ANTON FIG, invasion breakout

“My grandfather bought me a snare and bd at age 6 and every year added a drum – so I had a full set by the time I was 9 but it was a mutt of a set” – ANTON FIG

JIM VALLANCE, beat crazy

“Ringo is one of the best rock drummers, ever. Bonham may have been heavier, and Stewart Copeland may have had more finesse, but you won’t find a more tasteful drummer than Ringo. Plus, he basically invented the drum fill as we know it” – JIM VALLANCE

MELVIN TAYLOR, deep within

“I began performing on Maxwell Street in Chicago. I would play with my Uncle Floyd and his friends….when people started crowding around us and throwing money in the tip jar I knew right then there was no turning back” – MELVIN TAYLOR

NATALIE MISHELL, etranger

“JP had set up some rehearsals with the band prior to the recording session so we were prepared and super sharp for the recording. You could technically say this is a live album” – NATALIE MISHELL

REBECCA FRAME, play ground passion

“My friend had a recorder and we sat on my living room floor and sang “This Used To Be My Playground” by Madonna,… we started our make believe band and would use picnic tables as our stage. I guess the dream was there early” – REBECCA FRAME

DAVE SLOMIN, the return of hank

“Main rule is, when it comes grab it. Otherwise you’ll be haunted for years. Most of the songs on the album were one-shot deals” – DAVE SLOMIN

JESSE BREWSTER, don’t think twice

“I think with the internet era, people are less drawn to genres now than they are to good (sometimes not so good), catchy songs. That’s why every 15 year-old has 1000 songs on their iPhone from 1000 different artists” – JESSE BREWSTER

DONALD DUCOTE, reverb & placement

“We were going for natural reverb and mic placement. We wanted to use tape and we wanted it to be warm and ambient” – DONALD DUCOTE

PAUL BOLGER, dreams of Blottopia

“Chicago is a easy hang. People here are very unpretentious including promoters (for the most part). So you don’t have to cow tow to them or “work” them, you can just be yourself and let it happen” – PAUL BOLGER

DAHLIA FATALE, lady doth punk

“Both burlesquers and punks frequently design their own costuming, create their own art, and aren’t afraid of offending their audience or causing some out-of-bounds thought” – DAHLIA FATALE

SUGAR BLUE, every moment

“Listen to the masters, memorize, internalize, recreate and…. listen, listen, listen! Practice creatively, play passionately and if the music is in you it will come out” – SUGAR BLUE

FRED STUCKY, heavy heavy fuel

“I came up with that line one night in my garage and wrote it on the side of a box with a sharpie pen. I looked up at that box for over a year. Then I used the phrase in the song” FRED STUCKY

JOANNA CONNOR, first licks & Chi-town showdowns

“It’s a boys club. It’s like high school. The cool table in the cafe. They are all peacocks. The king in my opinion right now is Carl Weathersby. There are always battles here. Each guy thinks they are the champ!” JOANNA CONNOR

GREG KIHN, long live rock

“I was one of the inner sanctum after that. I’m sure Jerry Hall, Mick’s wife at the time, was checking me out. Or maybe it was the drugs” – GREG KIHN

SCOT COOGAN, have drums will travel

“The Beatles “White Album” was on, guess I didn’t see any sticks around, so I picked up a Barbie Doll Leg and a Lincoln Log. I started hitting the drums in time with the music, after that, all I wanted to do was play drums!” – SCOT COOGAN

PHIL ANGOTTI, new pop tricks

“I intended each track to sound different than the next….using different instruments and overall approach to the sound” – PHIL ANGOTTI

SARAH FIMM, roll in the hay

“I became aware of the power of simple observation, and began to understand how music was a doorway to change people’s emotional states” – SARAH FIMM

RANDY BERGIDA, yellow letters home

“The limiter on the iphones was also something that evolved our sound. Hearing everything in a tiny room
with a big limiter compressing the music to the point that everything sounds good gave us much hope” RANDY BERGIDA

BRYANT LEE, traps a trip

“If we ever decided to start focusing on our image or try to be anything other than what we are, I think the enjoyment of us being in this band would go down dramatically” – BRYANT LEE

CHRISTMAS DAVIS, pure Tall Pines

“Your style is just how you combine and present the things that you’ve always loved anyway” – CHRISTMAS DAVIS

NATALIE GELMAN, street smart

“I grew up with artists and bohemians. It’s way too expensive for interesting characters to live there anymore” – NATALIE GELMAN

MICHAEL McDERMOTT, gloves off

“Songwriting is songwriting…at least mine is, but it’s really just what colors you use from your palette” – MICHAEL McDERMOTT

DIDA PELLED, jazz box swinger

“As a guitar player I loved listening to Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, and to other instrumentalists like Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Miles David, Coltrane & Ahmad Jamal” – DIDA PELLED.

