MINK LUNGS TR: How NYC is your music, how much does living here influence your sound? NY takes up a lot of your time. It is hard to practice or get together 3 times a week which I think is an ideal amount of practicing. We get to practice at Gian and Jen's house (they are both in Mink Lungs) and that is great and comfortable and very lucky. The neighbors have been so nice TR: Do you feel like your band, and related bands from Brooklyn, constitutes a scene that many feel has disappeared in NY or hasn't been around since the hard-core scene of the late 80's? Not really, it is weird, as you get a litle older you just don't seem to buddy up with bands, or it is harder to. We really try to get shows together with good bands and I think we do a good job at that, but there isn't that regular bill kind of scene here. Brooklyn is great but there are so many inspired and original bands and musicians that you can't keep up. So we don't. I'm not to sure there is a scene. I don't mean that to sound snotty. TR: Has LA surpassed NY as the place to "make it"? Who would know? If we are happy with our songs and sound and ideas, that to us is "making it"' We just hope other people will love our music they way we do. that would be making it. I think location doesn't have that much to do with it. There are so many great bands everywhere. I don't know much about L.A. I mean the last time I played there I was in another band and we played Spaceland. TR: Do you feel "history" in your music? Does it feel like you're adding your voice to a tradition? Not really, I mean there are bands that we love, and music that we love but the U.S. kind of takes the tradition or the culture out of music in a way. You really have to sniff out the love. History or tradition seems to me to be something that everyone is aware of and generally likes.We all work, and my vision of history in music evokes images of porches and rocking chairs and folkish music. We like to sample sex education records and shit. People have been doing that for a long time too, but it doesn't seem traditional. Sorry that is a tough question, I don't know if I made any sense. TR: What does it take to have a hit song? Good question. I think you need a great or catchy song and shit loads of money or power behind it. TR: Would you sell your songs to a pop-star band if they wanted to record them? I would but I can't speak for everyone in the band. I'm the drummer. TR: Would you be happy being a one hit wonder? No TR: Do you have a day job and what is it? I work for a book publisher, Tim works for a photo archive, Frosty works for the commodities exchange and Gian works for a record store, other music TR: Do musicians in general lose credibility with the mass popular audience as their music becomes free as traded mp3s on the Internet? I don't think so. TR: Do you think making your music is a socio-politcal act? I think think it is personally empowering. I hope we inspire anyone who has an inkling to make music to do so. We have turned into a pretty great fucking band really quick. We hope people find it fun and easy to make music. that is how we approach it. TR: What is your definition of success? If what you do inspires others, you are a success. TR: How important do you feel guitar is in contemporary music and is this good or bad? Guitar playing is such a taste thing and just a matter of opinion ,but it didn't seem like people or bands were really playing interesting guitar in most contemporary music, so I'm kind of glad you don't have to hear bad guitar so much anymore. It seems fitting though that guitar ruled pop rock for so many years that it had to be knocked off as king of the hill just so people will respect it again at some point. TR: What type of guitars do you play on? I play drums but Gian and Tim play extremely cheap strats. Miss frosty plays a Danelectro bass. TR: What band from the 90's did the world miss out on? The Icky Boyfriends and Hickey. Both of these bands were from Sanrancisco late 90's. The Icky Boyfriends could play a song with 20 words in it and tell a huge story from such little information. I suggest their album "Talking to you is like being dead". Hickey was amazing reckless punk rock with lots of crazy sounds and great subjects for their songs. I suggest a mock split 7" with The Voodoo Glow Skulls that left hundreds of death threats on their answering machine. The A side is a great song by Hickey called Food Stamps and Drink Tickets. The B side is a bunch of the homophobic deathreats by VooDooGlowSkulls. TR: What bands do you feel aren't getting the attention they deserve? Sheesh I'm not very modern or up to date but I think Kahimi Kari is amazing but she gets attention, the Resineators are great and Anthony from the Icky Boyfriends is in the band along with David Nudelman. Learn more about Mink Lungs at their label's website http://www.arenarockrecordingco.com