So what possessed you to embark on this project?

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a couple years now. I wanted to put together some sort of Coverville tribute album, and work with some of the artists who I’d been in touch with because of the show. And looking at some of my favorite bands, there were only a couple who didn’t already have some sort of cover/tribute album already. Spinal Tap didn’t have one, and it seemed like the perfect choice.

Is there an irony in that it’s a tribute album for a band that’s basically fictional?

Definitely – and I think that’s part of the allure of the project. And I think it lends credence to the fact that Spinal Tap has become a real band. They play their own instruments, they tour, they’ve released a follow-up album. They may have started out as a fictional band, but they’re as real as just about any other band out there.

And I can’t take credit for this being the first tribute to a parody band. In the 70’s, some British comedians, including Neil Innes and Monty Python’s Eric Idle, formed a Beatles parody band called The Rutles. And in 1990, some performers got together and recorded a tribute album called “Rutles Highway Revisited”.

But mine goes up to 11.

The album includes some heavy hitters from the indie scene, Chance, Paul and Storm, etc. – how hard was it to get everyone on board with the project?

I think that some musicians have a special appreciation for Spinal Tap. Everyone’s got stories about gigs gone awry, marketing fiascos and really ridiculous in-band fights and squabbles. So there are some folks that really wanted to be a part of this. And the lineup really fluctuated over the couple years I was putting this together. Both Richard Cheese and Jonathan Coulton were on tap to take on “Big Bottom” at different points, but had to drop out due to other commitments. (But if you ask me, I think after his cover of “Baby Got Back”, I think Jonathan is just afraid of being typecast…) And indie favorites Uncle Seth, and Pat Dinizio of the Smithereens were tied to “Gimme Some Money”, but for similar reasons couldn’t work it out.

But Jonathan Coulton put me in touch with Paul and Storm, and they were really happy to be a part of this, and I couldn’t be happier to have them! They knock “Big Bottom” out of the park, with almost a Double Fantasy-era John Lennon-styled chorus treatment. And Brian Grosz tackled “Gimme Some Money” beautifully, even adding a subtle cash register sound effect.

Chance’s “Stonehenge” is a brilliant mash-up of the Spinal Tap song with another cover, which I’ll make folks listen to so I don’t spoil the surprise. He’s such a talented artist, and he really knows how to turn a cover inside out.

I could go on about each of the tracks and how much I admire the direction that each of the performers took, but I’d be here all day writing it.

You’re giving it away for free. Why don’t you want our money? There has to be a catch, right?

No catch. I want to get this into as many ears as possible and get some exposure for these artists!

I see you’ve done previous Coverville tributes to Supertramp and Squeeze. Do you have any more of these tribute projects planned?

Definitely. Next year, I want to do a Talking Heads tribute. And at some point, I want to do a multiple-act cover of Meatloaf’s “Paradise By The Dashboard Light”. The trick of covering that song is that it’s really about four or five songs all mashed together, and that’s too lofty a project for one band to take on, and try to make it their own. So I want to have different bands each take on a different section of the song, and then let folks download all the pieces and put their favorite parts together to make their own cover.

Coverville surpassed the six hundred episode mark earlier this year. How are things going over there?

They’re going like gangbusters. The regular Coverville show is still going strong with the same formula that has worked for over five years, and I’ve added a paid subscription for folks who want to get even more episodes and t-shirts and DVDs and such. And I’ve been able to spin the Musically Challenged trivia segment into its own call-in music trivia game show podcast, called Coverville Musically Challenged (of course).

And as always, I’m always looking for great artists who have recorded great covers to air on the show!

I saw you and Boots Riley perform at a Hotel Cafe show back in 2007, but you guys go further back than that, right?

Yeah, we met in 2003 on an activist charity tour with Billy Bragg and Steve Earle and some other people. I had never met Boots before. I was a fan of his music and lyrics with The Coup, and the tour needed a shot of life in it. And so Boots came along, and I really recognized what an incredible lyricist he is, hearing his songs set in an acoustic context. And he was always the first one to say yes when I called up to ask him to play at a demonstration or a protest or a charity event, he would always fly down from Oakland and donate his time.

We became good friends, and then when Audioslave broke up, I handed him a cassette tape of song ideas, and I said let’s be Street Sweeper Social Club.

When I first heard about the project I assumed it was going to be an acoustic thing, I guess because that’s the context I’d seen you guys perform in. Did you have to talk about that, or was is going to be an electric thing all the way?

I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to be something that was really heavy and really funky. It’s an album with no ballads whatsoever. So from conception it was going to have searing Morellian guitar to go with his searing Bootsian lyrics.

Promenade is the current single from the album. Boots refers to it as a “square dance rap” in the lyrics, and you’ve also used that term to describe it. You’ve had all these combinations, with Rage being a mix of rock and rap and whatnot. How do you come up with square dance and rap, though? How do you combine those two?

(Laughs) I’m not sure what the genesis of that was. That one just sort of started with that bass line. The one thing is, Boots and I have, from the very first time we performed together on stage, while there’s a lot of deadly serious lyrical content, we’ve always had a great time. And we wanted these to be revolutionary jams, but we wanted them to be revolutionary party jams. And nothing really kicks a party off better than a square dance rap.

With the exception of Nightwatchman where you sang, every other band you’ve been in, including this one, someone else is doing the vocals. How comfortable do you have to be with someone else to allow yourself to get into that kind of relationship where night after night they’re going to be basically speaking on your behalf?

I’ve been very comfortable with that from the beginning of Rage Against The Machine. I mean Zack de la Rocha is an amazing vocalist and lyricist whom I share a world view. And Chris Cornell is one of the great rock singers of all time, and I think that lyrically during the Audioslave period, I felt that for me at least, while I think Chris is a great lyricist, it drifted away a little from my mission statement as a human being, which is music to confront injustice. That’s one of the reasons that I swung back to writing my own lyrics and singing them as the Nightwatchman, and why I feel very comfortable with Boots as a lyricist as well. I think he’s really an astoundingly talented lyricist. The wry wit and the cutting venom that are in his lyrics.

The matter of factness of how he dices up some of the topics struck me.

