This Goes To 11 is a new column hosted by Mark Dalbeth.
Mark was born in New Zealand and now lives in Los Angeles, and would be better known in Australia as having been part of the band Bellusira.
Following his dreams, Mark moved to LA and has been working on Rav Medic plus an exciting new project he has in the works. As a performer, Mark has been the subject of many interviews and as a result of often being asked the same generic questions himself, has come on board with HEAVY and plans to conduct interviews with an edge.
No bullshit questions, no boring anecdotes and definitely no soft edges, This Goes To 11 is a column where the musician finally gets to turn the tables with hard-hitting questions you won’t hear anywhere else.
This week Mark speaks with Erick Armeson from punk band Splntr.
MD: Your biggest fear right now with the music industry?
EA: 1st I fear that the pandemic has changed the way people are going to consume music, Live shows. I feel it’s going to take people a long time to return to live shows, I hope I’m wrong also Retailers and streaming services are keeping more money and paying less of a percentage to its Artists and Labels.
Why do you think Rock Music is always the genre fighting for commercial acceptance?
I think Rock has always been on the outside “Blackboard Jungle theatre riots” to punk rock in the present day. I think the Mainstream likes Mellow and Happy. Sometimes Rock Music is abrasive and most folks I think, like things to go smooth.
Was there a moment in your career that you thought about throwing it all in?
I have on several occasions. It’s usually a knee jerk reaction, I am always called back. Whether it be injuries or personal differences.
What is your typical writing process?
I’ll write a mountain of lyrics and song ideas and see what fits. Most times a guitar riff and or Bass line is written, we will sit down at rehearsal and see what ideas fit with the music.
Is there still value in printing CD’s or do you believe the Digital world has taken over completely now?
I think Vinyl is coming back like mad. We have CDs printed by the Record Company; they are slow movers now. I think many prefer to download or stream, I remember one of our last shows, the singer comes up from The Implants and asks if he could get some music, we were out of vinyl CD was the only thing we had that night. He asked for our Spotify and downloaded the album on the spot boom, and it’s done.
Are you prepared to sacrifice money and comfort in order to progress your career?
I have in the past. I don’t see why I wouldn’t do it now.
Can you see modern Rock music returning to (commercial) radio in the near future?
Yeah. I think it comes in waves, every 10 yrs. or so there seems to be a resurgence of Rock music. Seems like its predominately back in the clubs now. Hopefully some day we will see bands hitting 10k + seaters venues.
Was Lars Ulrich right?
On the statement “if there was no Black Sabbath, I probably would have been a newspaper delivery boy”? probably would still be doing it! YES, Napster?, I’m still out on that one.
Has Rock Music become too safe?
Now I’m going to sound like an old man,” Back in my day!” Sometimes shows could wind up having to go to or pick up someone from the hospital. Now it seems like a day care center.
Do you think it’s important to play in multiple projects or solely focus your attention into one?
For me I prefer to stay on point with one, that’s for me, we have several of our members that have several irons in the fire at once.
What have you got going on or coming up that we should know about?
We are writing songs for a new release possibly set for the end of the year, we have a lot of catching up to since the start of the pandemic last year. We will have to find another Producer / engineer since Ian passed 2 yrs. ago.
https://www.facebook.com/splntrband
