10 Questions with Henry Rollins – Interview

Henry Rollins is one of the hardest working men in entertainment, period. If you’ve ever heard Henry talk about his typical (read: insane) schedule, work ethic and DIY attitude toward pretty much everything, then you  know he’s always working on something. Always.

When we spoke with Henry in Detroit at the end of November 2008, we asked if we could get a quick interview with him. He said, “Sure, if you don’t mind waiting. Send me your questions.” Naturally, we said, “Sure! No problem.” and we waited. Then we waited. Then we waited a bit more.

After an historical election, the holidays, the new year, lots of travel, a few speaking gigs, the passing of one radio show and the birth of a new one, a couple new books in the works and some acting gigs, Mr. Rollins had a scant 8 seconds to catch his breath and answer our questions. Well, some of our questions. We sent him 38 questions in all; he had time for 10. These are the ones that were selected. Enjoy.

STI: What can you tell us about A Preferred Blur, A Mad Dash and the one you recently alluded to that will be out years from now?

HR: APB and AMD are travel/journal books from 2007 and 2008 respectively. The other book is photos and essays and is in early stages of production. APB will be out in April 2009 and AMD will be out in November of 2009 if all goes to plan.

STI: If you had your way, what books would you make mandatory in high school or college curricula?

HR: George Orwell’s 1984, The Stranger by Albert Camus, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Dostoyevsky’s Crime And Punishment. Those would be good for high school. For college, hell, I don’t know what to do with college students. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson maybe.

STI: The music industry blames file sharing and/or piracy for declining sales. Do you see that as a major contributor, or is the current music business model simply not adapting to the times and technology fast enough? What other factors do you see contributing to its decline?

HR: I think the major factor in the couldn’t-come-soon-enough decline of the major label industry is greed. Greed and underestimating the intelligence of their patrons.File sharing has had an effect, certainly. Why do people share files? Maybe because you put out a CD for $19.99 and two songs on it are good and the rest is so-so because you told the band to hurry up already. When you make art into an industry, everyone will suffer. I am sorry about all the people who lost their jobs but this thing had to end.

STI: Vinyl has risen from the dead in a major way over the past few years. In 2008, sales of LPs were up by 89%, from 990,000 in ’07 to 1.88 million this past year. What do you think has sparked this resurrection? What albums do you think sound better on vinyl than CD or other digital media?

HR: I think a lot of people enjoy the hands-on aspect of an LP. The artwork is more visible as well, always cool. That could be a part of it. What albums sound better on vinyl? ALL OF THEM.

STI: Are you still working with Paul Rieckhoff and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America? On a related note, have you recently been on any USO tours and are you scheduled for any upcoming visits this year?

HR: I am waiting for IAVA to finalize a video they are doing as I will be supplying voice over for it. USO has asked if I will do a tour later in the year. I will check [my] schedule and see if I can accommodate.

STI: If there was only one thing you could make the American people understand about what you’ve seen on your many tours to visit the troops, what would it be?

HR: That these are fantastic men and women and that Iraq and Afghanistan are a fool’s mission.

STI: When visiting other countries, what’s the most common thing people express to you now that Barack Obama is in office and the reign of the Bush Regime is over?

HR: An incredible amount of happiness and relief. I was just in Mali and people were very excited about [our new] president. This is the only country I have been to since Obama won the election though. I will be doing some travel this year and will find out more when I get on the road. I was out and about in the world quite a bit leading up to the election though and people were very hopeful about Obama winning.

STI: Some say President Obama’s biggest challenge over the coming years will be the economy, others say universal health care, some claim our foreign policy. What do you think his biggest challenge over the next four years will be?

HR: The economy. Its state will dictate what happens in all other areas.

STI: If nothing else, what do you think he should absolutely accomplish during his first term?

HR: Out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan, close Gitmo, close black site prisons, stop all torture of “detainees.” Talks with Iran, China, North Korea, Cuba.

