We put a few questions to Sam Bradford of Sharpie Crows and here's what he had to say:
Been around since?
About a year and a half in our current incarnation.
Current line up?
Jackson Hobbs, drums
Sam Bradford, vocals & keyboards
Joshua Jenkins, bass
Casey Latimer, guitar/loops
Where are you based?
Wellington, for now…
Musical history?
We were a boring fucking rock band for a little while. Then Casey came along and told us how shit we were, and we figured he was right. We’ve been steadily improving since.
What were you listening to back in high school?
Casey: Britpop & bogan
Josh: Dr Dre
Jackson: the Deftones
Sam: too much fucking Radiohead
What are you currently listening to?
The hum of my computer… What do we love? Ethiopiques vol. 1, Skeptics, the Birthday Party, shrill Bollywood classics, the Fall, Neutral Milk Hotel, ‘Tunic’ by Sonic Youth. I think those are the only ones we can all agree on.
The state of music in NZ is…?
pretty dire. Hopefully the audience for smug, lazy, aren’t-the-80/90s-fucking-hilarious nonsense will dry up in the coming depression and bands will have to start thinking harder. It’s happened before.
What’s your favorite place to play?
When we played at Whammy Bar they were super good to us. It’s more about the audience than the venue though, a slightly hostile audience pushes us further I think.
What was your favorite show?
Maybe Palmerston Nth, last year, in a huge wanky barn of a venue with about ten people watching. It definitely sounded horrid but we had a good time playing from opposite corners of the room and rolling on the floor.
What is your recording process?
Everything live except sometimes vocals, otherwise it takes too long.
What's been your best recording experience?
United Mans 4 U, the last track on the Bastard Sons of Grey Power CD. It’s the one song that no-one’s ever told us they liked, but we love it hard. It was maybe the second take, we were near-dead of exhaustion, stuff was breaking, but the necessary demons were on our shoulder and when we listened back to it we realised it sounded just how we wanted it to.
What’s been your worst recording experience?
Haven’t had any bad recording experiences, probably because we’ve avoided recording studios.
Favorite radio show/station?
The VBC in Wellington City is fairly choice.
The Future holds…?
Fuck knows. Anyone want to fly us to Germany?
