There's never a dull moment at the SoundDiego offices: Here are 17 of our favorite moments from interviews we've published throughout 2017.
- The Afghan Whigs, Belly Up on Oct. 12: “I listen to a lot of different kinds of music and I smash it all together.” -- Greg Dulli.
- The Black Lips, Belly Up on June 21: "Have you ever tried DMT?” -- Cole Alexander.
- Molly Burch, Casbah on April 28: “I don’t think I’ve had a bad experience. I think that any experience is good even if it seems bad. It’s a learning experience.”
- City and Colour, Humphreys Concerts By the Bay on Sept. 20: "It was a whole big thing for eight seconds ... of dark." -- Dallas Green on the 2017 solar eclipse.
- Frankie Cosmos, the Irenic on Sept. 2: “It’s hard to explain why it’s different [poetry vs. music], but I think that it’s pretty different. I don’t think any kid is just reading my lyric booklet apart from my music, and I would hope that they don’t. I think the music is such an integral part of what makes it work and how it was crafted."
- Dawes, Belly Up on Jan. 10: "I think a lot of us try to get to a place, and I'm a victim of this as much as anyone else, where we get to a place in our lives where we don't have to suffer -- that we can build something around us where we're never lonely and we're never depressed, and the reality is, that's not gonna happen. And the only way to deprive that fear of its power is by embracing it and knowing that it's going to come in strides. And you're going to have to sit with it and deal with it sometimes, but other times, you are going to feel like everything is OK." -- Taylor Goldsmith.
- Grieves, Casbah on Sept. 3: "People use other people's honesty and other people's expression to find some truth in themselves, and it helps them move past things that maybe they weren't strong enough to do. I get it, I'm the same way with music and film and stuff like that. But, I also want people to understand that's it's also okay to deal with those problems, move on and have a good life."
- Jade Bird, Soda Bar on Nov. 4: "I’ve been real inspired by the American attitude. It coincides with my own: always looking on the bright side. Everyone I’ve met is optimistic about stuff. It's that very unapologetic attitude as well."
- Japandroids, Music Box on March 11: "It's not like we made 'OK Computer' or something, you know what I mean? Because we've had this very similar sound for so long, people are like 'Holy s---, there's an acoustic guitar!' It's not that crazy." -- David Prowse
- The Melvins, the Casbah on July 5: "Get a wad of toilet paper, grab it, throw it in the toilet and flush it. F---ing kill that little bastard." -- Buzz Osborne on spiders.
- Mew, the Observatory North Park on Aug. 24: “The whole sort of notion of art being free is absolutely ludicrous, to be honest. I don’t see it benefitting art in any way that it’s all of the sudden free. To me, that’s just dead wrong.” -- Johan Wohlert.
- Gary Numan, the Observatory North Park on Nov. 15: "Everything I wanted to do when I was 17 or 18, I still want to do. I want to explore new sounds -- that desire has never gone away."
- Odonis Odonis, Soda Bar on Nov. 29: “That’s the goal of the band: I want people to stop creating a product. Go back to your roots of why you fell in love with music -- not some cool, trendy bulls--- thing that’s happening.”-- Dean Whale.
- Of Montreal, Music Box on April 10, "When I feel good for too long, I actually get suspicious, like, 'What’s going on?' Then I try to blow something up in my life and just create a disruption, just to shake things up." -- Kevin Barnes.
- Frankie Rose, Soda Bar on Sept. 23: “Every record I make is sort of a time capsule of what’s going on when I’m making it. It’s a weird snapshot or view of what’s happening."
- Third Eye Blind, Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre on July 21: "It's an amazing thing that 20 years after you put out a record, 10,000 people wanna show up and see it. If you're blasé about that, we should not hang out." -- Stephen Jenkins
- Torres, Casbah on Oct. 17: "We, as people, have this incredible ability -- we have the capacity, for extreme foresight and imagination. Free will is the plus side of getting to be a person -- it's getting to choose your own adventure."
