“The secret to rock ‘n’ roll is being real man, that’s all there is to it. There’s no fake in rock ‘n’ roll. People see right through that shit. What people want from their rock ‘n’ roll is legitimacy. Honesty – by definition, that’s what rock ‘n’ roll is to me.”
Sleigh Bells Derek Miller on the secret to rock ‘n’ roll:
“It doesn’t exist, ha ha ha.”
“I don’t think there is any one secret. It’s pretty wide-open. There’s probably a lot of secrets. It’s a mystery. That’s what keeps it interesting.”
graphic via.
Amanda Brown from Pocahaunted - best band name ever? (it came to her in a dream) - on, you guessed it, being a girl in a band:
“Well, I think girls are always going to get a little more attention when you’re performing in a genre that men dominate. And there are more men in the audience so yeah, a desire is there to see women, but I think it’s more just to see something different, to see a different kind of voice coming out. You get a little more attention though. You get a ‘take off your shirt’ every once in a while. But myself, I’m pretty happy to be a woman, especially one making music. I accept whatever comes with that. If I’m looked at differently or more often, I understand that and I’m OK with that. Being a woman is pretty powerful. But I’m not overwhelmed by it and I don’t think Diva is either. We feel very sexy and powerful with that.”
Amanda Brown from Pocahaunted on being punked in a clip (very quickly NSFW) from some Penn and Teller expose on the organic food scene that won’t leave YouTube:
“Ah, I have been trying to get that of for forever. It’s so stupid. Our friend put it up and was like, ‘this is so funny.’ He thought that I thought it was funny. But it’s pretty dumb.”
Cage The Elephant frontman Matt Damon Schultz on the sobering process behind the band’s sophomore album:
“Our musical tastes have changed, I think, individually and collectively as well. I think with the first album… we just wanted to make something that was a ‘this is what a rock album is supposed to sound like’ kind of thing… but with this new record, I’m so pumped about it, dude… I’ve never been a part of anything as gratifying as this, musically speaking. What’s it called… a life-changing experience! We had a little more time to experiment and try different things. I think it’ very different than the first record. There’s a lot more of us than in the first record. Not to say that we weren’t in the first record because that’s kind of impossible. But I’m happy with these lyrics. A lot more thought was put into them, and emotions. Because there were a lot of things… emotionally blocking me when I wrote the first record. I was really sad and on certain substances. And this is the first record off those substances, so you kind of have to tell that inner critic inside you to shut up. I was having a lot of like, breakdowns and stuff like that because I never had to deal with things like that. I was staying in a hotel in Nashville, staying in a room that had no art on the walls, and nothing inspiring and trying to write through being over-critical of yourself. Before, I’d just numb that voice and kind of write down everything that came to mind, stream of consciousness. This time around I’d write something down and rewrite it… and you have to get through that, but I think on the other side of that was just better material.”
Tim Nordwind on his first time: “I probably first heard of the internet around 1993, when my family got a home computer for the first time and we had the dial up internet access. So that meant when we were online, no one could actually call our house. At that point I primary used it to research papers I had to write in high school. I don’t think I even had an e-mail account until much later than that.”
Tim Nordwind has a hard time naming his favorite competition: “I don’t really have favorites. A lot of my favorites would be pretty obvious, I guess. But there’s a guy named Eric Wareheim. He’s directed one or two videos for this band called Major Lazer and they’re just incredibly inspired. Both of those videos are just amazing. One that’s been a favorite is a video for a song called ‘Birds’ by this French house band called Vitalic. It’s just a bunch of dogs jumping in slow-motion and it’s gorgeous. It’s one of the most hypnotic things I’ve seen in the last five years.”
It was rigged, obviously, but does anyone else believe without a shadow of a dreadlocked doubt that Crystal Bowersox would have still somehow been our new American Idol had she only chosen to sing this song?
I guess I can forgive the Phoenix NewTimes music editor Martin Cizmar for not once replying to an e-mailed story pitch as he has apparently been busy writing… weight for it… a hipster diet-book.
Publisher’s Marketplace describes it as “an appropriately snarky weight-loss and lifestyle guide for hipsters looking to shed pounds and stay cool.”
Midlake’s Tim Smith, who still doesn’t have an e-mail address:
“What’s the secret to rock ‘n’ roll? I don’t’ know… we’re more like Fleetwood Mac. I think the secret to rock ‘n’ roll is just to not care. Just have a good time. I think that might be the secret to rock ‘n’ roll.”
“The secret to rock ‘n’ roll is that you got to have a really good, running van. As long as you have that and you’re willing to drive and go play gigs in new places, then you’re going to make it, as long as you’re still working on your music and getting your songs and band better and better. You can be the best damn band in the world, but if you’re not man enough to get out there in a van to Wichita, Kansas and play the shittiest gig of you’re life, you’re never going to make it.”