It’s a sense of humor too that he weaves into it. It’s a spoon full of sugar that helps the medicine go down.

Here we are talking, and you’re obviously a pretty laid back guy, and I’ve gotten that vibe from your Hotel Cafe shows as well. But back when I was in high school and watching Rage on TV, I just kind of assumed you guys had to be militant in some way. Do you get that a lot, do people think you’re going to be more dicey than you turn out to be?

I don’t know, it’s hard to say, I’ve been me for a long time now (laughs). I think while that commitment to social justice and potentially revolutionary change both in music and society is always there, if you were to hang out with the guys in Rage Against The Machine, it’s a lot of laughs too. There’s some funny motherfuckers in that band. We’re not just sitting around reading the collected works of Marx and Engels.

I was going to ask whether you’ve mellowed over the years.

Oh, no. For me it’s clearer than ever, actually I have a newborn son now, so it’s like you want to make sure that the world they inherit, that you do all that you can during your time so the world that they inherit is one that has the maximum amount of peace and injustice and equality. And the only way to do that is through struggle.

You’ve got a young kid, and you just did the [Nine Inch Nails / Jane’s Addiction] tour, and you’re still doing shows, and doing interviews like this one. How do you divide up that time? Do you have to reevaluate everything?

Yeah, definitely. With the exception of a few shows for the rest of the year, I’ve kind of cleared the schedule for the immediate time being. I’m figuring out 2010, and there will definitely be more Street Sweeper Social Club and some Nightwatchman as well.

Are we about where you thought we’d be after a year of Obama?

I worked for a United States Senator for two years, Senator Alan Cranston, as his scheduling secretary for a couple of years, and for a very progressive U.S. Senator, by the way. So I got to see the internal workings of what it takes to try to enact a progressive agenda in the United States of America, and it’s a dirty road. It’s like no one comes out clean. We’re a year later, and Guantanamo Bay is still open, we’re still involved in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now it looks like even if we are going to get some increased health care package, it’s going to be frankly nowhere near what people need, or nowhere up to the standards of the rest of the industrialized world as far as the number of people covered and the quality of care. Is this Barack Obama’s fault? No. The reasons why we don’t have peace and universal health care are systematic. I am greatly relieved, on the other hand, that we have a President who reads at above a third grade level, something we could not say for the previous eight years.

At the beginning of Audioslave you were adamant about saying “This is a real band, it’s not a stunt or a supergroup.” And you were right, it was three albums, five or six years. What’s the future of Street Sweeper Social Club? Is this a real band too, can we get used to it being around?

Definitely. We’ve already started working on new songs, and I love doing it. It’s so much fun to write these big crushing rock jams, and I’m constantly thrilled by the new lyrical twists that Boots comes up with, and we’re working on recording and touring plans for 2010.

I should let you go, so you can back to whatever you’re working on.

Yeah I’ve got to get back to what I’m working on, like changing diapers.

That’s more work than people think.

Yeah it is, let me tell you (laughs).

This is the first “A Very Special Christmas” that they’ve done in a few years. Was this something where they came to you, or did you hear about it and volunteer?



It was both. I’ve known about those albums my whole life. Growing up, my parents would buy them and we’d listen to them every Christmas. And we heard about it again happening this year, and I think they wanted me involved, and I wanted to be involved because I knew what a great cause it was, and because I had known so much about the record already before. So they gave me a list of options of what songs I could do, and I chose the one I love to sing, which is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and it just worked out perfectly.



There’s such a history to that song, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra have put their stamp on it. When you go to record a song like that, is there a different mindset when a song’s already got that much history?


You know, you just want to do it the way that you do music. I wanted it to be like another song on my album. And I had my dad produce it, I had my two best friends sing background vocals, who are great singers, and all the musicians that are either in my band or played on my record played on that song. When I was in Paris and I chose that song, my guitar player and I were messing around with it and he started playing these really cool acoustic simple beachy chords, and I started singing on top of it, and it just became our own song. And I think that’s how, if you’re gonna cover a song, especially a legendary song like that one that people have covered throughout the years, you just have to do it in your own way where you can show it at its best.



Something you told me last time we talked was how you’re enjoying getting a little older. I look at some of the other artists on this album, a lot of teenagers, Miley, Vanessa, Kristinia. I know these weren’t collaborations, but you have collaborated with other teenagers like Taylor Swift. Do you get to a point where you feel like you’ve got a big-sisterly kind of thing there?



Yeah, especially when I was writing with Taylor. That was two years ago, she was only seventeen, and I thought it was funny cause she was writing these love songs, and I remember when people would ask me about that, like “You’re so young, how can you write these love songs?” But I know that in life you take in whatever you’re experiencing in whatever ways it comes into your life. So it’s easy to grab ahold of a situation of getting your heart broken or falling in love, no matter how old you are, because you get those emotions and those feelings whether you’re with someone in a relationship, have a crush, you can tap into that as a songwriter.

But yeah, when I was writing with her I definitely felt like a bigger sister, and very proud of her, like “You’re so young and you’re writing these amazing songs about love.” I remember when people would ask me how I could do that, but watching her, I understood.



Come to think of it, your collaboration with her is one of four Grammy nominations you just picked up. How does that make you feel?


It’s so amazing. I wasn’t even expecting any, and I would have been so happy with one. Now that I got four, for my first time ever being nominated, it’s pretty amazing. It’s funny that I’m in one [collaboration] category twice. It’s gonna be hard, I don’t know what song I’m gonna want to win, but I love both artists. But yeah, I love the Grammys, my dad has a Grammy, and my hope is to someday win one as well.



I’ve heard that “Fearless” might be your next single from Breakthrough. Is that true?



I want it to be Fearless or I Never Told You, it might be Begin Again or You Got Me. We’re not sure between those four songs. We can’t make up our minds. We’ve asked fans, and they all love each of the songs.



Fearless almost has an R&B feel, it feels like a musical departure for you in a way. I’m curious if you think that’s something the world is ready to hear from you.


Well that’s the thing, I love all different styles of music and I want to incorporate all the different sounds into my songs. So I hope that everyone would be ready to hear that kind of style from me.

What inspired you to center a podcast around the Advent Calendar?

