Justin Brannan of Indecision / Most Precious Blood (February 22, 1997)

Interview with Justin Brannan of Indecision / Most Precious Blood conducted by phone between Brooklyn, NY and Boulder, CO by Greg Svitil on February 22, 1997.

Greg: I got Unorthodox, and am pretty much loving it.

Justin: Cool, awesome.

Greg: So if we can talk about that, in the bio it says that you've released several seven-inches on various labels. After doing a number of EPs, what were some of the challenges, and what were some of the pleasing aspects of doing the first full-length?

Justin: Pretty much what it is. It's not really a compilation of all the seven-inches --- it's all new recordings of everything with a bunch of new songs. But it's a lot of the songs that were also on the seven-inches we put out that were limited edition press runs. They didn't really get to that many people. So we kind of felt that, instead of --- 'cause we had material to write a whole other record, all new stuff, but we decided instead to just re-record all the other songs, and put this out this way, because more people will probably get this than the seven-inches. Do you know what I'm saying? So, there are a lot of new songs on it, but if you have any of the seven-inches, there's a couple songs that are the same, just because --- there's a song on that, "Worlds Apart," the last song. We've been doing that song for three years, and it may be old to us. But it's not old to a lot of people who never heard us before. So that's why we decided to put it on there, along with the other songs that are also old.

Milo Aukerman of The Descendents (Sept. 1996)

Interview with Milo Aukerman conducted by Greg Svitil in the bathroom at Nightingale's in Fort Collins, CO, Fall 1996.

Greg: Tell us all about the new Descendents records.

Milo: It's called Everything Sucks, and it's got 16 songs on it, and they're all really rockin' kind of; we just pulled together a lot of stuff from all the band members. I kind of called Bill up earlier on this year, around April, and said 'hey, I got these songs, and what do you think?,' and we just kind of agreed upon a plan of attack to do it, and I think it's just a great record, I like it, obviously. But, you know, it's got a cool cover of how much everything sucks basically, keeping with the title. I like it. This is basically the same line-up that was on the 1987 Descendents records. So I call it semi-original. It's a lot of the same people doing the same things, basically.

Greg Attonito of The Bouncing Souls (Fall 1996)

Interview with Greg Attonito of the Bouncing Souls conducted in the fall of 1996 in Denver at the Mammoth Event Center, prior to the band's set on an all-day bill that included The Descendents, Buck-O-Nine, and other bands I can't remember.

Greg S: How are things going for you at the moment?

Greg A: Okay. This is our second show of a tour, about a month and a half. We toured for 20 days, had a week off, and this is the start of another one. So we're good. We toured with The Descendents. This is one show with them, and we're gonna tour with them later. So we're psyched for that.

Kate Reddy of 108 / Project Kate (Fall 1996)

Interview with Kate Reddy conducted by Greg Svitil by phone in the fall of 1996.

Greg: What's it feel like to have a decade's worth of creativity finally on one tangible recording?

Kate: It's obviously really satisfying for me. It's something that I wanted to do for so long, and to have finally done it, it's almost a relief. It was something that I thought would maybe never happen. The record was recorded now almost a year ago, so I'm blessed, enamored by the greatness of it or whatever (laughs). But it is still a big relief for me and something that's really satisfying.

Michael Kotch of Eve’s Plum (May 10, 1996)

TT the Bear’s Place
Cambridge, MA
May 10, 1996

So how was tonight’s set for everyone?
I had a lot of fun. I think I lost about ten pounds; it was hot up there. I like this place a lot. I don’t know what it sounds like out there. I mean, it never sounds that great when I see bands down here, but I like the vibe of the place a lot.

So what’s going on with the second guitarist? I’ve seen about two different second guitarists the page two times?
We had first, Mike Gent, who plays with the Figgs. Then his band went on tour, so he couldn’t do it anymore. When we were out on the west coast, we had another friends, Johnny play with us. He lives out there. Our friend Julian has been playing with us for a while now. So, basically, we kind of rotate it, keep it interesting. The second guitarist is just to make it a little fuller sounding.