STI: You cover America’s dependency on foreign oil and relying on countries that “hate our guts” quite a bit as well as getting off our collective asses and doing something about it, ie. solar panels, electric cars, wind energy, etc. Is it fair to ask what Henry Rollins is doing for his part? For example, do you and Heidi [May] kick it in a solar-powered office or does the Bon JoviMobile run on second-hand fryer grease like Willie Nelson’s tour bus?

HR: Of course it’s fair. I mostly do all the normal things, I light the room I am in, rarely use heat, never use AC, drive as little as possible. I shower with the water off except for soaping up and rinsing off. I am in process of moving and have not considered putting solar panels on a place I am hoping to leave. If I can get somewhere else to live, I will pursue that. I have never pursued an alt. energy tour bus. I pay my carbon offset, although I don’t know for sure what good it does, I am hopeful.

Henry Rollins: http://21361.com

Thanks to Tresa Redburn at DEPT 56.

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A Working Model – “III” CD Release Party Interview

“A Working Model“, the ever-evolving and transforming rock band from Ann Arbor, MI, has released their third album entitled “III“. We caught up with Kenny Mis (guitar), Rob Logan (drums) and Tim Lawrence (bass) at the Blind Pig a couple hours before they took the stage at their CD release party. Over a couple pitchers of cheap draught, we kick back in the Green Room before the show and talk about the new album, the way the band has evolved over the years, the struggles of doing it all yourselves, and much more. Kenny tells it like it is, Rob fills in the details and even the reserved Tim periodically throws his two cents in. Grab your own cheap brew and join us for the Street Team Interview with A Working Model.

STI: I’m here with three-quarters of A Working Model. I’m here with Kenny Mis, Rob Logan and Tim Lawrence. Where’s Chris [Lawrence, singer/guitarist]?

Kenny Mis: Taking a nap.

Rob Logan: Yeah, he’s taking a nap right now.

KM: That pre-show nap.

RL: He gets into this — a lot of times, Chris has to go into his own zone, you know, so we just let that happen.

KM: We just tell everybody that he’s a huge alcoholic.

RL: Don’t… don’t put that in the interview. [everyone laughs]

STI: Who’s responsible for forming A Working Model?

KM: We kind of came out of two bands.

RL: Yeah. Basically, what happened was, me and Kenny had been playing together since we were 15. Obviously, Tim and Chris are brothers and they were in a band with some High School friends. We were in a few bands that weren’t really working out. I don’t know where the idea started to kind of start a band but it was originally just going to be sort of a side project thing where we were all just able to write some music and it sort of went from there. That was a few years ago, a number of years ago.

Tim Lawrence: [To Kenny] Didn’t it kind of start out with you and Chris talking?

KM: Yeah, it actually started out with me and Chris just kind of shooting the shit. You know, it was a couple years after High School that you don’t really hang out with all the same people then you actually do start hanging out some of those people. So I started hanging out with Chris again and he had his band, Hybrid, and me and Rob were kicking around — we just ended one band and we were kicking around the idea for another band. Never had a name, never had a singer. But we were really excited about it and we just kind of kicked around this idea. “Yeah, we should get together and put our two bands together” and we did. We started out as a side project and eventually, me and Rob’s other project just kind of fizzled out. We didn’t know what to do with it and A Working Model became a full-time gig.

STI: How long ago was that?

RL: 2002, I think.

KM: That was when we went full time.

RL: When we started really writing music I think was October. Well, when we first started to get together was, like, October of 2001 but we weren’t really like a band until 2002, early 2002. And then, our first recording came out a year after that. The EP, which nobody — maybe like 50 people — have, maybe, and that’s the last 50 people on Earth who will ever have it. It will never be online.

STI: What was that called?

RL: It was just called “EP”. A Working Model: EP. For what it is, it was recorded on an 8 track Alesis ADAT tape and in Chris and Tim’s basement and, you know, we were learning how to record. Chris does all the recording for the band. He still does. We’re learning a little bit more. Each member is, but, you know, it was songs we had written — some stuff was with what Kenny had come up with on guitar and me and him had worked out in a garage  — like, an unheated garage — a year previous which was probably our lowest point.

