Category Archives: Interviews

Interview: Page Hamilton of Helmet

It’s always cool to be able to chat with guys in bands that you’ve been listening to for nearly 20 years. A few months ago Helmet rolled through Columbus on the Seeing Eye Dog tour and founding Helmet member Page Hamilton was kind enough to let us hop aboard the band’s tour bus to chat for a few minutes.

Though Helmet’s style of music and Hamilton’s barking-style vocals may lead you to believe that he’s an unapproachable guy, that couldn’t be further from the truth as you’ll see. We’ve boiled down the 25-minute conversation to a digestible 4-minute overview here.

Thanks to Jason Sidwell and Nathan Photos of Electraplay for filming, producing and editing this video.

Deathly Fighter Interview

Agit Reader posted an interview with Michael Carney of Deathly Fighter. Their album Completely Dusted is easily one of the best Columbus records of the year. With a little perspective it may be the best Columbus instrumental album since RJD2’s Deadringer or Blueprint’s Chamber Music. Time will tell on that idea.

Playing and collecting various synths is almost like a religion for you. So I’m interested, when it comes to making music, do you sway more towards Suicide or the classic Krauts, because I hear both.

MC: Obviously we listen to a lot of that stuff. Overall, it’s the idea that our music is relaxation. Usually it has more to do with the mindframe that the Kraut stuff is done in. But Suicide? You listen to a lot of those songs and as aggravating as it is, it’s also kind of calming. It has to do with all that. We’re not trained musicians by any means, there’s no guitar solos, and as corny as it sounds, it’s all about the vibe.

I guess the better question then is less about your influence and more about what you are trying to accomplish sonically. How much does the production of hip-hop factor in to what you’re doing?

MC: It’s funny that you ask that. Certain people who we’ve played it for hear that. Hip-hop from skate videos definitely play a role, even if we all have different opinions on what we hear. I met Christian through skateboarding with him eight or nine years ago—the original Deathly Fighter. And back then there was just certain hip-hop that fit well on punk and skate videos. When I create drums, it’s like how the Krauts were able to make something funky without it being funky. So I’m trying to find samples, or drum loops and such, that aren’t exactly funky and then try to make them funky.

read more of this interview on Agit Reader.

Interview With Waka Flocka Flame

Photo by Danielle Kline

I did this interview with Waka Flocka Flame over a month ago. This is before his album Flockavelli dropped. I had seen Waka live so in the interview when Waka says I am gonna have to take a break by track 4, that is not even a lie.
The energy at Waka’s shows are delivered on Flockaveli.
If you are at CMJ I hope you RSVPd to Waka Flocka Flame at the Fadar Fort Saturday 10/23 in on 38 Delancy St, at Forsyth at 9:05 pm. Royal Bangs, Glasser, and Freddie Gibbs are playing there as well.
If i was in NYC I’d go to that and then Get Right NYC at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn

Publicist:Wes, are you ready to talk to Waka?

Me:Sure

WAKA FLOCKA FLAME:I GO HARD IN THE MUTHAFUCKIN PAINT, N###A.

Me:uh…HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE HARDEST OUT?

Waka Flocka Flame:Oh. We just tryin’ to drop this album.

Me:No one who listened to punk fucks doesn’t fuck with punk anymore more. They all listen to Waka.

Waka Flocka Flame:For real?

Me:Yeah. You fuck with metal or punk? All these rock people they are grown people cryin into their instruments. They sound like they listen to their parents music. All the punk kids I know stopped listening to rock music and they all listen to death metal and Waka Flocka Flame.

Waka Flocka Flame:I am from Atlanta. So I’m just trying to keep it krunk. That is where it comes from.

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MP3, Interview: Nick Tolford & Co.

MP3: End of the Night

Nick Tolford and Company are like Columbus’s version of The Commitments. A bunch of young, (mostly) white people bringing rockified soul music to the people. Except Tolford & Co. write their own tunes that rival stuff sung by mostly dead Motown guys. This Saturday at Carabar the band will release their much anticipated debut, Extraordinary Love. Tolford was kind enough to give me a little window into his world — a world of Ray Charles, The Misfits, Booker T, MF Gnar and “Bed Intruder.”

Back when you were playing in the Slide Machine, did you always have the idea for this band in the back of your head? Did you think you could pull it off?
I don’t know if I thought I could “pull it off,” but I always did solo stuff on the side of whatever band I was in at the time. I feel like the ball really got rolling once I got a band together and got more than just my input on the songs.

