their art lately as well, in turn driving me to do more myself. Vinny Lopez is a NYC based writer/director responsible for the web-series Two Jasperjohns and the short film Scholarship. Martin Sorrondeguy published an amazing photo book last year called Get Shot : A Visual Diary 1985-2012. Ivan Lozano is a Chicago based visual artist/curator who's done many a rad show and was just featured in a Chicago Tribune profile of the city's top curators. Those are just a few.
Music is still my personal go-to art form, but art is about community...and I feel very fortunate to be able to admire and gather inspiration from people I love and respect through the routes they pursue.