KM: Dark, dark days. [laughs]

RL: We were paying these very nice people… man, what were their names? Uh, Bruce and uh, Cherie or something. They were very nice people but, they were letting us play in there for, like, $25 a month or something like that. There was no heat and the cops would come all the time but we got some cool riffs out of it. A couple songs on the EP are from that and then just some stuff that we wrote. And then, put that out ourselves completely D.I.Y. Didn’t get that mastered and then handed them out for free. We didn’t charge for those.

KM: I’m kind of glad that that EP kind of died because, I mean, granted, those songs are our first songs, but it was what me and Rob were doing and what Chris and Tim were doing and it was basically meeting in the middle ground. And it took a little while to actually do that. Took us a while to get, like, five songs and they were pretty, like… you know, sounded a certain way. We’ve deviated from that sound so much and I don’t want to go back to that sound ever again.

RL: I think that’s kind of the way we all feel about it and also, it was one of those things where we would write beyond our means. That’s something that sort of haunted us on the next record, if you want to transition to that.

STI: When did the sound actually come together. When did you slap that label on and go, “Ok, now we’re really a band because we’re all cohesive enough to make that one sound we want?”

KM: Well, I mean, that was there from the EP. This band has never… never had a set sound. The EP sounds it’s own way and then “An End” came out years after the EP and that sounds it’s own way. And then this release is coming out and it sound totally different. There’s a few tracks on this release that you can, you know, tie around the previous record, but it doesn’t sound anything like that. That’s kind of what this band does.

RL: Yeah, we evolved. I mean, the whole idea was, like, even in the name, A Working Model, which love it or leave it, we’re kind of stuck with at this point, but it’s the whole “its just what it is at the time.” We evolve our sound. We all love music and we get influenced by different things. That kind of shows up in what we do and we’re always kind of adapting and changing and that’s– You know, sometimes its hard to get a substantial following that way, but you get bored of playing the same type of stuff all the time. It’s mostly because, if we didn’t like music so much it wouldn’t be such — maybe it wouldn’t be a problem, you know?

(Continued on next page…)

Hey, Mr. DJ! Mixers & Spinners Speak Out – The Multiview

We here at Street Team Interviews always dig going out to hear a good DJ spin. Notice I use the word “good.” Every once in a while, you’ll inevitably come across a DJ who, despite all their expensive equipment, massive headphones and obvious intensity, seems to have no idea what they’re doing, what they’re playing or what the crowd wants. We happen to know several good DJs and thought we would pick their brains about what it takes to be a DJ, what they’ve learned in their time and what they might pass along to future DJs. Have a look and let us know what your thoughts are in the Comments section.

Q: What would you say the mark of a good DJ is?

“Not being too selfish in what you’re playing. Knowing what your crowd is going to like. Knowing what songs will transition into other songs whether you’re mixing them or not.” – Jeremy Wheeler, The Bang!, Ann Arbor, MI.

“Definitely reading the crowd. It’s not necessarily putting on your favorite tracks, but it’s being able to tell what can affect a crowd in a way that you want, you know? It’s feeling out the crowd. It’s really listening as a DJ rather than producing sound. That’s what I think.” – Brian “Just B” Alvarez, Ann Arbor, MI.

“I honestly think the mark of a good DJ is knowing their crowd. I’ve seen plenty of DJs that are not the most proficient mixers or beat-matchers, but that didn’t matter because they knew the crowd. They knew what the crowd wanted to hear and found a good way to work it into the night. Also, being able to play with a dynamic. You never want to start the night off with the big track that everyone wants to hear, you have to work into it; Get everyone feeling the vibe, get them all out of their seats, get them dancing like morons, then drop the hot track and send them threw the roof.” – Brad “Dumbchild” Hicks, Ann Arbor, MI.

“I’d say the mark of a good DJ is being able to tap into the feel of the crowd and roll with it. Nothing is worse, in my opinion, than being out on the dance floor with your hair slapped in a pony dancing your face off and then a real stinker comes on. We’ve all seen it happen. Everyone looks at each other, makes a face, and walks off to get a drink or something. Urgh! The worst” – Ayron Michael Nelson, Ann Arbor, MI

Q: There used to be a stigma that, if you weren’t pure vinyl, you weren’t legit. Now, you almost never see a DJ without a laptop or some digital mix equipment. Do you think that stigma still exists in some circles, or has DJing simply evolved naturally with technology?

