Category: Interviews (Page 4 of 11)

Interview: Rathborne

September 26, 2014 / aftertheshow

Read on for our interview with Luke Rathborne about his most recent album Soft, his upcoming cassette imprint, and being a minimalist.

Photo by Aaron Stern

After The Show: Can you describe the recording process you used to achieve the crisp yet slightly fuzzy guitar sound on “Wanna Be You”?

Well, I use a fender deluxe amplifier. I recently heard Johnny Marr talking about the amp. It breaks up in a beautiful way. Not too fuzzy, just a little bit of what you’re talking about. If it’s good enough for Johnny Marr.. A certified genius..

So you run your True Believer label, with distribution through French Kiss. As an indie label, how important or necessary is that distribution for you?

Right now the future of True Believer is changing. Were taking on a heavier load of records, and putting out artists we love in the next few years from all varieties of genres. I’m also starting a cassette imprint called, ‘ARE YOU PUNK!’ which is releasing different artists doing punk material whom you wouldn’t expect to be doing that kind of material. Basically it’s saying we are all, and we are all not, in fact punk. That’s cool to be doing new things, and the distribution will probably change.

A lot of people get stuck on a certain sound or way of doing things. How did you get the courage to move forward from your quieter solo songs to the louder, faster Rathborne sound?

Well I met this kid who played the drums in a way that gave me a heart attack. It was something I wanted to do, become out of control. I’m really glad things exploded, it was hard at first, for sure. But you should make a sound in this world, whatever is inside you, and put it out there. At that time it was just coming out loud.

“Pantomine Fear” was on After Dark, and you recorded it again in a real studio for the Dog Years EP. What do you like or dislike about each version of the song?

I don’t like the Dog Years EP version of ‘Pantomime Fear’. Think I got that right when I was 16. That being said, I like the horns arrangement I wrote for that. That was fun!

I like the things on After Dark because they inevitably teach me about myself before anyone believed in anything. I was just 16 and operating on what little self belief I could muster, and that’s special to think about in terms of courage.

How disappointed were you when Kenny’s Castaways closed?

It’s funny, I never went inside Kenny’s. I do remember a story from years ago. A friend had gotten in touch with the booker at Kenny’s Castaways and went through the routine booking questions. He promised to get, ‘over a 100 people through the door.’

Cut to the scene of them showing up to an empty bar on the night of the gig, the Kenny’s guy is refusing to let them in, ‘where are all the people!?’ Them: ‘I guess they didn’t show!’ And back and forth. The stand off ended with them looking inside the dead bar and saying, ‘so what? You’d rather just have nothing playing?’ Eventually they convinced the guy to let them play to a few people standing at the bar.

How’d you get into running the venue Live at the Pyramids in Williamsburg? What did you learn from that experience?

I learned never to do that again. What a nightmare! We got out of that business right before everyone went to jail.

In retrospect, which of the following was best for getting the most exposure and reaching a new, receptive audience?

a. Recording a Buzzsession for The Wild Honey Pie
b. Being Vogue’s artist of the week last year
c. Opening for The Strokes at SXSW 2011
d. Being a guest on Boy Crazy Radio

I think everything should add up to something fun you’re proud of. Press is always a great way to communicate, but nothing beats playing in front of living, breathing bodies. That is truly where there is magic.

Do you consider yourself a minimalist?
I have a certain resentment for possessions. When I was living at Live at the Pyramids, I became surrounded by things. I didn’t like that feeling. I think I respond best to removing those elements from my life.

When you’re with someone you love and they start using your phone or watching TV, it’s fine, but sometimes I feel like I’m losing time with them. Too many things crowding around can do that too.

Thanks Luke! Check out Rathborne on Facebook + Bandcamp

Music Data Interview: Eric Klein

September 17, 2014 / aftertheshow

I spoke to Eric Klein, Director of Analytics & Technology at C3 Presents, the company that puts on Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits (in addition to music festivals, they also do artist management, experiential marketing, concert promotions, and food and wine festivals).

After The Show: Can you give a breakdown of how you spend any given work week? For example, how much do you focus on trying to get ahead of the curve with predictive analysis vs. focusing on the present or recent past?

Eric: I head up our Marketing Analytics and Technology group which is a team of four full-time people and then we contract out for additional help now and then. On the analytics side of things, we divide our time between hindsight and insight – what happened and what does it mean. The various festival business units, such as sponsorships and marketing, have on-going “what happened” reporting needs as do our executives and partners. So a fair amount of time is spent gathering data, analyzing it, and then summarizing it into a digestible format depending on the audience (e.g., showing a sponsor what they got in return for their investment with us).