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday of the year.  When I was a kid I used to get so wound up to make that walk down the hallway and see what Santa got me I would make myself sick with excitement. I remember how painfully slow those final days before the 25th used to crawl. My hope is that my daily little video snippets help ease that torture of waiting for Santa to visit. I was also looking for a way to share my enthusiasm for the holidays with the web and perhaps spare the people who have to live with me day to day in real life. Above all else, it’s a tremendous creative challenge that I look forward to every year. I even have a production binder this year to keep things straight!

You’ve been doing this since 2003. How has it evolved over the years? Come to think of it, “podcasting” didn’t even exist back then.

True. When I got the Advent Calendar in 2003, I had a blog. So back then I used to photograph what I got inside the door each day and post it to my blog. In 2005, I was working hard on The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd and we’d done some video podcast stuff, I just thought it was a natural fit. So it’s evolved from still photos to film.  It’s also been quite fun to see how more and more people have joined in the fun.  By writing in, commenting on the website and YouTube or entering the yearly contest I hold. I’ve even had two fans create their own Advent Calendar video podcasts and, to me, that’s the real fun. Last year a fan named BreakManZ started his calendar and he’s back again this year. The breakout star of the Advent Calendar video podcast scene though is Olivia in Olivia’s Advent Calendar. She’s an 8 year old fan from Maryland who started her own video podcast with her family and it’s really fun to watch.  She’s giving me a run for my money in the creativity department that’s for sure. (Links are on my site)

Each episode has its own flavor. In one you’re singing, in another you’re doing sight gags with a fan. Where do the various ideas come from?

Everywhere. Sometimes it’s planned out a couple days in advance and other times I just start the camera rolling and see what happens. That’s part of the fun because one of my self-imposed rules is that there can only be one take.  So I can ‘rehearse’ it a couple of times, but I never open the door until the camera is rolling and whatever happens during that take is what goes out on the web.  I try really hard not to repeat myself though unless there’s a specific reason to do so. That’s why one day I’ll have special guests and the next day I’ll be opening it with the Golden Gate Bridge behind me.  I think it gives folks a reason to tune in to see what will happen next.

What’s your best guess as to what you’ll find on day number 25?

Oh you never know what the Advent Calendar Commission (my family) has up their sleeves. Could be a couple dollars, could be a tube of Chapstick.  That’s another very important rule I have too.  I NEVER look ahead. I’m just as surprised as the viewers are when that door is opened each day.

The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd has been going strong for years. What can we expect from the Doctor and the gang in the future?

We’ll be starting our eighth season early on in 2010. Our last season, season seven, was a bit of a departure from our usual formula that saw our characters jump in and out of works of classic literature, but in season eight the crew will be back traveling through time just like before. We’ll have our usual gaggle of special celebrity guest stars as well, but I gotta keep a lid on just who they are for now.  We’ll also be debuting more video. We’ve launched Letters To Dr. Steve where the Evil Mastermind Dr. Steve and his assistant Fidgert answer real letters sent in by kids and we’ll be doing more of that in 2010 for sure.

This band began as a solo project by Aaron Gillespie, so how did you get involved with The Almost?

I think from the beginning he always anticipated that he’d need to and want to play it live and he needed a band, so that’s where I came in. He was like “look man, I gotta put together this band” and I really liked the songs, I thought they spoke for themselves. He was like “do you know anybody else that will be around?” So we put our heads together and picked a few guys who were likeminded and who dug the material. It was just like starting a band from scratch; it was literally the same. There were times where we would hire a guy and he didn’t work out or a person would change their mind, but once we got a lineup it was no different in a lot of ways from saying “hey I want to start a band.”

I can imagine there must be some special difficulties with having the material already there. But you already knew Aaron before joining up with him?

Yes, in fact the only person who didn’t know Aaron was Alex our bass player. He’s a friend of mine. I told him I was going to get this band together and he knew who Aaron was, he just didn’t know him. So Alex is another dude who was there from the first second of the band’s conception.

Your new album [Monster, Monster] was just recently released. What was the recording process like?

It was really interesting. We decided we wanted to capture a vibe and really just go for it on this record. It was an opportunity that we didn’t know if it would present itself again in the way that it did so we decided that we would go and make the best record we knew how to make. And that included starting with a studio that set the right mood for us. And that mean Nashville and Nashville meant Dark Horse Studios. We talked about a couple of producers but when it came down to it the guy whose work speaks for itself and the guy who recorded the first record that we loved so much, Aaron Sprinkle. He’s a guy who’s afraid of flying and I don’t know if he has a phobia of traveling necessarily, but he doesn’t fly. And we asked him to leave his studio in Seattle, which he’d never previously done. I don’t know if he’d ever do it again, but he said yeah, and he drove from Seattle to Nashville. So we got him and the process itself was awesome. It was real collaborative, so much so that we wound up with 17 songs, which these days is pretty incredible. We were able to just make it happen. And it was cool in the sense that if we recorded an entire song with guitars and the next day decided to switch up gear and that tone was better, then we’d go back and record it again. We just wanted to make sure that we got the greatest sound. There was a lot of cookouts and being in the country because it’s kind of a horse ranch too, literally just a barn in the middle of nowhere that has a living compound. So living in Nashville for two months did a number on us in a good way. We definitely started feeling as if we lived there and that really reflected in the songs.

I was looking on your website doing some pre-interview research and I stumbled across a quote that was interesting. It said the album didn’t start out as a concept album, but by accident became one. Would you care to elaborate on that?

I agree with that. I think that we use the term “concept record” loosely. It’s nothing like a Dark Side of the Moon or a Mastodon record, but we knew we wanted to call it Monster, Monster because we knew that we wanted to focus on this part of everybody. Especially being dudes who are, Christian, the part that of people that they may not like or want to improve. And just being able to relate to people through that. In our line of work you tend to get compared or related to people because of how great they think you are or how great you think they are. I think in life, at least in my life, I don’t want to be one of those people that people think they can’t relate too because they don’t think I’m normal. I think in the Christian community you’d say that I’m not perfect, I have my struggles. What wound up happening was that Aaron started writing the lyrics and we organized it so that if you listen to it start to finish it starts off with the title track “Monster, Monster”, and basically saying “hey I’m noticing that I have this problem and it’s an issue.” Throughout the record he changes his tune and his attitude changes till finally you get to the last song which is simply called “Monster,” you realize that he is upset about it and finally a little bit of redemption. In that regard it kind of became a concept record. And then the monster masks [on the cover of the album] got made and it became about the human condition, which we were really excited about and we really related to.