“Stigmas exist everywhere and they are different everywhere. If you go to Chicago there’s gonna be a different stigma there. If you go to Detroit there’s gonna be a different stigma there. It all matters on the person who’s making these generalizations about what they think that DJing is all about, when really all that matters is you’re playing good songs, people are dancing, and that’s it. What matters is, at the end of the night, if people had a great time, fine. Who cares [about stigmas]. But people certainly do– they not only think of it as an art, it is an art and each way of DJing is an art. It’s whether you can appreciate the certain way someone is doing something or not and if someone is doing something you disagree with.” – Jeremy Wheeler

“I think it definitely has stuck in a lot of cultures and there’s a lot of basement DJ that are just going to play vinyl and they’re not going to [deviate] or they’re going to stay true to their craft and only stick to vinyl. My philosophy, and I struggled with this a long time, was, how do I affect the most people I can the quickest as possible and for me, that was a digital route. If it’s a matter of skill, like, I’ve evolved from CDJs to doing things on laptops to now I’ve got [Serato Scratch Live] Vinyl and [Serato] Scratch [Live] with the whole feel of the record. To me, no one can really tell me that I don’t know how to mix or I don’t know how to scratch because I’ve built my own skill levels and I guess I really don’t knock people like Girl Talk who use Ableton and stuff like that to produce all that big sound. It’s a constant evolution and everything is evolving. If you don’t keep up with it then you’re just going to get left behind. You always pay homage to the old and respect that, but things are on a new level. It’s always changing. Music is evolving and you have to keep up with that. Buy the new [mediums], the new technologies, what’s available. It’s coming from so many different places now because of the technology. I think that it’s just a blessing that all this technology came out. It makes jobs a lot easier and you get to hear a lot of people input on music that you wouldn’t normally hear. You get to hear a lot more opinions because of it and I think that’s always a good thing. Whether [that music] is good or not? Leave that up to the people to judge, but who cares what everybody’s talking about [in terms of stigmas].” – Brian Alvarez

“I know that stigma exists. Especially here in Detroit. It almost seems to be a hypocritical argument. Some people who will dog on people who don’t use vinyl are the same people that are using Serato. Serato is laptop DJing! Just because you are using time-coded vinyl does not make you a vinyl DJ. See, I am a laptop DJ. So, I am the guy with the least amount of table space (or on the kiddy table) and the guy that gets fucked on playing time. The thing is, most real vinyl DJs are collectors (those are usually the cool guys) and I’m cool with that, but its the guys who do use MP3s and still get all up in your shit talking about how Traktor can beat-match for you and whatnot that I can’t stand. Mixing and knowing how to work a crowd is DJing, that is the fundamental definition. If people want to dog me because I use Traktor, have them stand behind my laptop and mix like I do. Hell, have them stand behind their decks and mix like I do — live, with no cue monitor! People don’t like laptop DJing because of the same reasons people don’t like electronic music. It is accessible. When things become accessible, everyone thinks they can do it. You just have to take the good with the bad.” – Brad Hicks

“I’m sure that there are people that look down on what I do. I used to use both vinyl and laptop then my digital music collection caught up and passed my meager vinyl collection, so I thought to myself, ‘If I continued to carry this crate of records into every gig knowing full well I have every one of those songs in my laptop, who am I doing that for? Am I trying to get street cred?’ I understand fully there are advantages for some folks. I just don’t happen to be one of them. I consider what I do more “party steering” mainly because I don’t have any superfluous DJ skills per se. I simply like good music, and like to have a blast.” – Ayron Michael Nelson

Q: When did you know you wanted to be a DJ?