Were you surprised when friends and even strangers started rallying around you and even asking if they could join your band?
I was definitely surprised at the reaction I got from the demo songs. I wasn’t really expecting people to take notice at all.

Did you grow up listening to guys like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding?
My father always used to play old Motown and Stax stuff and I have always been most interested in vocal melody in songs. People like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles, among many others, really know how it works. Soul isn’t all I listened to though. When I was 11 I heard the Misfits for the first time and that had a pretty huge influence on me. During my junior high and high school years, skateboarding and everything on Fat Wreck Chords carried me through.
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Interview: Male Bonding

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MP3: Male Bonding- Year’s Not Long

London-based DIY rockers Male Bonding have been signed to Sup Pop for over a year now. If you’ve heard them, then I bet you’re looking forward to their return to Columbus next week. If you haven’t, consider this your fair warning to work in multiple listens to their record Nothing Hurts (clocking in just under thirty minutes) before then.

Last week I caught up with singer/guitarist John Webb, who discussed the record, the band’s recent collaboration with Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and life as Male Bonding.

Everyone has influences when they start making music, but what kind of bands/artists continue to inspire you guys when coming up with new material?
Well, we recently recorded a song with Rivers Cuomo from Weezer. He got in contact with us a few months back and asked if we wanted to have a songwriting session when he was in London for the Reading Festival. We love Weezer, so we jumped at the chance. Anyway, watching Rivers work was very inspiring. That guy is a songwriting machine. He’s the king of melody. That whole experience was a dream come true.
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Interview/Review: Efterklang

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I traveled to Cleveland this past Thursday to catch Danish band Efterklang at the Beachland Tavern. This was my third time seeing them, but my first outside of a festival setting. Though I’ve seen them in Austin and Wales, this Cleveland show took the cake. I can honestly say there was no where else I would have rather been after being treated like I was that night.

Though the room was just over half full and the Tavern is the smaller of the two Beachland venues, these guys may as well have been playing to thousands in their homeland. There was no pretentiousness, not a stitch of awkwardness, just an overwhelming sense of appreciation from the musicians and the crowd. Singer Casper Clausen and bassist Rasmus Stolberg animated the stage throughout the entire set and seemed to never tire of smiling. While they somehow fit seven people (and their equipment) on stage, the richness of the music made it sound like a dozen more were behind them. There is such a difference in seeing a band that truly loves playing music for people and one that does nothing to connect with their audience. (The crowd was even asked to start up a spontaneous “Happy Birthday” for Rasmus half way through the set.)

Efterklang is the real deal. They’re technical, they’re melodic… There’s something for everyone. I was able to sit down with Casper after the show and pick his brain a bit.

You began your own label (Rumraket) in 2000 and released your music from it in the beginning. Is this something you felt you had to do or is it how you wanted to go about distributing your music?
We just really liked the feeling of doing everything. We recorded it and then were able to put this Rumraket label on it and it made us feel good to know we had done it all.
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Interview with an Ohioan: The Black Keys’s Patrick Carney


Photo of Pat Carney, Michael, and Gabe taken last time TBK played LC
(THE BLACK KEYS PLAY THE LC HERE IN COLUMBUS FRIDAY AUGUST 12th)

I accidentally set a phone interview up with Pat Carney, drummer of the Black Keys, during the same time as my little brother’s bday party. On the upside, the interruption of my little brother’s celebration informed me that my mom saw the Black Keys on Leno, and they talk about the Black Keys at my older brother’s work.

They have family name recognition for obvious reasons: The band debuted number 3 in the nation with their newest  album “Brothers”. People that like rap love them. Teenie boppers who like vampires love them. Movie stars love them. Men, who aren’t pussies and wear jean jackets with patches expressing solidarity with Vietnam P.O.W’s like them. And indie rockers still bump them next to Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, and Best Coast.

I am especially happy that you can now say “Tighten Up” around a female  without her thinking that its a joke about the size of her vagina. (Usually, they will say you have a small dick. The only argument around that is to blame the patriachy for making them shamefull of their big vaginas. It is a double standard)

My point. My mom and older brother know who the Black Keys are for the same reason they sold out the LC. They are doing well and working hard.

The downside it that Pat called me back while my mother was cutting watermelon on the back patio. So i scooted off to another room… I want to call it the family room. But I don’t think we have ever called it that.