It’s interesting too to see how something takes on a life of its own and becomes something you might not have planned on. As a writer I have that happen a lot. I have something mapped out and the finished product is not what I had in my mind.

Totally. And if you let it do that, I think that’s when the awesome moments come out when you take your hands off the steering wheel and let the car do what it does.

Did you bring any particular musical influences to this album?

When I was coming up as a guitar player I had this list of influences, but anymore? I started to realize what my style is and it has nothing to do with what I listened to. I’m probably more influenced by singers, and I don’t’ have any off the top of my head, but I can say I like guitar work, I like stuff that’s fun to listen to, stuff that gets in and gets out and makes its point. I don’t need a four minute intro. I think we’re all like-minded in that regard. When I set down to write a song I thought “get in, get out, make your point and move on.” My thing is just a driving rock vibe, cause that’s what I like most. That’s what I get stoked about when I listen to music. I always liked metal cause it was angry and anger is honest. A lot of the love songs on the radio are not even written by the people singing them, yet they get heralded as these romantic people. I was influenced by music that was as true as it could be.

I saw that you were recently on tour. How were the new songs received?

I didn’t think the new songs would be received, even if they were the best songs in the whole world, but I guess what happened that as a result of being on tour with The Used, that Used fans didn’t know who we were, so we were drawing the kids that would come out regardless of who we were playing with. I think the majority of them had no idea who we were, so for them old is new also. What we found was playing “Monster, Monster,” “Lonely Wheel,” and “Hands,” was that kids went off even more for the new stuff which was really encouraging. It was a pleasant surprise. We had the old album and the new one for sale and the new one was selling a lot. In my mind that speaks to the solidarity of the new stuff.

If people are responding to it and purchasing the albums based on the concert, I’d imagine they are responding well. Speaking of concerts, what is your approach when doing a live show? Do you try to recreate the songs as you recorded them or experiment with them on stage?

We try to stay as faithful as possible because we have so much production on our records. The songs are recorded in a complex way with a lot of guitar tracks, because we have three guitar players. With vocals three of us sing. The songs are 100% true to the record except for songs that fade out or flow into one another on the record. Other than that we don’t deviate. But we’re very much a live band because we come from a school of bands that bled for it on stage. I hope that translates. Honestly that kind of pisses me off when you want to hear “Hotel California” and the Eagles do a greatest hits medley and you’re like “Dude, where’s my song?” It’s rare for me to hear a different rendition of a song that’s better. The same with covers. It happens, but it’s rare when you hear it and say “that’s how it should have been played.” There is one time, you know that song “Wonderwall”? Ryan Adams did a cover that now Oasis plays.

I’ve heard the Ryan Adams version but I didn’t know Oasis had picked up his rendition of it.

That’s the rumor cause it’s so good. I don’t know how often they do it, but I’ve heard a recording of it.

As a musician, what role do you think the internet and online music stores have helped in getting your music out? Or have they?

First of all, the internet is unmatched as far as any kind of marketing tool. There are bands that are massive because of MySpace and Facebook. They’re not even signed some of them. But the internet’s a total double-edged sword because while my band wouldn’t be a commodity without the internet, if my band was a commodity we’d sell a bunch more records without the internet. If we were still as big without the internet somehow, I’m playing Devil’s Advocate here, but kids would have to buy it because the other side of the internet begin a marketing tool is that kids get it for free. But it’s a chicken or an egg thing because labels don’t make as much money as they did–not even close–so they’re putting out a ton of bands. I hear records so bad that you delete it – you steal it and you don’t even want it. Have you ever done that? Is file sharing wrong? Absolutely, it’s against the law, and I don’t care about these arguments people make about freedom of information, but right now it is illegal and that means you’re stealing. So I don’t condone it and I don’t file share, but I do download a majority of my music and I get that from iTunes and Amazon. So what role does the internet play? iTunes makes up a really good amount of records that we sell. It’s substantial. While iTunes is great and I’m a customer, but iTunes is only there because there’s a legal version of what people discovered on there own to do illegally. At the same time I’ll also say there’s so many crappy bands that you shouldn’t have to buy the records for the one decent song and the rest of the record be a waste of time and money. But the bands who are working hard and deserve the sale are getting lost in the process. But I’ll never stand up against my fans who all they want is my music and still come to shows. But it’s ruining the industry. Even though I understand why people do it, I just feel like I can’t stand up and tell people not to do it other than it being illegal. Even though it’s ruining my lifeblood, it’s one of those situations where CDs don’t need to be $13 and they don’t even need to be $7. So maybe the internet is great for marketing, but it’s also killing the industry. But maybe it’ll restructure itself. I think the only thing they’re dong wrong is that records are too expensive and until they make them cheaper kids aren’t going to buy them.

So what’s next for The Almost?

Well the record’s relatively new, about a month old, and we just got off of tour so we’re going to enjoy the holidays at home and then head back out again. We’re looking for all the opportunities, and our plans for 2010 is we’re going to Australia for the Soundwaves festival and we’re going to do the entire festival. For summer there’s talk of the Warped Tour, hopefully we’ll be able to negotiate that. Other than that, constant writing and refining what we do.

We all thought the EP was dead and dying here in the digital age. What possessed you to resurrect it?

Ha, there’s actually EP’s popping up everywhere now it seems. A lot of artists are looking for an affordable and quick way to keep things moving, keep things fresh. Thanks to the digital music explosion, and the ease of uploading music to itunes and other digital servers, the process is easy and low pressure for the artist or label.

For this EP though, we were looking to create a marketing push for the new single “All I Want”, and an EP was a great way to boost its name and visibility.

What’s special to you about the song “All I Want” that you’ve built an entire EP around it?