“Last year? [laughs] I don’t know. When I really cherish DJing is when I’m DJing for bands. When I’m DJing for nights when bands are playing and stuff. DJing for parties and DJing for groups I’m used to and I’m completely comfortable with. It’s when there’s a little bit of anxiety involved and when there’s a little bit of the unknown involved, and if it goes off well, that’s when I really enjoy it. DJing between bands is something that both Jason Gibner and I have both enjoyed and tried out and I think that, yeah, when you’re out of your comfort zone and if something really works, I think that you really appreciate that more.” – Jeremy Wheeler

“Wow. That is such a deep question. [laughs] I have been involved in hip hop since I was a little kid and when I was a pre-teen, I was writing rhymes, I was breakdancing, I’m a graffiti artist, a producer and basically, I had a hip hop group and they broke up and I said, “What way can I affect people and still be on the music scene and just be dependent on myself?” DJing was the most natural route, so it really completed my circle for me. It was a natural progression. It just kind of pushed me – everything in my life pushed me into DJing and just prepared me for it, so it was a natural progression for sure. Definitely? It was probably conversations with buddies and I saw a lot of other DJs who were doing so-called hip hop and I guess it kinda goes back to your question, you know? Technology being more readily accessible, it had all these other DJs that, to me, sounded like shit, so I felt like it was my job to come up and get some turntables and to represent. If people liked it, then let the people speak, you know? And they have. I feel like I’ve made my spot in Ann Arbor and people have told me that they like what I do, so really, it was a natural progression but it was probably some conversations that really, like, it dawned on me like, “Dude. This has to happen! This is where I belong.” How long ago? Hip hop has been running through my blood since I was, like, a little baby, damn near. But probably a few years ago– a couple years ago. Probably like two, two and a half, yeah. And then I just went for it. My girlfriend at the time was skeptical. She was like, “Aww, I don’t really know if he’s gonna — he’s taking on this huge task of doing all this stuff.” It wasn’t that she wasn’t supportive; she was just worried about whether I was going to make it or not and, well, here I am.” – Brian Alvarez

“I used to sit in my room and listen to Tower 98 in Monroe all the time. I always thought it would be super cool to be a DJ on the radio. When I got into High School I started as a mobile DJ (doing dances and stuff like that) and I was actually pretty good at it. That relies more on your willingness to be an MC though. Two years ago was my first time out DJing again and I realized that you can do the same things with the music and working your mix, that you could with the mic.” – Brad Hicks

“I’ve been to a lot of parties and I’ve had a lot of fun, but I just got sick of someone else deciding what me and my friends wanted to dance to, so I decided to do it myself. I was talking to my friend, Louis, one day and we were talking about how no one was playing the sort of music we really were into at the time and someone needed to cause it was some good shit. So, we teamed up, then he moved away to Chicago. Some time in there I was asked by A2DT to play a party that was super fun and that’s when me and Smiley started playing together and it is a real blast, then he moved away to Chicago.”- Ayron Michael Nelson

(Continued on next page…)

We’ll See You in the New Year

Hello again.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we currently have many interviews in the works on the back-end and will be rolling them out sometime after the new year. We will be taking a Holiday Break and should be back at it in early January. In the meantime, please join our Community and post your own audio, video, blog posts — anything you want as well as participate in our message forums. We’d love to come back from the holiday break to all your suggestions and comments.

You know, this time of year is usually quite hectic for everyone and we here at STiNT are no exception. Are you done with the holiday shopping and preparations yet? Us either. Plus the travel. Ugh. But, no matter. Soon there will be family, friends, warm fires, eggnog, candy canes and endless reruns of A Christmas Story all over the tube. Good times.

So, all of us here at Street Team Interviews would like to wish you a happy holiday season. Be safe, stay warm, have fun and we’ll see you in 2009!

Two Interviews Up, More To Come.

Another day, another interview. Ok, so, there are only two interviews online at the moment, but we all had to start somewhere, right? Just posted is an interview with Jeremy Wheeler, one of the mad geniuses behind The Bang! Mix Tape Dance Party. Grab a cold one (or several like we did) and give it a read. Also, click on the Obama multiview and join the conversation in the Comments section. More interviews are in the works, so stop back or subscribe to our RSS feed to be alerted when new interviews are posted.

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