INTERVIEW: Giant Battle Monster

1)      What do you want people to hear most when they hear your music?

The strange noises we put in. We work really hard to develop strange sounds that have never happened before. You can hear an example of this in the song "The Man with the Yellow Hat" written as a soundtrack to Justin Clay's (from Darwin's Finches) spoken word poetry.

2)      Having music on Band Camp, along with other such platforms in music right now such as Sound Cloud, Spotify and others, do you feel that music is moving into a virtual age?  Personally, I fully support the idea of downloading songs for free from Band Camp and then if I like them buying them on vinyl.

Music  is in a virtual age and how I feel about it doesn't change that. I like the idea that all things intangible should not cost money to share. Music, books, visual art, computer programs, movies and television, if digitized, stop being a physically tradable item. Our society would benefit greatly if media were supported by advertisements like basic television and radio, given that it was diversified to this extent though. Advertisements suck, especially commercials but at least everyone can have a go at the product on the advertisers dime, not the artist and not the customer.

3)      How important of a factor do you feel that record labels play in music these days when pretty much anyone can put their music on the internet as opposed to having to hand out demo tapes at shows, the distribution record labels can offer, etc.   It just seems like it’s a bit easier these days to succeed as a band- and even build up a strong fan base- before a label possibly comes calling for you.

In fact, labels wont acknowledge you if you do not take advantage of the resources at you hand and develop a fan base on your own. With that said, I don't know what they do or what's in it for them, aside from paying for things like recording which people can do basically for free on there own nowadays. It would be nice though, to have someone book all of our shows and handle loose ends for us so that we can just focus on being a better band. One question nags at  me though, in the times that we're in, what's the catch? What do they even get?

4)      If you could tour with any single band or musician who would you pick and why?

What a tough one, I think it would be Tera Melos. I'm pretty sure their crowds would be into us and we're different enough that it would please a larger spectrum of their sonic taste buds.

5)      Who is your favorite New Kid on the Block?

I don't know any individual members, ask me about the Ninja Turtles.

6)      Who would win in a musical fight: Jack Black or Jack White?

Jack White has good taste in amps and riffs and a great voice but Jack Black has good movie roles. Despite Tenacious D's shear level of awesomene, I'm gonna have to go with Jack White.