But because I was in a place that could be called a family room, I was interrupted by my little brother and my mother offering me watermelon,  soda, video games and conversations that would never pertain to any of my interests.

So a road exhausted Pat Carney forced himself to call me when he would rather be napping to promote a show that was already sold-out, because he didn’t want his younger brother Mike to harass him anymore and I was mad awkward because I didn’t want to curse or speak on ellicit matters in the prescence of those that share genes with me.

With that context read about the Nigerian Bank, Touring, Truth and Soul, Lollapoolaza, the Rza, Columbus, and Mike Carney the life coach.

So I saw that the Nigerian Bank hacked into your email account?

Pat Carney: Someone in Nigeria did. I got a gmail notification that my account was compromised from Nigeria. They sent a mass email out to my contacts saying I was stranded and I needed money.

Did people start hitting you asking why you were in Nigeria?

The email said I was in the UK. I did receive a million texts wondering why I needed money. Continue reading

Interview: Joey Allen (Warrant)

(Warrant rolls into Columbus on Friday night for a gig at Screamin Willie’s (1921 Channingway Center Dr.))

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the 17-year-old me can’t believe that I’m trading e-mails with Warrant guitarist Joey Allen. Warrant was an integral part of my rock n’ roll journalism career hobby as one of the first articles I wrote for my high school paper was a concert review of a pre-record-release Warrant in which I predicted big things for the L.A. band.

Five years ago I had an opportunity to speak with Joey for the first time as anything other than a fan and he couldn’t have been nicer or more down to earth. He even gave me his cell phone number and said I could call whenever I wanted to chat.
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Interview: John Waite

On Sunday night, John Waite will be opening for Huey Lewis & The News (trivia fact: my first concert was Huey Lewis & The News at Blossom Music Center during the Sports tour) at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, Ohio (1.5 hrs. west of Columbus).

Waite started his recording career as a member of The Babys (“Everytime I Think of You”, “Back on My Feet Again”) in 1977, enjoyed a hit-filled solo career in the ’80s (“Missing You”, “Change”), joined the supergroup Bad English (“When I See You Smile”, “Price of Love”) in the early ’90s, and did some work with Alison Krauss in the ’00s, including an incredibly intoxicating remake of “Missing You”.

For the past few years, he’s been touring and giving what fans really want … the hits. Waite is almost finished with a new album, as you’ll read, and is happy to still be performing in front of fans 30+ years after he first started out.

The singer recently answered some questions I sent via email.

You’ve been able to sustain a 30-year career based primarily on songs that you wrote 20+ years ago. And you tend to tour with your peers from the ’80s. Would you rather be considered a contemporary artist or are you happy with the ’80s tag as long as people still remember you and the songs you’ve written?

The Babys’ last year together was 1980 and we had quite a bit of success. Those songs were already considered part of the 70’s. Then came “Change” and “Missing You” in the 80’s and “When I See You Smile” in the early 90’s, etc. I don’t think I’ve ever been part of any one decade. I’ve never considered myself mainstream although I’ve had some pretty big hits. The longer you stick around, the more likely you are to pigeonhole. Personally, I think the last couple of albums are my best, but what do I know?

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Interview: Tom Keifer of Cinderella

Cinderella plays tonight at the LC. Originally they were going to be opening for the Scorpions but word came down yesterday that the Scorpions had to pull out of the date to give singer Klaus Meine a few days to recover for a cold that he’s been battling. Because of this, the show tonight (doors at 6) is FREE – no ticket required.

I had the chance to talk to Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer a few weeks ago for a feature that is running in this month’s MELT Magazine. Here’s that feature:

Tom Keifer’s voice first started showing warning signs of trouble in 1991 and by year’s end the Cinderella singer had been diagnosed with paresis of the vocal chords. Keifer underwent a number of surgeries and returned for 1994’s Still Climbing but by that point, grunge reigned supreme and hair metal bands of the ’80s were quickly cast aside. Cinderella soldiered on, hitting the road every couple of years.

In 2006, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Night Songs, Cinderella hit the road with the band that gave them their first break, Poison. Keifer admits that it was during this tour that his voice started having problems again: “I lost pretty much every part of my register.” A 2008 tour with Warrant and Lynch Mob was scraped before the first date because Keifer knew his voice wouldn’t hold up.
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