However, the more fun part is like you said – getting ahead of the curve – or for me, the “what does it mean.” We’re all avid live music fans here, and we all want to do everything we can to make sure fans get to both see their favorite artists and find new favorite artists – or even just find their new favorite festival experience. So lately we’ve been spending a lot of time developing strategy and pouring through analytics determining how to better guide people through our website based on time of year and what they’re most interested in. I come from a heavy background in predictive analytics from other industries, but I haven’t yet found a good fit for it here in the annual music event space. Whether or not someone will buy a ticket or what bands they like isn’t easy to predict.

What are 3 of the most important skills that a music data analyst needs to succeed?

There’s a big difference between “music” and “music festival.” So the first critical skill is knowing how to identify those differences when doing marketing analysis. For us, we have to recognize that we run annual events – which basically means selling one thing once per year. That is radically different from a company that is selling thousands of items every day all year. Another top skill would be the ability to get and manage the data. Larger organizations have separate data management roles, but for us, we have to be able to get the data before we can start analyzing it.

Another top skill is visualization and summarization…You have to know how to put the results in a digestible story – which is maybe a one line sentence, or a simple line graph – all the way to something much more sophisticated that easily shows the patterns that are most actionable… It also includes expert use of visualization tools – anything from Excel charts to Tableau interactive dashboards to doing very detailed analysis using R. The last I would say is knowing what is actionable. We try not to spend time on requests that are purely curiosity or aren’t actionable. Curiosity doesn’t sell tickets!

Besides Google Analytics, Analytics Canvas, and Tableau, what analytics tools do you like to use?

I think it’s useful if not critical to know R these days. My background includes 20+ years of SAS, but it is very expensive and tends to just be used by the Fortune 500. Since R is open source and free, many more companies of all sizes are using it and requiring it. It has a pretty large learning curve (just like the rest), but there are lots of good books on it and even online courses at places like Udemy. The thing that helps you learn them the fastest is having a good question that needs answering and the available data to answer it – and a deadline – haha. I would also never leave out Excel. It may not have the power that other tools have, but being able to quickly crunch some numbers and make a meaningful chart can be pretty critical to day-to-day work.

Given that quantitative data, algorithms, and web crawlers are important aspects of data analysis, what opportunities are there for analysts who are more interested in the qualitative, human element of music analytics?

I love that question! I don’t have a good answer, but I could go on for days about the human element – and some of it even still has to do with math! I believe a lot of the pleasure in music has to do with tension and relief…All good stories have an antagonist or some type of tension. Even the sun and the moon’s rotation model tension and relief. In music, we see this both in the lyrics and even in the music. In the lyrics, the verses tend to drive the tension but then the song comes back home to the chorus which is our comfort zone or relief. And in the actual music, even the chord progressions follow a similar model where they begin and end with the “root” chord that is our home base but take us off into all sorts of places in between causing the tension…

I love thinking about how music is just a lot of waveforms of varying frequencies and amplitudes against our ear drums – and at live events even the pressure waveforms of the subs beating against our chests. And in our minds we were given this amazing ability to enjoy it all and to connect it all to specific memories of where we were or who we were with forever…I’ve always been fascinated at how companies like Pandora or Echo Nest map out all of the details of a song to try and come up with recommendation engines, but I’ve often wondered if they also could map out the human elements of the types of tension and types of relief…But having said all of that, I also think much of whether or not people like a song has to do with whether or not their friends like it and told them about it. I think the true music influencers are a much smaller group of people than we’d like to admit.

What’s your view on individual privacy concerns when it comes to demographic and behavioral data? How can data analysts ethically respect consumers’ privacy while also doing their job of collecting and analyzing information?

In a time where privacy seems to be getting harder and harder to find online, I still think it’s critical. Facebook has been recently forcing its developer partners to define exactly how demographic data will be used before approving apps – so for example, if you want to ask for someone’s birthday if they connect through Facebook, you’ll have to convince Facebook that the user’s experience will benefit from knowing that information – as opposed to just sucking all of the data they can from you to use however they want. I think its a good move and hope other platforms follow. I have no need to know anything about an individual because that doesn’t scale. If I knew individuals who have young kids, it would be too hard to reach each one and tell them about a family aspect of one of our events.