TIM BURNS, bar stars & retail guitars

“All the big companies keep producing more and more new models in every possible price point. In doing so, I feel they keep slipping further and further away from their roots as quality guitar makers” – TIM BURNS

RICHIE SCARLET, back on the streets

“Ace invited me down and my wife Joann spoke with his people. The next thing was Ace asked me to join him on stage and it was a beautiful thing” – RICHIE SCARLET

JOHN NORRIS, in tune w/ PETERSON

“It was the advent of recording and the “Talkies”, not Rock ‘n’ Roll, which spurred interest in tuning properly” – JOHN NORRIS

MIKE CLIFFORD, daydream believer

“If I’m lucky, trying the tune on the piano might give me an idea of how to approach it on the guitar
and vice versa” – MIKE CLIFFORD

CRAIG ELKINS, excitable boy

“That’s another odd thing about LA…I feel like I’m the only one who struggles. Everyone else just drives to and from meetings at Starbucks in their BMWs”.- CRAIG ELKINS

ALYNDA LEE SEGARRA, culture on the skids

“Now I’m trying to make music that I hope will have some kind of positive effect on this country and our world” Alynda Lee Sagarra

TERRY RADIGAN, miss gentry & me

“Some songs just feel like gifts that you’re being given and your only job as a songwriter is not to get in the way!” – TERRY RADIGAN

ADAM LEVY, the fine art surfing

“Create a great band. Make everyone feel invested, loved, appreciated, and hope they areb equally driven. It takes time to build a good team” – ADAM LEVY w/ THE HONEYDOGS

SIBLIN SANDOVAR, man on the street

“I like variety. I love the idea of hybrids, musical mutts if you will. I don’t like “pure-breeding” in my music” – SIBLIN SANDOVAR

G. EDDISON, a spirit of ’76

“Oklahoma City was good enough for Woody Guthrie. I suppose it’s good enough for us too” – G. EDDISON

SCOTT PEREZ, wanderlust

“She pulled me to the side and asked me to sing some lines from “The Little Drummer Boy” and next thing I knew, I was singing it in front of people” – SCOTT PEREZ

MAGIC SLIM, better than ever

“Blues must be played with feeling and from the heart. If you concentrate too much on the technical, you can’t reach the public with feelings and emotion” – MAGIC SLIM

JOY ASKEW, voices carry

“I loved the energy and vibe and wanted to capture that live feel as the basic and make it be as complete as possible without adding too many extra overdubs” – JOY ASKEW

WILL PHALEN, ghost in the machine

“To me, it’s just all about the love of sound and what it does to you. We’ve got two ears, so we live in a stereo world” – WILL PHALEN

AARON LEE TASJAN, on the way

“Not caring in order to appear cool is like making sure you remember to take your swimming trunks to Christmas dinner” AARON LEE TASJAN

BRAD ELVIS, cuffed to the kit

“I wanted to be like my heroes. The excitement of Carnaby Street, mod haircuts, velvet and striped jackets seems so alien and other-worldly compared to the drab Midwest” – BRAD ELVIS of THE HANDCUFFS

MYSTIE CHAMBERLIN, for folks sake

“Starting from anonymity with the goal of being recognized as just another folk singer is a sensible goal” – MYSTIE CHAMBERLIN

MATT SPIEGEL, rock the casbah

“The idea was to treat the rock canon with the same reverence and respect with which orchestras treat Brahms or Shostakovich” – MATT SPIEGEL

NATHAN BIGGS, homeward bound

“The cabin was a small two story with a huge fireplace that we ran mics around to do all of our tracking as a live band” NATHAN w/ THE PEAR TRAPS

DAN BAIRD, go like hell

“We don’t use a set list as i think song selection is a part of the flow of the night” – DAN BAIRD

TIM SHEFFSTALL, stone sour

“I believe you must have that total package – musicianship, looks, theatrics and performance, which all make for a great show. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have a hot girl” – TIM SHEFSTALL

TRISTAN FORGUS, everyday I write the book

“I’d like a Brandenburg Concerto, a piano piece by Keith Jarrett, blasts by Coltrane and Mingus and Monk, Satchmo’s It’s a Wonderful World, and the Exploited’s Sex and Violence” – TRISTAN FORGUS

BILL WYMAN, rhythm king

“I showed up with 3 amps & a big bass cabinet with an 18” speaker – I gave the bass amp & speaker cabinet to my old band mates – who later became The Herd w/ Peter Frampton” – BILL WYMAN

DAG JUHLIN, easy rider

“I kept control and steered us off to the shoulder, riding on three wheels and a howling axle. It was a crazy seven seconds or so of chaos and odd personal clarity” – DAG JUHLIN

JON DRAKE, stirring

“We layed down our music the best we know how fueled with booze, love, burritos, soup, pizza, and zero drugs” – JON DRAKE

NICHOLAS TREMULIS, pocket full of blues

‘As for changing things up record to record, NTO and I thrive on it. Probably wouldn’t have been able to hold the band together had we started repeating ourselves. These boys want an adventure!” – NICHOLAS TREMULIS

TURK LEWIS, a voice for music

“Music helps to open neural pathways that lead to stronger retention, that have applications to science and math and language” – TURK LEWIS