Squaring Off With Steve Stav - The Music Interviews (test): Recent Episodes
Steve Stav
A "viability test" of some of my archived/digitized musician interviews on analog cassette tape. The recordings have inherent flaws, both in technology (most were done over telephone) and in approach. For the latter, these interviews were conducted for magazine and newspaper articles - so neither party is as polished and poised as they would be for broadcast!
Highly intelligent, honest, funny, very cordial - and never afraid to speak his mind - Lloyd Cole has been one of my all-time favorite interview subjects; however, it’s been a surprising seven years since we last spoke.
This phone interview for a print feature - conducted in the winter of 2015 - was our first chat in about 11 years. We talked about adapting to middle age, his musician son, remastering of Commotions albums for a box set (released later that year) and recollecting his years with that band… a lot of subjects covered, including winter-weather banter.
Names dropped and discussed include Morrissey, Dylan, Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and Bowie. Fans - both of the hardcore and casual variety - will enjoy this audio insight into one of alternative rock’s most talented singer/songwriters.
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The first of many interviews and informal chats I had with Ventures founders (and Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame inductees) Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. This one was for Seattle's Rocket magazine, in advance of a show at Seattle's Fenix club.
Idle chat edited out, this extraordinary conversation - by phone from Front Page Studios in Los Angeles - covers everything from the band's then-current work to their first tour of Japan to an extraordinary origin story - one of the most eyebrow-raising in rock history.
A few weeks later, I met them for the first time... Bob pulled a piece of paper from his wallet and confirmed that he'd written my phone number down correctly. I knew I had made it in music journalism.
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This interview with Grace Slick for Seattle’s Rocket magazine is one of my favorites… because it’s Grace Slick. Done over the phone from her home in Malibu in advance of a Seattle hotel’s exhibition of her portraits - timed to coincide with the Experience Music Project’s grand opening - we discuss everything, and nothing. You’d have to be a Jeopardy contestant to keep up with Ms. Slick - “I’ll take ‘Early 20th Century American Philosophy’ for $300” - for she is so intelligent. So seemingly haphazard with her brilliance. I think I managed to survive it all because I kept things pretty real - and nobody appreciates keeping it real like Grace Slick. I’m giggling at her profanity, at some of the things she says, and Ms. Slick didn’t hang up the phone. An achievement.
As wild as Grace Slick’s life has been, the icon - now at age 83 - should always be recognized for being just that. An icon who not only blazed a trail for so many female performers in her wake, but a musician whose work directly and indirectly influenced so many alternative rock artists. “White Rabbit,” “Somebody To Love” and so much more that was dark and edgy and moody; the Jefferson Airplane wasn’t like any other band, save for perhaps the Doors. And Grace, with that voice and hair and clothing… a complete, self-created dynamo who was 20 years ahead of her time.
Grace does recall her friends Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia - and preparing for Altamont with Mick Jagger - but at some point in the interview I just decided to be happy with whatever reply she gave. Every word out of her mouth, precious. The whole time, I’m thinking, “This woman was - and is - a goddess.”
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A fascinating chat with legendary drummer Budgie at the time of the band's "Best Of" CD release in 2002. Budgie looks back on the band's career, both highs and lows - and recollects his favorite music videos to "act" in. He also talks about the Banshees' involvement in the "Batman Returns" soundtrack, and working with Tim Burtion.
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An incredibly candid, in-depth interview with Cameron Crowe just as his instant classic, "Almost Famous," was hitting theaters in the U.S. Led Zeppelin, Lester Bangs, Dick Gregory, Eric Stoltz, Philip Seymour Hoffman; how Peter Gabriel almost didn't make it into "Say Anything"... just a bit of what I discuss here with the director in late September, 2000 for Seattle's The Rocket magazine.