On the other hand, knowing something about an entire group of people can be valuable. So for example, if I have a page on a website just about family aspects of a festival (e.g., that kids under 10 get in free), then it might be worthwhile to send everyone on our email list who viewed that page something more specific about other family oriented features of the event as opposed to sending it to everyone on the list. It is always a balance of deciding what will creep someone out giving them the impression someone is watching them vs. offering them a valuable service.

Another way I look at it is that demographic information is currency. If you are going to be willing to give me some of it, I had better be able to prove to you that I can keep it secure while offering you something more valuable in return.

It seems that the biggest application of your analysis is in marketing and social engagement. Have you explored curatorial applications…for example, how information gathered from streaming services or from artists’ social media profiles influences festival line-ups or helps consumers discover new music?

We consider things like that now and then, but we just haven’t seen anything that moves the needle for us. In terms of line-ups, our talent buyers are award winning and some of the best in the world at staying tuned to who people will want to see or even who will be the next big things. For me personally, and I assume for many fans, our festival talent buyers are today’s music taste makers much like radio DJs used to be decades ago. I love the headliners and look forward to their performances, but the real value to me as a music fan is seeing as many of the mid-tier bands as I can (shh, don’t tell anyone that I have time during the festival to stop working and go see bands!) because I just know our talent buyers have done their homework and always nail it.

As for helping people to discover new music, I’m always eagerly looking for and open to any ideas. We can never get too good at this. We’ve looked into various techniques and services. We currently try to give recommendations based on various “you might also like” algorithms, but I sort of think it goes back to that human element you asked about earlier. If you or your readers have any ideas on how we can do this better, I’m all ears!

Thanks for sharing, Eric! To learn more about Eric Klein check out his LinkedIn.

Interview: Leslie Stevens

August 25, 2014 / aftertheshow

Leslie Stevens of Leslie and the Badgers, now billed just as Leslie Stevens, is back playing shows with a new band and new songs.

I’m glad I caught her set recently at Echo Park Rising — it was fun to hear new songs live, like “Depression Descent” and “Sylvie,” and see the new band (which features Tripp Beam on drums — check out our interview with him from March 2013).

I spoke to Leslie about songwriting, her country/Americana sound, and the upcoming record produced by Jonathan Wilson:

After The Show: Do you have any plans to release the “Teen Bride” music video you filmed?

Leslie Stevens: Yes…I’m going to put that out when we put out the record that I recorded with producer Jonathan Wilson. As far as when that will be, it is not clear. But I’d love to optimistically say it’ll be as soon as 6 months and at the longest a year, but we’re still finalizing the business side.

Not even finalizing [laughs], but talking to several people about assistance with putting it out in an official way on a label. I just started performing again and I think that any solid label wants you to be performing live if they’re taking the risk of putting out a record…But I’m so happy to be doing shows again.

Your “It’s Okay To Trip” cover and “Little Bit By Little Bit” have glimpses of humor, but I think that kind of subversive humor is fully realized in “Everybody Drinks and Drives in Heaven” – what were you aiming to do with that song?

I think you hit on something when you say subversive elements because there’s definitely a black humor to all of those songs [laughs]. So thanks for recognizing and acknowledging that because a lot of people are just offended in general by black humor – for whatever reason they just don’t get it.

I think a movie [Heaven Is For Real] just came out based on a book about a boy’s near death experience…so the song is in part inspired by near death experience. It’s funny when you write something, the intention is very clear what you meant – I wrote it a couple years ago, and sometimes the further away [you get] from that, the intention gets further away from the artifact, the piece of art. That song is the idea of there being an afterlife and everyone just being able to do whatever the hell they want in the afterlife.

I like the references to living in Italy in “Americans in Rome” and skiing the Matterhorn in “As Beautiful As You” – what was your experience in Italy like?

I did live in Italy for a time – I worked for The Claremont Colleges for one of the study abroad programs there, and I had the opportunity to sing some opera as well. I don’t really do that so much anymore, but I appreciate the art form of opera. There aren’t many things that make you feel distinctly American as living in another country…I loved how it made me feel so American.

I really think of my music as very American music. That’s something that’s important to me – that what I’m doing comes from that folk tradition that is part from Appalachia and Oklahoma and the west coast and Laurel Canyon. At least that’s the intention of mine…I think that music can combine so many influences in a way that a lot of other art can’t.

I read that you like East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath – would you ever write a song from the perspective of one of the characters or would that be too weird?

Woody Guthrie did some of that…with “Tom Joad.” I really like John Steinbeck – I didn’t study those in school but I studied those on my own. I just think John Steinbeck is incredible and I would definitely consider writing from a character perspective, but I haven’t really experimented much with that…or attempting to take someone else’s character and put my spin on it. I think I write best when it’s something that is close to me. I feel close to those characters, but it’s a completely different experience to the closeness you feel with your friends or your family.

