Live music and touring have been on lockdown and fans as well as artists are going through withdrawals. We wanted to come up with something fun to help bridge that distance between fans and artists right now. What we came up with is something called The Lockdown Lowdown and it’s a Q&A session with fun questions for artists to answer. They’re not your typical interview questions, so it gives you a peek inside of the artists themselves. We’re big music nerds here at I’m Music Magazine and we love learning things like this about the artists that we love. We’re pretty sure that you’ll get a kick out of these, so we hope you’ll take the time to read them. In this installment, we sat down for a fun Q&A session with Bison Face.
1. How have you been doing during the pandemic and how are you spending your time?
Ernie (Vocals/Guitars): I’ve been doing alright thanks, hopefully you’re all good! It’s a weird time, it seems like everything that can crumble is going to this year. I’ve been walking every day to get into better shape and clear my head. I’ve read every book I had to hand and been writing/designing like crazy.
Alex (Guitars): It has been crazy, being made redundant, rehired, furloughed and just now starting to get back to normal. I’ve been running, working, and playing guitar on repeat for 3 months.
2. Have you been working on new music?
Alex: Absolutely! There isn’t much else to do and with everything that has been happening there has been a hell of a lot to write about.
Ernie: I’ve been holed up in my makeshift home studio just demoing constantly. It’s been kinda nice to be able to focus completely, I’m fortunate enough that the virus hasn’t directly affected me. Ended up writing about 3 records worth of stuff, who knows how much of it will see daylight. Like Al said, with all the recent goings on I’ve had no shortage of “inspiration”.
3. 5 albums that changed your life
Alex: Like Clockwork…, Grace, The Downward Spiral, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Led Zep 1.
Ernie: Nirvana – Nevermind, The Stooges – Raw Power, Sonic Youth – Goo, Radiohead – The Bends, Led Zep III.
4. 5 artists that influenced you as a musician.
Ernie: Nirvana made me want to be a musician, Matt Bellamy/Jimmy Page made me want to practice, Radiohead made me experiment and branch out, Arctic Monkeys made poetry cool without anyone realising and Enter Shikari came from our school and made something great that stands for something real.
Alex: Pixies, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Queens of the Stone Age, Portishead.
5. Your 5 favorite live albums
Ernie: Nirvana – Live at Reading, Muse – H.A.A.R.P, Johnny Cash – At San Quentin, Led Zeppelin – Royal Albert Hall, then any of the grunge era unplugged shows. Chains or Pearl Jam.
Alex: Can’t think of many live albums that I own so will have to do a mix of live sets I always go back to – Thin Lizzy live and dangerous (I know that they redubbed the guitars), Alice in chains MTV unplugged, QOTSA from the basement, Mac Demarco Pitchfork Festival 2013 and Jeff Buckley Live in Chicago.
6. Life on the road; 5 of the craziest/funniest/scariest tour stories
Ernie: We’ve not done a heap of shows so nothing too mad yet. We once practiced for a show for so long Jonny our drummer nearly collapsed. Scariest tour thing I ever experienced was going about 100mph sitting in the back of a van in France somewhere. I hate being in cars anyway so that was awful.
7. 5 favorite movies
Ernie: Empire Strikes Back, Mallrats, Alien, Barton Fink, Taxi Driver.
Alex: Alien, The Departed, Vertigo, Fellowship of the Ring and The Thing.
8. Best and worst advice you ever heard.
Alex: “Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t” from ‘12 Rules for Life’. Worst advice I was given was an old history teacher at school who said I should give up on music as you will never make a living from it which is something that is hard to forget/laugh at.
Ernie: “Luck comes from hard work” is the best advice for a musician. And I think someone told me that rock music was irrelevant and trying to be a musician was stupid, about 3 days before AM came out. What an idiot.
9. Strangest thing you ever autographed
Alex: A waiver to enter a lion cage in Mauritius, stating if I died my family couldn’t sue the zoo.
Ernie: Jesus. Nothing that weird, I signed a picture that was 100% not me outside a show when I was doing a session tour. The guy was adamant I was lying.
10. If music was over today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your wrestling name be?
Alex: Red Thunder
Ernie: How am I supposed to top Red Thunder? I’m going with Galactic Chins.
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