Older But Bolder: Questions and Answers, pt.4

Older But Bolder: Questions and Answers, pt.4

February 10, 2012 · by jzoerner · in ,

Q. Was there ever a good nu metal band in your eyes? Deftones are the only pass I really give out.

A. I don’t think so. Admittedly, I can get down on some of the Deftones stuff a la White Pony & their newest album. Actually, I remember thinking their newest album (vocally) sounded a lot like Glassjaw (or does Glassjaw sound a lot like Deftones?).

Q. How did you get involved in music?

A. It depends what you mean by involved. I don’t really do much besides write about it and criticize it/like it anymore. I directly got involved in booking shows when I was 16 and had a long period of time where that’s what my main musical focus was. Talking to booking agents. Talking to promoters. Dealing with money for bands. Paying bands. That stuff tends to suck. I was in a few bands in high school, none of which were ever really worth talking about beyond novelty reasons. But yeah, I’m hardly “involved” now. I go to some shows when I don’t work or have things to do. I work on this blog and I listen to my iPod a lot. That’s usually as “involved” as I get.

Q. what was the first album you bought?

A. Uh. I think either AFI’s The Art of Drowning or Blink-182′s Enema of the State.

Q. Thoughts on Sublime with Rome as the Little 5 concert? Are you as mad as me?

A. It’s bullshit. That satisfies the first and last question.

Q. How do you feel about 90s Screamo?

A. I wish this were more specific. Uh, I don’t listen to much 90s-era screamo beyond Saetia. I don’t like Orchid even though they have a substantial fan base. City of Caterpillars isn’t interesting to me. A lot of screamo that came from the 90s sounds like noise to me.

Q. Which music genre do you believe dominates our population right now? And why? Which music genre do you see taking over in the near future?

A. The same one that always dominates our population: pop music. It dominates because it is the easiest to market and maintain in terms of profit margin and image. Pop stars are a dime a dozen, to quote the British comedy show Peep Show: “It’s not about who you know, it’s about who you blow.”

If you were hoping that I’d mention dubstep… dubstep is a trend that’ll burn out in America because we’re not creative enough to help perpetuate it with anything original.

To be fair, I don’t see any genre taking over in popularity in the future. Things go in and out of vogue all of the time. Eight months ago you saw kids all over Defeater for their album Endless Days and Sleepless Nights. Now there are Defeater fans, but that album is hardly talked about. Weird bands like Title Fight come out of nowhere and maintain some pretty high levels of popularity for no apparent reason. It’s a bizarre music climate where the fans and the internet define how popular a band will get, not magazines or Pitchfork reviews. So if you want to know what’ll be popular, ask your friends some of the stuff they’re listening to and chances are what sounds the catchiest will be popular five months from then.

Q. Do you think becoming a well known band is more difficult today then it was 20 years ago?

A. No. For the reasons I stated above. Bands can become popular in no time at all due to the internet and fan support. Again, my example being Title Fight, but I’ll toss in Balance and Composure for good measure. Both of those bands came out of virtually no where and are banging out European and U.S. tours left and right. It’s really amazing that a band can generate a fan base large enough to tour so extensively in a little less than two years.

It’s almost as if internet hype can do more for a band rather than actual talent. So really, anything can become popular at any time.

 

By: Josh Zoerner

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