Given that some of your songs are story songs like “Old Timers” and “Depression Descent,” how much fictionalizing do you do in your songs?

What matters to me is that there’s truth…so that there’s a type of truth. In the story songs, there’s always a type of truth and both of those songs were written from an autobiographical perspective, embellished in some ways…but they were both written from experience.

So back at Sxsw 2011 you recorded “You Don’t Have To Be So Tough” for the Japan tsunami charity record that Hanson put together – how did you get involved with that?

I got a call from Hanson and I believe Rain Phoenix told Hanson about me — do you know Rain? I think it was her…I was really glad to be a part of that. There’s a recording of that song on the Jonathan Wilson record.

Will the song “I’m Taken” be on your upcoming record?

That song will be on an upcoming record but it’s not going to be soon, not for a little while. I think I’ve only performed it one time ever!

Thanks for sharing Leslie! Check out Leslie Steven’s website + Bootleg tix for September 3rd + Way Over Yonder festival info

Interview: Des Ark

July 18, 2014 / aftertheshow

I spoke to Aimée Argote of Des Ark yesterday about her new record Everything Dies, knowing when a song is done, and touring as a vegan.

People in Los Angeles, catch Des Ark play next week (7/24) at Origami Vinyl in Echo Park.

After The Show: Your lyrics seem carefully constructed, like the alliteration in “My Saddle Is Waitin.” How much of a drawn out/thoughtful process is songwriting for you vs. just capturing the words as they freely flow out?

Des Ark: I didn’t actually know there was any alliteration in that song – I never really thought about it, so not very much [laughs]. The songs I try to write, I always end up throwing them away…unlike the ones where I wake up in the middle of the night, or I’m at a dinner party & I tell people “I got a call, my cat’s sick” but really I run home and write it and it’s done. Maybe it takes me a couple of weeks to write it but I don’t remember. Songs that like that one I just remember being there and waiting to come.

You’ve lived and recorded music in a bunch of places like Durham, Philadelphia, and Austin…Do you mentally differentiate your songs based on geography?

Yeah definitely. I grew up in Durham — it’s where the band started/the first 5 years of the band, so the first record we put out reminds me of Durham so much…I always loved Philadelphia so I moved there and stopped writing music because I didn’t understand city life. I enjoyed living there but realized that the things I write about in my music have to do about kind of how I was raised, which was in the woods, or in a really small town, and about the dynamic that exists between communities when those communities are really small.

And something I experienced a lot in Philadelphia is when someone messes up they just disappear and find a different community to be a part of. In the south that’s impossible because people really keep up with each other. After two years of being gone it was interesting to come back home. The environment inspired me to express things that I saw and understood. I did understand Philly in a lifestyle kind of way, but I didn’t identify with it personally.

With the new record Everything Dies, you created a quieter sound to be more conducive to touring outside the constraints of a full band. But doesn’t approaching the creative process with future logistics in mind hold you back or change the actual music you’re creating?

As an accidental habit the quiet songs that I record in the studio are, across the board, impossible to pull off live. I actually don’t think about that at all…I think what I meant is the challenge of figuring out how to do that is really fun. The songs all start as tiny little acoustic things on a guitar, then I go to the studio and build on that with 20 vocal layers or 18 guitars and that’s what’s interesting…to go on tour and say ‘how are we going to pull this off’?

Then it’s really fun again because that’s your challenge, that’s your project. With this band what I’ve realized over the years is I’ll always be on the tour…Recording is a very different thing than touring – on a stage it’s a physical thing. I need to feel like my body is really engaged rather than my intellect.

You’ve got a booking agent but you’re DIY and do pretty much everything else. How do you balance the artistic act of creating with the process of promoting the product of that creation?

I don’t – [laughs] I don’t promote it! It was funny when we got the booking agent, he said “you’d be really surprised -for as long as you’ve been [touring] how not many people know who you are.” The one thing I’ve always done is be on tour. I sort of refuse to do anything aside from that…like I don’t need to actively use my gender to get a magazine cover. I’m just not interested in doing that for myself…and it hasn’t really made sense to do that with the band. I’m not that person – it’s not in my nature to do that.

I hate playing local shows, I just don’t want to know anybody. I always want it to feel like it’s an accident when anyone shows up because when I think about that stuff I get really nervous and start picking the songs apart, and if I know that anyone else is paying attention I stop doing it.

