I sat down with Josh Gilbert of Household to talk about the inspiration behind the band’s latest release, Everything a River Should Be, and why it was worth the wait.
Interview: Buddy Nielsen of Senses Fail (Video Interview)
I recently had the chance to sit down with Buddy Nielsen of Senses Fail and talk about how he never gave up on the band, breaking records with If There Is Light It Will Find You, and playing by his own rules.
Interview: Lights (Video Interview)
I was lucky enough to recently sit down and catch up with Lights.
Interview: Dylan Slocum of Spanish Love Songs
Spanish Love Songs will release their new album Schmaltz on March 30th. It’s one of the freshest and most honest punk rock records in recent memory. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with vocalist Dylan Slocum and he told me about the delicate art of opening a record and embracing dad punk.
Interview: Broadside (Video Interview)
I recently had the chance to sit down with Broadside to talk about their recent album and their summer touring plans.
Interview: AWOLNATION (Video Interview)
I recently had the chance to talk with AWOLNATION. You can check out the video interview below.
Interview: Picturesque (Video Interview)
I recently had the chance to sit down with Picturesque and talk about what they’ve been up to lately.
Interview: Silverstein (Video Interview)
I recently had the chance to talk with Silverstein about everything they’re currently up to and their plans for the future.
Interview: Shannon Taylor of Awakebutstillinbed
In January, Awakebutstillinbed released their debut album, What People Call Low Self-Esteem Is Really Just Seeing Yourself the Way That Other People See You – an early contender for album of the year – and signed to Tiny Engines Records. I was lucky enough to speak to vocalist Shannon Taylor about the record, the history of the band, and what makes an emo band.
Interview: Mason Maggio of The Republic of Wolves
I had the pleasure of sitting down with The Republic of Wolves’ vocalist Mason Maggio to talk about about the writing process for their long-awaited new album Shrine, which is due out March 27th, and what fans should expect from the record.
Interview: Kyle Durfey of Pianos Become the Teeth
Next week, Pianos Become the Teeth will release their fourth full-length, Wait for Love. It takes the band even further down the path their 2014 effort, Keep You, blazed and expands upon it, taking the band’s sound in totally new directions. I recently spoke with vocalist Kyle Durfey about the process of writing the album and following up such a radical change in sound.
Interview: Corey Coffman of Gleemer
Gleemer’s fourth full-length album, Anymore, comes out next month. It’s a big jump for the band, as it’s their first release on Other People Records – or, for that matter, any label. Last week I spoke with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Corey Coffman about the jump to the label, the concept of Anymore, and the weird process of choosing its album cover.
Interview: Wu-Tang Clan (Video Interview)
The Wu-Tang Clan have been together since 1992 and are about to release their new album, Wu-Tang: The Saga Continues, on October 13th. At Riot Fest, Wu-Tang Clan performed to a massive crowd and I had the chance to sit down with DJ Mathematics, RZA, and Cappadonna to talk about the new album, the first track “People Say,” and much more.
Interview: Noah Gundersen’s Restless Heart
In 2014, Noah Gundersen released his first full-length album. The record in question, Ledges, was a masterclass in contemporary folk music, loaded with confessional lyrics, acoustic guitars, and fiddles. By all accounts, Gundersen seemed like a traditionalist.
In 2015, Gundersen quickly followed Ledges up with his sophomore LP, the spiritually fraught Carry the Ghost. It was still a folk album, but Noah was fleshing things out, adding fractious electric guitar and other elements of full band instrumentation into the mix. It was clearly the work of a young songwriter who was yearning to grow.
Between the fall of 2015 and the early winter of 2016, Gundersen did two tours in support of Carry the Ghost. The first was a full-band endeavor, presenting the songs on Ghost as they were meant to be heard. The second was a solo tour, where Gundersen played songs from both Ledges and Carry the Ghost on acoustic guitar, solo electric guitar, and piano. It was a stark, intimate presentation, and it showed off what made Gundersen so special: his vulnerable, fragile voice; his songs that could work well no matter how much he built them up or stripped them down; and his honest, forthright lyrics.
But something was wrong. Gundersen was having a crisis of faith—not the same crisis of religious faith he wrote about on Carry the Ghost, but a crisis of faith in his own art. When I saw Gundersen on the solo tour for Ghost, he was pointedly reserved. He bantered with the audience occasionally, but during the songs, his eyes were cast toward the floor or closed entirely. And at the end of the show, when a condescending moderator led a Q&A session and suggested that Gundersen was “so young” and “couldn’t have possibly experienced what he sang about in his songs,” Noah seemed at a loss for how to answer—at least politely. When the Q&A ended, Gundersen headed quickly for the stage door.
Interview: Brian Sella of The Front Bottoms
Brian Sella is a notoriously sweet guy. So sweet, in fact, that he doesn’t even correct me when I refer to his band’s new single as “Raindrops” rather than its correct title, “Raining.” When I ask him if he still gets nervous playing shows, he replies, “Oh, totally!” When I inform him that I’ve been doing interviews for three years now, but that I was still nervous to speak with him, he laughs.
“Oh, don’t worry about it! You’re a professional. That’s what you’ve gotta tell yourself.”
In the context of The Front Bottoms’ discography, Going Grey reflects Sella’s current “vibe,” a word he uses frequently in our conversation. As he’ll tell me, the band learned that an “anything goes” attitude in the studio can result in plenty of band and fan favorites. In this way, Going Grey is an expansion of the polished-yet-experimental sound of their 2015 powerhouse, Back on Top. It continues to analyze topics such as mortality, relationships and getting older – oftentimes within the same three-minute pop song.