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Nathan Kearney (Gonzovillain)
SPB: Is there a particular record you’ve heard this year that surprised you? In a good or a bad way?
Nathan: I'd say that the record that's surprised me the most this year is Institute's EP Salt. They're a band from Texas who, for me, represent what I first got into when I got into "punk" music. It's imperfect and feels like it could fall apart at any moment. As a frontman, I wish that I could have half of the onstage persona that their lead singer has. I've watched some youtube videos of them (especially one from a public access show in Texas) and, even though the band as a whole are tight and present, my eyes always wander to his schizo-yelps that he makes as he flails and contorts. It surprised me mainly because it seems natural and not some pose or posture struck. It's not like that doesn't exist in modern music (it absolutely does) but, like I said, I got sour on "punk" music for quite a while because it didn't feel like I was seeing any of that.
Jim Sykes (Invisible Things-drums)
SPB: In songwriting, how do you draw the line between taking influence and mimicking?
Jim: Honestly I think bands should be sued if they cop someone's style. I don't care if it's the same melody but played in a totally different style - that shows creativity. But when I hear a band write an "original" song but it sounds exactly like Coldplay, I get a very sad feeling inside. As a drummer I think it's okay if I copy John Stanier. How could I not?
Hard Girls
SPB: What is the most valuable thing you’ve lost on a tour?
Morgan: Mostly we lose things like phone chargers and sunglasses, shirts and t-shirts, crap like that…I guess you could say we’ve all lost our wide-eyed innocence on the road…SIGH…
We have lost 2 drum seats and one drum kick pedal over the years.
Mike: On our last tour I left my only coat in Virginia two days before it started snowing. Luckily I was able to find a ridiculously cheap one (likely made by the Camorra or the Triads or something) before long, but otherwise I'd have frozen to death in Kentucky.
Andy (Warm Needles)
SPB: What was the most memorable thing to happen during recording Inconsolable?
Andy: Oh geez, good question. Luckily now I can laugh about it. We actually recorded the record ourselves in our own space with our own equipment. This is also the first time I've ever done any real recording or used this equipment so it was a learning process from start to finish, with still a lot to learn. So, the most memorable part of recording Inconsolable was when, after days and many hours of recording I had to scrap everything we had done due to "technical difficulties." Read: "not knowing what the hell I was doing." 8 of 11 live tracks swept into the trash. I broke the news to the dudes and we picked up our crap and just started over. But yeah, sinking heart feeling level 10.