Like I said, it’s the next single, but also, it’s by far the overall fan favorite. Everyone involved with me has always believed in that song the most on my album and so we finally decided to make it a single. I’ve played the song at a number of fans’ weddings and it always is the most special moment of my live shows. 

You’ve positioned “Too Late (Never Said)” directly after “All I Want” – should we interpret one as being a sequel to the other lyrically?

No… “Too Late (Never Said)” is actually 3 years older than “All I Want”. It was a song I had on an independent record from 3 years ago and when we were trying to think of a new song to include on the EP, nothing matched “All I Want” more in tone than “Too Late”. Plus, it’s always been a favorite of mine, so I wanted to get it back into the marketplace.

iTunes just featured you in the “New and Noteworthy” section next to Lady Gaga and Rihanna. How does that make you feel?

I’m not going to lie, it’s awesome! I’m a huge pop music fan, and the day the EP was released we charted really high. It was funny seeing my CD next to Phil Collins, Hall and Oates, and Michael Buble on the iTunes Pop Charts. Whatever it means, who cares, it was freakin rad…

The new year is just around the corner. What have you got planned for 2010?

I’ve started writing a new album. I’m finally in that place where I’m ready to look forward to Curtis 2.0. I really want the next record to feel like a celebration, I’m going to work real hard on this one to get what I’m hearing in my head to get into an enjoyable “audio form”…

Enter the Pocketpal by MiLi, a USB wall charger which attempts to offer the best of both worlds in that it’s about as small as the current bundled iPhone wall charger but offers retractable prongs which disappear into the body of the charger when not in use. And in a move away from the all-white chargers offered by Apple and most third parties, the Pocketpal comes in five different two-tone color combinations; my test unit is black with bright blue trim.

In short, the Pocketpal works equally well for use with an iPhone or an iPod (any iPod model except the shuffle). It doesn’t come with a cable, but that merely presumes you’re going to use the cable that came with your iPhone or iPod. I’d like the prongs to be a little easier to flip out, as I had to use both thumbs simultaneously, but that got easier the more I got used to it.

So why not a higher rating? The wall charger I’d been using, from RadTech, only costs ten dollars and has prongs that are a little easier to flip out (the RadTech charger also comes with two USB ports for $15). Then again, the RadTech charger is quite a bit larger and very generic looking; the Pocketpal, while not matching my iPhone or any of my iPods stylistically, has its own sense of stylishness. So if you want a small retractable wall charger in your choice of colors, and don’t mind paying a bit of a premium for the privilege, MiLi’s Pocketpal is an easily recommendable option.

Having just returned home from tour, and not long after the release his “Where The Wild Things Are” concert DVD, Steve was happy to broach any topic that came up – but the vibe of the room we were sitting in dictated that we start with Apple, a topic which has been a part of Steve’s life for three decades…

When did you first find your way into the Apple stuff?

The very, very beginning. I’ve had every version of Apple desktop, from the first one. Before that I bought Commodore computers. It was very thrilling. You know it’s kind of funny, just for nostalgia it would have been nice to have kept at least one permeation of each generation, but then again, I’d have to build another house to hold them all. But I’ve always taken information and moved it forward.

Were you an early adopter with the iPod and iPhone?

Absolutely. I was late to use a cellphone in general. But as soon as iPods were available, my only problem was getting past the inferior sound quality of the audio. It’s improved quite a bit once the lossless came out, and now you can buy much better resolution. If I had to go find a CD player right now, I wouldn’t know where to look.

But I was very unhappy with using cellphones. I avoided them my whole life. And I’ve had them, you know, the cellphones where you’ve got to open them and then type the three letters before you get to the letter you want, and they were just so user unfriendly and unintuitive and such a pain in the ass to navigate through that it was like a nightmare every time I would open up my cellphone. So I never used it. And the reason why I finally got a cellphone was because Apple came out with one that I knew would be intuitive and user friendly, but still I was very apprehensive. But my kids live in a new generation. If I call them and leave a message they don’t return the call. If I email them they don’t even return emails. The only way that I was able to communicate with my kids was to start texting them. So I had to get something that I could text with, cause I wasn’t gonna go through it with these idiotic cellphones. And as soon as I got the iPhone I realized that the texting was a great way to communicate, but forget it man, now the iPhone has got everything. It’s like a conduit for me, and a lot of people, to my everyday activities.

It looks like you’re enjoying it. I see you on there with Tweetie, posting on Twitter.

I tweet, I keep track of exercise routes and bike rides. I just got the Starbucks app, there’s so many apps that I use constantly. The flashlight app is just priceless.

I have these apps that when I travel they’re priceless. When I travel, I wake up in a city, I don’t even know where I am sometimes. The first thing I do is turn on my iPhone, I see where I am, I see what time it is in that location, I hit “Map” and I find out exactly where I am, and I can look at the surroundings to see where I can go jogging. I just type in “Starbucks” and it gives me everything I need to know about that. I see where the venue is. I see what the temperature is. And I have a complete lay of the land before I leave the bus. This is valuable.

I see you’ve got Guitar Toolkit on there.

I’ve got Guitar Toolkit, if I’m in Europe I have language converters, I have money converters, feet and inch converters, everything. Dictionaries that I use constantly. I have this fitness program that I really like. I’m constantly using G-Park. I’d be doomed without it. I’m losing my spot constantly. And there’s all these great music programs for ear training and composing. One of my favorites is a Woody Allen quote book. I’m always looking for films.

For recording song ideas it’s absolutely priceless. That’s how I write songs. I take my iPhone and I just sing a melody, or I play a melody, and I have hundreds of them in there right now. And then I have notes for song ideas constantly. I never did this before. Before, whenever I would come up with an idea, I would have to scramble to try to find something. It’s really a wonderful tool. And the really great thing about it is if you lose it, no problems. You just buy another one, they’re cheap, and you’ve got everything backed up on your computer.

I have my quibbles, you know. When is the Flash coming out? What up with that? Come on.

You’re on both sides of the whole iTunes platform, though, because you make a living selling your music, and you were doing that for quite awhile before the iTunes Store came out. Did you have to be convinced to put your music into the store when it was first coming out?

