INTERVIEWS
Composers of the Year Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross: “It’s Been an Intimidating Journey”
“You’re naming us Best Composers of All Time, right,” Trent Reznor asks over the phone. His partner-in-crime Atticus Ross laughs on another line. He’s joking, of course, but he’s also not exactly out of his element. While all-time might be a stretch — at least, for now — the two are certainly in contention for the last decade. After all, it’s been a wild 10 years for Reznor and Ross, one that began with a deafening bang. That big bang arrived at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011, when Reznor and Ross triumphed over the likes of Hans Zimmer and Alexandre Desplat to win Best Original Score for David Fincher’s The Social Network. Their debut score wound up being an opening salvo as Hollywood came calling — and fast. Since then, they’ve amassed an eclectic resume that most composers spend decade...
Marcus Haney on Photo Book Documenting Last Innocent Decade of Concerts
The cover of James Marcus Haney’s new photo book, Fantatics, doesn’t feature a massive arena crowd or rowdy mosh pit — any of the obvious concert imagery one might expect. Instead, it shows two people mid-kiss: eyes largely closed, mouths agape, seemingly transfixed amid a sea of strangers. Haney has “no idea” who they are. “I took one photograph of them, and I don’t think they even registered that a photograph was taken,” he tells SPIN with a laugh. “I hope they are together and married with kids or something. If they see themselves on a bookshelf somewhere, I hope that’s a good thing.” In this case, the image illuminated Haney’s purpose for the book: documenting the personal — and often intimate — side of the concert experience from 2010 through the early pandemic. “Right from the b...
Johnny Brennan on the Origins of the First Jerky Boys Album in 20 Years: “It’s a Whole Different Game Today”
Something about being kept away from typical entertainment outlets this year led to a surge in nostalgia content. Pop culture reunions grew from one-off virtual gatherings to fully-scripted streamable events. That made it somewhat fortuitous that 2020 happened to be the year Johnny Brennan decided to return with his classic prank project The Jerky Boys. Brennan recently released the first Jerky Boys album in 20 years, a long-demanded effort that’s been met with the warmest of welcomes by fans. All the favorites like Sol, Frank, and the rest are back, alongside new characters ringing up everyone from Social Security scammers to iRobot customer service reps to college admissions offices. Speaking with Brennan over the phone — where he does his best work, after all — the comedian and voice ac...
Minari’s Steven Yeun on His Performance of the Year: “I Just Want to Keep Playing My Part”
Two things you need to know about Steven Yeun: He calls comparisons “comps”, and he has a better understanding of who he is as an actor and cultural figure than many other stars his age. Of course, it helps that he’s taken the long road to stardom, breaking out in a big way as zombie apocalypse survivor Glenn for six years on The Walking Dead, before moving on to roles in films by some of our most idiosyncratic, interesting filmmakers working today: Bong Joon-ho (Okja), Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You), and Lee Chang-dong (Burning), to name a few. His latest, A24’s soul-stirring family drama Minari, feels like a turning point of sorts, both in the gripping complexity of his performance and the film culture that’s finally taken due notice of him. In Lee Isaac Chung’s thoughtful melodrama, ...
Slash on Eddie Van Halen: “Any Instrument He Had Chosen to Play Would Have Been Phenomenal”
There have been countless tributes to the great Eddie Van Halen since his passing on October 6th. One of the millions of fans mourning his death is fellow guitar legend Slash. Van Halen released their groundbreaking self-titled debut in 1978, and by the time Guns N’ Roses formed in 1985, one can easily argue that Van Halen were the biggest hard-rock band on the planet — until GN’R took that title with their own masterful debut, Appetite for Destruction. We recently caught up with Slash to discuss the new Guns N’ Roses pinball machines, as well as his new custom collection with Gibson Guitars. While speaking with the GN’R axeman, we asked him for his thoughts on Eddie Van Halen, specifically what it was about the Van Halen legend’s playing that made him such an iconic guitarist. Slash graci...
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Disciples on Their Ministry of Sound Debut, “I Got You” Hotline, and More [Q&A]
2020 has been a tough year all around, but the platinum-selling UK trio Disciples has not let that slow them down. Not only did they drop “Only the Gods / Better on My Own,” the massive collaborative double-single release with Hot Natured‘s Lee Foss and Anabel Englund, but they also can now celebrate their debut on the iconic Ministry of Sound, “I Got You.’ “I Got You” is one of those tracks that warms you from the inside out, combining bright piano chords and dynamic drums for the ultimate feel-good record and a much-needed dose of positivity in our lives. It also features the signature vocals of the trio’s very own Duvall and Luke Mac. With everything going on in the world, Disciples came up with the most thoughtful and creat...
