RALPH DARDEN INTERVIEWED FOR LOUD! FAST! PHILLY!

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Joseph A. Gervasi continues his excellent interview series Loud! Fast! Philly! with a very candid conversation with Ralph Darden. There are no words that could describe Ralph’s importance in my life and the value, exploration, insight and humanity he brought to the experiences we shared together personally and creatively. This interview, however, reminds me that we are all always and at all times desperately trying to learn from (and understand) those we surround ourselves with and this challenge is central and never ending. Ralph continues to work as a DJ under the name Major Taylor and splits his time between Chicago and Los Angeles.

If you have some time, enjoy this one.

Photo of Ralph by the talented Karen Kirchhoff.

LOUD! FAST! PHILLY!

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The other day, I was interviewed by Joseph Gervasi for Loud! Fast! Philly!, a self-described, “…aural history of the Philadelphia hardcore punk scene.”

It’s a great project that he’s dedicated a lot of his time towards and I was honored to be asked to participate.

Please be advised. Anyone who knows me knows how much I can get to talking so the interview is a long one. In fact, you might want to skip mine in favor of listening to the other interviews he’s done with members of the Philadelphia hardcore and punk community past and present. Each interview is a fascinating experience.

Be sure to listen to the interview that Joseph did with Atom and be sure to visit Joseph’s site regularly as he adds interviews.

TWO BRANDS OF FRANKLIN INTERVIEWS, ONE BRAND OF STUPID

If there is one thing Franklin wasn’t it was well spoken. Of course, I suppose it’s rare for any group of 20-somethings to be well spoken when it comes to anything, let alone the music they play. Especially if the four individuals who make up the band that makes the music they are discussing have wildly varying opinions on the music community to which they belong, the music to which they listen and the way music should be absorbed in general.

In short, it’s really hard for an interview not to come across as random and disjointed and, more concerning, the person being interviewed not to sound like a complete moron.

Perhaps it’s not all our fault. Music interviews are rather difficult beasts and it’s rare to meet a reporter or interviewer who has very much new to say. Typically, an interview is conducted on the fly sitting in a noisy location like a city park with no real time to listen and consider the questions being asked. In addition, the questions being asked can be rather ordinary and rote leading to even less interesting responses. It’s just a recipe for disaster.

So let’s not consider the disaster. Let’s just be in awe of the fact that anyone decided to take time out of their day to discuss anything at all with the fellas who played in Franklin.

Today, we’ve got two interviews. The first, by Eddie Ugarte originally appearing in his Ghetto Blaster fanzine. The interview was done one afternoon before we played Bonnie’s in NYC. The interview would have been around 1999 and the release of our self-titled final album. Check out the sweet little review of AM/FM’s first EP Audiot in the side-bar!

The second interview reiterates my original point that sometimes it’s best not to say anything because reading this interview makes my skin crawl! Sadly I do not know the name of the zine this appeared in…if you do, let me know!

I GOT INTERVIEWED ABOUT BEING AN EX-MUSICIAN :-)

Since launching this blog, I guess some folks have stumbled across it and have been enjoying it. People other than my friends. That’s pretty awesome.

One of those folks is a fella named Kurt Morris.

He runs a blog called Welcome to Flavor Country and he asked if I might be willing to do an interview with him for his blog about being a person who used to be in a touring rock band.

I said sure, why not!

I have to admit, it was a little odd answering questions that all seemed to sound as if not playing in a touring band anymore might be something depressing or sad for me.

He posted the article yesterday and you can check it out over yonder.

Thanks Kurt!