No, not at all. I was waiting a long time for this to happen, and I’m looking forward to the future generations of the development of music delivery, for higher quality, quicker delivery, and more secure financial transactions for intellectual property. And I know it’ll happen. I’m sure it’ll happen, because there’s too many people who make a living creating music, and if they don’t get paid for what they do, they can’t do it. And it’s not as bad as a lot of people think, you know? People still buy music online.

But I was very excited when it became available, because I saw it before it even came out as an evolution into the future.

We’re kind of at a crossroads here because we’ve got the iTunes Store and it’s got video and everything, and yet here you’re releasing a DVD, which you’re still putting out as a physical medium. They’re still very popular.

Yeah they’re still very popular, there’s still a big market and there always will be some kind of a market for physical product because it satisfies a certain tactile kind of need that a lot of people have. I love physical product. But I just don’t get it these days unless it’s something special. There’s a few artists that when they release something I go out and I get the physical product. If Tom Waits releases anything, I always have the physical product because I want this book in my hand. I don’t care about that idea for a lot of other artists, but there’s a handful.

How do go about saying “I’m going to make a DVD of this show”? How do you decide it’s going to be this show and this town and this date?

Well the first thing that I do is I come up with an idea that I can pretty much put into a sentence or a few sentences. And when I decided to do this DVD, I had just finished a double live orchestra project that took two years of intensive work, and I wanted to get out on tour but I didn’t have any new product. So the idea was to put a band together that was unique instrumentation, so that I could go out and do a relatively short tour and just kind of satiate the playing thing, and bring a little bit of a different dimension to some of the tracks. So I hired two violinists, and it turned out phenomenally well. And I always like to capture a tour or a band at their peak. So the idea is to do a tour with a unique band and get a DVD and a CD out of it that’s… I put a string of adjectives together: uplifting, musically interesting, unique to my catalog, and it just happens. You have to have the picture first, and then everything else falls into place.

Then I have to put the repertoire together, and I just went through the catalog and picked songs that I knew would work with this instrumentation, and then we scheduled a month, thirty days, of fifteen hour a day practices, six days a week. And then we rehearsed, then I booked a month in Europe, a month in America, and we went to South America. And usually, you can rehearse til you’re blue in the face, but going out on tour and actually being in an environment where people are there and the lights are out is a while different world. So it takes probably about a week or two weeks of being on tour for the band to blow out the bugs, you know, and really start getting ripe. Usually the six week mark is when they’re at their peak performance. And so that was during the American leg, and so I thought where is a really great place to film it and record it? And the State Theatre in Minneapolis was the pick because I love Minneapolis, the State Theatre is gorgeous, it’s historical. It’s got a big wooden stage, which is really nice.

Everybody likes to talk about you taking lessons from Satriani back in the day, and the baton being passed and such. When you come across someone like Orianthi, do you feel like there’s almost an obligation, because of the position you’re in, to help foster the next one?

You can’t really help but to feel somewhat nurturing to a young artist that has potential, and finds you one of their inspirations. It’s very nice to be able to give them some advice or to help them out in some way if you can. You never know what they’re going to turn into. I mean, I’ve worked with very young artists that had a lot of potential but just didn’t know how to cultivate it. Being a great musician isn’t about how well you play. That’s about being a good player. Being a great musician is how well your intellect can turn your imagination into reality in the world.

When I saw Orianthi she was fifteen, and she was opening for me in Adelaide, Australia, and she showed tremendous potential. She played really well. It was obvious. You can’t play an instrument like that unless you love the instrument, and that’s always really nice to see. So through the years I just stayed in touch with her. She had a lot of potential to be a pop goddess, pop rock goddess, if she wanted to, and that’s what she’s chosen. And I think she wears that badge very proudly. And actually for my taste she brings a new dimension to that whole kind of thing. But she also had a lot of great guitar finesse and ability. And how that’s going to be displayed in the future is going to be up to her. But she can play. She can really play.

Now that we’ve got these new tools like Twitter and Facebook, do you find that that’s adding to your ability to relate to your fans?

Absolutely. It’s like you’re stalking them, because if they’re interested they can know what you want them to know, and you can let them into a particular part of your life. And you can do anything, you can fabricate a whole different kind of a character. If I want, I could lie to my fans and create fantastic things. I’m not comfortable doing that. But frankly, when I look at all my posts that I’ve tweeted, they’re very interesting. I don’t tweet things like “Well I’m gonna go to the store now and get some food.” I know there’s a sector of people that would be interested in hearing all that, but I just don’t want to take the time to do it. It’s kind of narcissistic too in a way, you know? So I try to give them things that I believe they would find interesting, something that can relate to their life or just peering into a little portion of my life. I’m relatively private though. There’s things I just don’t discuss.

One thing I saw you mention on Twitter was something about renting a warehouse and going underground for four months. Is that a project you can talk about?

Yeah, it’s my next project. And I basically approached it like I approach all my projects, I set up some parameters, and I’ve just started to put the parameters together. One of them was you have to do something unique that you’ve never done before, and perhaps something that no one has ever done. I don’t know what that is, but I started to get excited about the idea of it. And what happens is it just unfolds. And it did. And it requires a warehouse. But unfortunately I really don’t want to discuss the particulars of it yet. But my goal is to make it very musical, very uplifting, melodic, accessible, entertaining, and my goal is to evolve my potential into areas that I’m not even aware that I’m capable of. And that’s very important for an innovator. You have to be conscious of going to places that you’re ignorant of.

Can you say whether or not it’s guitar oriented?

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that’s in my prerequisite is guitar up front on a silver platter through the entire thing. So I’m not going to be doing a lot of overdubs. Very intimate guitar.

You’re coming up on fifty. Is that causing you to rethink or reevaluate, professionally or personally, or is it just another number to you?