Filmmaker of the Year Steve McQueen: “All We Have Is Our Morality and Our Sense of Justice”
It’s November 5th, two days after Election Night 2020, and Steve McQueen and I look no worse for wear. Even through the Zoom screen, yet another way the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way film journalists do business, we understand that other, urgently important things are going on. It’s the middle of a hellish week where the world would collectively gnaw on its fingernails hoping for someone, anyone, to declare the next president of the United States. (Besides the guy trying to steal it, of course.) But even amid the strain and trauma of that week, just one of 52 that would offer no small amount of pain to everyone this year, there was still cause for celebration. While theaters are closed and the fate of mainstream moviemaking lies in a precarious limbo, McQueen’s latest works — the f...
The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne on the Band’s Space Bubble Shows: “It’s Safer Than Going to the Grocery Store”
As our Annual Report continues, we’ll be taking several looks at how live music changed in a year where most of the world was in lockdown. Today, we share our conversation with Wayne Coyne about his current plans for space bubble shows. A year ago, no one could have predicted that a trip to the grocery store could be life-threatening and dangerous. But here we are at a time where buying vegetables can be anxiety-inducing and unsafe. Concerts mostly apply, as well, but Flaming Lips vocalist Wayne Coyne devised a way to transform live music into a safe process. Coyne is no stranger to performing in what he calls a space bubble. He’s famous for rolling out into crowds, but the thought of putting the entire band and audience in their own respective bubbles was a thought that came to him at the...
Vicky Cornell Opens Up About Chris Cornell’s New Covers Album
When Chris Cornell died in 2017, fans all over the world mourned the loss of a voice and talent gone way too soon. That outpouring of love and continued support helped the family he left behind — wife Vicky Cornell and children Toni and Christopher — who are emotional but proud to keep the memory of her husband and their dad alive via No One Sings Like You Anymore. Cornell’s first full posthumous release is a 10-song gem that takes on hits and lesser-known songs from artists still with us, along with long-lost legends. While Cornell’s version of Guns N’ Roses’ “Patience” and Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 You” are well-known to fans, stellar new covers included on the album are Lorraine Ellison’s powerhouse “Stay with Me Baby” and the Janis Joplin-popularized “Get It While You Can,...
An Oral History of The Clash’s “The Magnificent Seven”
“It’s perfect,” Joe Strummer insisted about The Clash’s fourth album, the sprawling, 36-song triple album set, Sandinista!, over beers in an East Village bar back in the early 1990s. While Strummer’s tongue was firmly in cheek, he wasn’t backing down on his claim. He loved his former band, and Sandinista! loomed large in the legend about everything they stood for – the good and the bad, planting feet firmly in the future while still honoring the past, not to mention both their collective creativity and rock star excess – and still stands today as a remarkable, if beguiling, achievement. Featuring forays into everything from jazz and gospel to hip-hop and rockabilly, Sandinista! was the ultimate rock and roll indulgence by a band that had only just started to crack the big time after releas...
Less Than Jake Blend Energy and Maturity on Silver Linings
It’s been 25 years since Less Than Jake released Pezcore and became staples of the ska-punk community. Now, the Gainesville rockers are back with Silver Linings (Dec. 11 on Pure Noise Records), the band’s ninth studio album and first since 2013. But while Silver Linings still has plenty of the fast-paced catchy tunes that turned albums like Losing Streak, Hello Rockview, and Anthem into classics for the Warped Tour crowd, it also shows a different and more mature side of the band. It’s still clearly Less Than Jake, but it’s Less Than Jake dealing with the problems of an adult in 2019 (which are obviously quite different compared to the problems of 2020) rather than as a college-aged kid in the ‘90s. The result is probably the most complex album the band has ever put forth, showing the lyri...
Slash: New Guns N’ Roses Pinball Machines Are “Way Beyond My Expectations”
A couple of months ago, Guns N’ Roses announced a series of “Not in This Lifetime” pinball machines, modeled after the band’s mega-successful reunion tour of the same name. The arcade games were co-designed by Slash, who caught up with us to discuss all things pinball and his involvement in the creation of the machines. The “Not in This Lifetime” machines are manufactured by Jersey Jack Pinball, and are available in three editions — Standard, Limited, and Collectors — each with a different design on its body. The machines feature a 21-song soundtrack that closely mirrors the setlists that Guns N’ Roses played on their “Not in This Lifetime” tour, which saw the return of classic members Slash and Duff McKagan. As we learned from Slash while speaking with him about the machines, his love of ...