You said that while recording you struggle with second guessing things – how do you finally figure out when a song is done or when to change some lyrics or add a guitar part?

I drive people nuts with that so I think that’s why I ended up playing so many of the instruments myself…The songs just let you know when they’re done. Until they’re done you’re miserable and it’s awful and you feel like a terrible person and then something clicks and it’s a relief that it’s all over, it’s all done.

Is there a connection for you between being a musician and living a vegan, simple, minimalist, health-oriented life?

Huh…yeah I think to some degree. I’m mostly raw vegan – the connection is that I want to play music forever and want to figure out how to be on tour without it killing me. I think it’s totally possible and I’m on the verge of figuring it out. We go to co-ops every single day on tour in Des Ark. We wake up, we go to the co-op, that’s just how we operate.

For the new record are you staying consistent with not playing any guitars in standard tuning?

Let me think….yes!

Thanks for sharing Aimée! Catch Des Ark on tour in July, August, and September (dates below):

7/23 PHOENIX AZ @ YUCCA TAPROOM

7/24 LOS ANGELES CA @ ORIGAMI VINYL *6PM*

7/27 SANTA ROSA CA @ THE FRONTIER ROOM

7/28 SANTA BARBARA CA @ BIKO INFOSHOP

7/29 SAN DIEGO CA @ SODA BAR

7/31 TUCSON AZ @ HOTEL CONGRESS *7 PM*

8/01 ALBUQUERQUE NM @ THE TANNEX

8/02 AMARILLO TX @ THE 806

8/03 AUSTIN TX @ UNICORNICOPIA

9/19 CHAPEL HILL NC @ LOCAL 506

9/20 ATLANTA GA @ MAMMAL GALLERY

9/21 JACKSONVILLE FL @ 1904 MUSIC HALL

9/22 TALLAHASSEE FL @ CLUB DOWNUNDER

9/23 ORLANDO FL @ BACKBOOTH

9/24 TAMPA FL @ EPIC PROBLEM

9/25 SAVANNAH GA @ GRAVEFACE RECORDS

9/26 COLUMBIA SC @ TBA

9/27 ASHEVILLE NC @ ODDITORIUM

Interview: BEACH

July 14, 2014 / aftertheshow

Karen Mould (aka Bitch, Capital B) is a violinist, singer, actor, filmmaker, poet, and runs Short Story Records. She answers questions about her project BEACH, gives insight into older songs like “Traffic,” and discusses the intersections between creativity/artistic truth and technology.

After The Show: Overall BEACH is more extroverted and participatory than your older work, but “Maybe State” and “O, Packaging” sound more similar to your older songs…were they earlier songs?

Capital B: Good ear! “Maybe State” was the first song I wrote out of this collection of songs. “O, Packaging” was probably about 4th or 5th.

Dancey music with beats is more inclusive/participatory because it’s currently more popular than introspective, poetic folk songs. When you began BEACH, did you consider musical trends like EDM at all?

No–just broadening my own style and making the show bigger.

Little touches like the spoken words “human beings, human beings” and sound of bowling pins collapsing in the beginning of “Kitchen” seem so random but work quite well in the song. How do you figure out when a song is done or when you need to add more sonic details?

That is the biggest challenge of self-producing (which I did with that album, Blasted!) You are constantly trying to hear with fresh ears and let the song speak to you.

In “Zen Lane” you say “you can’t call me, you’ll just have to come, because I won’t have a phone.” I know you’ve recorded in a cabin without Internet and seem to like having some space away from technology. Technology can help fuel creativity and share art, but it can also hinder creation…how do you manage the balance between technology and creativity?

Great question and a great challenge. The temptation to constantly ‘check in’ can really hinder my own writing. The nature of songwriting or any kind of writing is to be able to tune in to your own thoughts, so sometimes taking away everyone else’s is the key to artistic sanity!

“Traffic” is one of my favorite songs ever – I like how you focus on the words, and each phrase seems carefully thought out. Is there anything about that song’s inspiration or writing process you’d like to share?

I know I wrote the lyrics of it before I put it to a melody and bass line. When I wrote the bass line I was in my hot pink and hot orange living room in Brooklyn and I was sitting on my long white couch. Joni Mitchell was playing in another room, on the other side of two closed doors. This is a dreamy way to hear music because you hear something that’s not actually there. The melody and bass line were born!

I always wondered what your birth name was – would you ever use the name Karen Mould to release a project? What about using Capital B?