Well, both, you know? I’m very satisfied and content with all I’ve achieved. I never thought I’d ever achieve so much. And I’m very happy where I am. I don’t have any burning desires or regrets for things that I should have accomplished and I didn’t. Sure, I wish I had ten more records, it would be nice, but I don’t really care. I’m one of those people who feel that everything is evolving as it should. Having said that, one of the things that I’ve realized is that it’s great to have tons and tons of ideas, but in reality, a small percentage of them are going to be made real because it’s impossible with the amount of time that’s left. So what it’s caused me to do is prioritize. I like the idea of being fifty. I don’t mind growing old. I don’t want to be forty-nine again, or thirty-five again, or twenty-one or none of that shit. But I do understand that I’ve come face to face with the reality that you have this many ideas, and when I was twenty-five that was great. But really, from the time I was twenty-five to now, maybe I’ve only accomplished three percent of these ideas. So it’s a very rejuvenating process to take that list of ideas and try to burn it, and just pick the handful of the most important ones, cut out all the fat. So that’s what I’ve been in the process of doing. And turning fifty next year has helped me to come to grips with letting go of nonsensical projects.

Are you going to keep the long hair?

I grow it and then I cut it, then I grow it, then I cut it.

I always do that, and every time I grow it out I say it’s the last time.

I do too. Then I cut it and I go “Man, you look like such a dork. Grow your hair.”

The main screen of the app is a listing of all current NASA missions (space shuttle, space station, Ares rocket, and Mars rovers) that you can click on to get more information. Each mission page has a short description of the mission plus a cool timer of how long the mission has been active. For example, as of this writing, the International Space Station has been in orbit for 4034 days, 9 hours, 53 minutes. The top of each mission page has several tabs that you can tap on to access other relevant information like photos, videos, and updates for that mission. The photos page is well-implemented, taking advantage of the iPhone’s tilting function to display full-screen photos. There is also a button at the top of the screen to email the current image to yourself or a friend.

It’s a similar situation with the videos page. There is a list of a variety of videos pertaining to the mission, ranging from mission updates to launch videos. Tapping on one launches that video in the iPhone’s YouTube app, automatically returning to the NASA app once the video finishes playing.

The list of updates for each mission is essentially a combination of all recent Twitter updates relating to that mission. Fortunately, the list of Twitter updates is pre-filtered to remove irrelevant posts from that feed — for example, the space shuttle feed only has shuttle-related posts from the main NASA feed, not all posts. These are generally updated in bursts whenever something happens with a mission, and can be a useful way of keeping track of a launch or landing.

When applicable, the most interesting tab of all displays the location of a spacecraft superimposed on a Google map of the world, along with the path it will take. While not particularly useful, it’s always fun to see if the International Space Station might show up in the sky above you sometime in the near future.

There are also NASA-wide feeds available, which are pretty much the same information with a wider focus. Instead of mission-specific images you get NASA’s Image of the Day and Astronomy Picture of the Day feeds. Likewise, the updates can be filtered to include any NASA-run Twitter feeds you want to see.

The main issue with the NASA app is that it doesn’t offer very much that couldn’t be done with a well-designed web app. Although the information available is presented quite nicely, there’s not much that you couldn’t find by browsing nasa.gov in Safari. However, this app does deserve credit for presenting that information in a clear, quick-to-load format. I’d like to see a little bit more in the way of space-related science news, but in the meantime if you’re looking for a solid, frequently-updated news app that focuses on space issues, you can’t do much better than the NASA app.



Rather than merely releasing your Christmas songs as a five-song EP, you’ve built an entire radio-style hosted show around them. Where did you get the idea to build it out into an entire show?

Well, like most good ideas, it came from a convergence of two paths. I’d been doing High Orbit, an outer-space indie music podcast for a few years and a lot of my fans really loved it.  So many of them got attached to my robot characters that I even gave Prodo-1 a cameo of sorts in my 2007 album Goodbye Planet Earth. Lately the podcast had faded since I just don’t have the time to revive it yet, but I still get requests to bring it back. The other inspiration came from watching the Star Wars Holiday Special recently.  Twice.  Fortunately, both times we had Rifftrax running, so I didn’t grab an ice pick and gouge out my brain to make the pain stop.

Since I’ve been trying to come up with inspiration for a Christmas album for about 3 years now, the idea just clicked: why not bring back High Orbit for a special episode and play my own music instead of other bands?  I can do traditional Christmas tunes but still keep the sarcastic vibe I like to roll with in the studio.

The Christmas songs are a mixture of traditional standards like Away In A Manger and fun send-ups like Merry Christmas From Cell Block 2. What motivated you to go in both of those directions on the same album?

Well I knew I couldn’t do a Christmas album without a few of the standards.  I also wanted to make sure I kept at least one religious carol- after all, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The season encompasses many different wonderful holidays, but Christmas itself is a specific religious event and I wanted to honor that. As for the originals…  well, when you’re locked in a studio talking to imaginary robots for a few weeks, some things just seem like good ideas at the time.

The spoken-word sections of the album include a robot, a shark named Mr. Bruce… are all of voices yours?

Typically I voice all the characters in a High Orbit episode, but I’ve always tried to bring in friends when I can.  For The High Orbit Holiday Special, I got to bring in my room mates, Brad and Jess Bonn, as several characters including the big bad evil space shark. The special holiday intro was voiced by the very talented Bob Brooks, the same guy I hired to do the intro for the podcast. I just love that guy’s voice… unfortunately, the hard plastic version of the album shipped without his name on it, something I remedied in the digital version.  Just think of him as the James Earl Jones of High Orbit.

You’ve released one of your Christmas songs as a podsafe single so that podcasters can legally use it for free, just as you’ve done for past, non-Christmas albums. Is it safe to say at this point that you’re podsafe for life?

Podcasts are just like radio to me, only people actually listen to podcasts.  I still hope that someday most podcasters will be able to buy performance right licenses from organizations like BMI- just like radio stations.  It’s the only way that songwriters like me get paid for use of our songs.  I understand, though, that most podcasters are hobbyists and not making a dime off of their shows.  I’d rather give them something good to play than try and squeeze someone who just loves the music.

Your last non-Christmas album, Goodbye Planet Earth, was released about two years ago. What can you tell us about the next one?

Well, actually, I have started releasing Songs from the Vault.  They’re not cohesive album projects like Goodbye Planet Earth or Beer & Coffee, they’re the archives from Matthew Ebel dot net.  I release 2 new songs every single month to my subscribers at www.matthewebel.net and, a year or so later, those songs are released to the rest of the world.  When I get a good, solid idea for an album, I’ll dive on it like I did for The High Orbit Holiday Special, but until then all my inspiration goes straight to my subscribers. Every single month.