Karl Buechner of Earth Crisis / The Path of Resistance (July 20, 1996)

Capital Ballroom

Washington, DC
Following Earth Crisis / Snapcase / Refused / Damnnation, A.D. show

Greg: So, Earth Crisis is on tour now. How is that tour coming along?

Karl: We’re doing a three-week tour of the east coast, from Portland, Maine all the way down to Miami, Florida and back. We’re on the eighth day, I believe, and every show has been pretty much phenomenal. We’ve played places where we, in the past, didn’t have as good of a turnout, and things were awesome as far as kids going off and singing along and being into the music and appreciative of our band. So this is a great tour.

The Skavengers (April 18, 1996)

The SkavengersThe Middle East

Boston, MA
April 18, 1996 (following performance opening for The Skatelites)

Greg: Who are you, and what do you do in the band?
Jon: Jon, I’m the lead singer.
Lana: I’m Lana. Play sax and sing.
Zack: I’m Zack, keyboards.
Jon: Craig plays guitar, there’s Scott, he’s our drummer, Steven, who’s right now our bass player, Laura plays trombone also, Ed plays trumpet, Philip is on horns.
Zack: Horns?
Jon: I mean, tenor sax. I’m sorry.

Jacob Bannon of Converge (December 1996)

Converge consist of five people: Damon Bellorado, Kurt Ballou, Jacob Bannon, Aaron Dalbec, and Jeffrey Feinburg. They’ve existed as a band since about 1990. Their present catalogue includes the Halo in a Haystack full-length, two seven-inches (Unloved and Weeded Out and Petitioning the Empty Sky), and roughly three CD’s which consist of material from the aforementioned releases and then some. They are currently working on their next full-length, tentatively titled When Forever Comes Crashing, which is likely to be released some five or six months from now. There are few bands who convey as much emotion through their music as Converge. And there are few people who write like Jake Bannon. Reading his lyrics, I knew that there was much that he has to offer. His gift to articulate both thought and feeling is refreshing. This interview was a thoroughly enjoyable thing to do.

Greg: Petitioning the Empty Sky feels much more aggressive and a little darker than previous records, like Halo in a Haystack.

Jake: I think a lot of that has more or less to do with natural progression. As far as specific topics, they’re prominent in both records. There’s not really a dominant theme per se that would give it a darker feeling. I just think, probably we had a lot more to get off our chest per se in a negative fashion, things that weren’t exactly the happiest moments. And the greatest times of our lives certainly didn’t happen during that time when we were writing the record. So I think a lot of that came out in the writing in general.

Marisol Escobar (April 2, 2001)

Greg: How are you feeling?

Marisol: I’m alright. I went out and was back, and maybe it was too late, last night.

Greg: I tried at about 10pm but didn’t want to keep trying because I thought you had gone to bed and didn’t want to disrupt your sleep.

Marisol: Oh no, I stay up all night. I just went to the restaurant, (and returned) at 10:30 or so.

Greg: What restaurant?

Marisol: It’s a Japanese restaurant. I like Japanese food.

Greg: And you also have a Japanese dog.

Marisol: I like Japan in general.

Ray Cappo of Shelter / Youth of Today (May 2, 1996)

Greg: Mantra seems to take a bit of a different approach to spreading Krishna philosophy than other Shelter records, as in it seems to be speaking more to non-religious people as well as the more religiously-oriented. Was that a premeditated part of writing the record?

Ray: I didn’t have that same observation, but I usually don’t go into records like that. What I do is I have a notebook. And even when I’m not writing a record I usually keep a notebook, and then suppose I see something go down, or I get some realization, I say “that’d be a good idea for a song.” To think, “empathy,” that’s a great idea for a song, or “in defense of reality,” that’s a great idea for a song. Usually I come up with a title first, and then I’ll write tons of poetry, sometimes rhyming or non-rhyming, or whatever. Just write it all down on maybe three pages of paper, maybe some back to it a week later and say “yeah, what else should I write about that?” And then, if I find a guitar riff that sounds like it should fit into that, then I create it into a song. But it’s nothing like “how can I spread this message?” I’m not that smart (laughs). It’s sort of like my mind, over a year, poured out onto CD.