I probably would use my birth name, now that I’m over the initial shock of it all. Capital B has always been one of my favorite nick-names and will probably be left as that.

I notice there’s often a connection between musicians and pure foods/a health and wellness lifestyle…why do you think that is?

Any artist is trying to get to the truth of something. Most of my musician friends are on either extreme— super healthy or super self destructive–and most have gone through BOTH, depending on where they are in their lives! The body is the holding place for this human truth we are all trying to see. I guess it’s our basic relationship to that that fuels everything. Some ride it like a kicking bull and some ride it like a wave.

Thanks for sharing Capital B! Catch the project BEACH opening for Jay Brannan next week:

July 21st at The Basement in Columbus, OH

July 22nd at Schubas Tavern in Chicago, IL

July 23rd at Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis, MN

Interview: Stephen Dima

June 12, 2014 / aftertheshow

We asked Stephen Dima, Talent Buyer and Head of Production for 4Knots, about his work preparing for NYC’s upcoming 4Knots Music Festival, happening on July 12, 2014 at the South Street Seaport.

The lineup includes bands such as Dinosaur Jr, Those Darlins, Speedy Ortiz, and Dead Stars.

After The Show: I love that 4Knots showcases emerging/indie bands and helps them increase their fan base. How involved are you in marketing the event and bringing in audiences?

Stephen Dima: I’m not in charge of marketing specifically, but I love bands and set out to program 4Knots in a way that would appeal to The Village Voice’s audience. If there is a great band on the lineup, the marketing is inherently there, and The Village Voice is amazing with marketing the festival, the bands and the programming.

Why choose Webster Hall as opposed to a venue like Bowery Ballroom as the host of the Official After-Party?

Everyone involved loves both venues, The Village Voice wanted to go bigger this year in terms of capacity.

Can you describe a typical day or week in your job? How much of your time running Dima Productions is spent on music-centric events, as opposed to producing events like the New York Comedy Festival or Children’s Day?

Every production/event requires something slightly different and unique, so there is not really a typical day at Dima Productions (unless you count drinking lots of coffee and listening to great music to stay sane). The majority of the events are music centric, though, so I guess that’s where we spend most of our time.

I came to 4Knots in July 2012 to see Hospitality play, and their set was interrupted when a big fire erupted on the pier behind them! As the promoter and producer, how do you deal with emergencies? What kinds of contingency plans do you have in place?

First and foremost work with a really good security service, one that you trust and have great communication with. Also having a good relationship with the NYPD and FDNY works. They were amazing that day honestly. We basically evacuated 10,000 people from a mall and then continued on with the festival. You don’t see that a lot.

It’s interesting how you said that you can take a lot more chances if you’re putting on free shows. Why did you initially choose to make 4Knots free, and given the large audiences that show up, why keep it free?

With my history of free summer shows in NY and The Village Voice’s own history with Siren, etc. making 4Knots free just made sense. It was a perfect marriage of people who love to bring great bands to the masses, and I hope we keep it that way. And yes, of course you can take a lot more chances with free shows but you still have to be smart about it, hopefully!

How much of your job is dealing with permits and city ordinances? Is working out the bureaucracy/logistics less enjoyable than picking and booking bands?

I try to spend way more time thinking about bands but to be perfectly honest, working with the city and the community to develop a strong and solid relationship has definitely had it’s rewards. I’ve learned a lot over the years and have met some very good people. NY loves to put on a show.

What was your favorite concert that you put on at the World Trade Center, pre-September 11th?

There were some really great ones (The Box Tops with the late Alex Chilton, NRBQ, the Latin shows that we did on Friday nights were really exciting) but hands down my favorite was Dave Davies of the Kinks playing a lunchtime show to 10,000 people on the plaza. I still meet people who say they were at that show. I remember he did “Father Christmas” as an encore, it was August. That was just a few short weeks before September 11.

As a curator of live shows, what do you think about other methods of curation, such as Spotify playlists or blogs? Why are you drawn to the live/outdoors/real life aspect of music?

I’m not too keen on the whole Spotify, Pandora thing honestly. I mean if you own a restaurant I’m sure it comes in handy but if I’m sitting at my computer it wouldn’t be my preferred way of finding new music. Blogs on the other hand have been the lifeblood of what I’ve done over the years.

I started outside with live music at the Trade Center and then the Seaport. It seems to be where I am most comfortable. There’s something a bit more magical outside – summer, tall buildings, ships, water, nighttime sky, great bands. Makes me want to be there now.

Thanks Stephen! Click here for more info on the 4Knots Music Festival.