First things first: Macworld has traditionally been in early January. Why did you move it to mid-February this year?

Macworld 2010 has moved from our traditional first week of January dates to February 9-13th the based on input from exhibitors and attendees. It was a stress to exhibitors to get new products ready and deal with the logistics of planning for the show through the holidays. Similarly for many attendees, the first week of the year is typically a back to work week after having time off through the holidays. We’d heard the the input to move for years – this year, some suitable dates became available at Moscone and we were able to take advantage of the opportunity and deliver on probably our top customer request.

You’ve had a significant amount of participation from the iPhone and iPod community from the start, but the App Pavilion in the exhibit hall is new this year. What’s that all about?

Macworld is always a mirror of what’s going on in the Apple products marketplace. Obviously one of the most interesting and dynamic areas this year has been the explosive growth in iPhone and iPod touch apps. We launched the Mobile App Showcase at Macworld 2010 to be the first place where attendees can get face to face exposure to new apps – try them out and meet representatives from the companies that develop the app. In many cases, attendees will get to interact with the actual developer.  We expect to host around 100 app developers all together. It’s an exciting new addition to the show that we think people are really going to enjoy.

What have you got on tap for the conference tracks this time around?

There’s education everywhere at Macworld 2010 – our conference sessions cover a host of topics to help people get more use out of their Mac, iPhone and favorite apps. The conferences offer power user tips on using Snow Leopard, techniques to further your interest in photography and videography, how Apple technology is being used in education and small business. We’re presenting over 150 total sessions – lectures, demonstrations and panel discussions, taught by a stellar faculty of experts from around the world. We also have quite a bit of free education on the show floor, including our Music Studio where the Berklee College of music, and special guests, will be presenting how to make music with Apple technology- great content for music educators, songwriters, bands and musicians.

“Silent Bob” himself, acclaimed director/screenwriter Kevin Smith, will be one of the featured speakers. I know he’s been an iPhone user from day one, because he was standing in line with the rest of us to buy one at the Apple Store back in 2007. What can we expect from Kevin?

In a word – humor. In two words – adult humor. Kevin will be doing the Q&A format he’s made popular on his speaking tours and DVD. Anything goes, and attendees should be prepared for answers very much in the style of Kevin’s films – thoughtful, funny and often laced with the kind of language that his home state of New Jersey is known for. This will definitely be a highlight for attendees – admission is free, but lines for this will be long and it is first come, first served. Those who make it in will be treated to wit and wisdom from one of the great Apple-using storytellers of our time.

David Pogue and Leo Laporte will also be speaking. What have they got on tap for attendees?

David moves to our opening slot to deliver “Late Night with David Pogue” – even though it’s at 9am, and we look forward to David being his infamous wry, witty, entertaining and insightful self. Along with thoughts on what’s going on in the tech industry in general and the Apple market in particular, I expect a song parody or two and a few other surprises. Leo Laporte is taking over David’s old spot as the host of “Macworld Live” – a Conan-style talk show featuring guests of interest from around the technology and entertainment industries. Leo’s shared with me some of the guests he’s inviting – it’s still a surprise, but suffice it to say attendees will see some very cool people and enjoy hearing from Leo, one of the best regarding personalities in the tech world today.

There are bound to be some skeptics wondering if they should still attend Macworld 2010 now that Apple is no longer participating in trade shows. What do you say to those skeptics?

This is the new era of Macworld. For 25 years we’ve been helping product developers and users find each other in this interesting “marketplace” called Macworld. It’s part fanfest, part shopping excursion, part social networking brought to life, and part professional development university. Close to 300 companies will be exhibiting this year, many of them new to the marketplace. Additionally, the Mobile App Showcase will be the largest face to face showing of iPhone apps. All of this makes for a compelling product viewing experience. Our conferences continue to deliver timely, relevant training information to help everyone from the IT professional to the hobbyist become more proficient and get more enjoyment out of the Apple-related products. There’s really no conference environment like it in the world – putting musicians, photographers, videographers, IT professionals, educators, graphic designers, small business people, hobbyists and pro-sumers alike into a learning environment. Like interests find each other and help each other at appropriate levels, and the cross-pollination expands horizons for all involved.

And of course, our faculty is second to none – the best thinkers and doers in the Apple community sharing what they’ve learned over the past year on all things related to using Apple-products. And then there’s the social vibe, which Macworld is really kind of famous for. The impromptu conversations of people sitting in circle on the floor, the after hours get togethers, the social parties. In a world where people increasingly interact virtually, the value of a week of face to face interaction can’t be understated.


What are the best ways to stay connected with Macworld 2010 between now and February?

There are several ways to stay connected:

Website – www.macworldexpo.com


Twitter – follow @MacworldExpo


Facebook – become a Fan at www.facebook.com/macworld

As was the case with the 1, the 2 comes with all the trappings of the 3, including a zippered hard carrying case, an attachable volume wheel (which is larger than it really ought to be), a quarter inch adapter for traditional stereo systems, and a whole array of single and triple flanged rubber earbud tips of various sizes and colors, plus multiple-sized sets of squishable foam tips – the latter of which I’ve found capable of delivering noticeably superior audio quality over their rubber counterparts.

And man oh man do the Westone 2 earbuds ever sound great. Are they worth their pricetag? Absolutely. Are they the best-sounding $249 earbuds I’ve ever listened to? Yes. So why couldn’t I give them five stars? At only 60% of the price of the 3, I wouldn’t expect the 2 to measure up in terms of audio quality. But the difference is that the 3 has this magical quality where you’d swear you’re listening to big cup-style headphones – and you’d seriously consider robbing a bank just to afford the $399. The 2, on the other hand, doesn’t have that same magical feeling such that listening to them would make you consider a life of crime just to cover their $249 price tag.

So that gut-level difference tells me that the Westone 2 is not a five star product. It is, however, worth every penny if you can afford it. I just wish Westone would hurry up and start offering iPhone-specific versions of its earbud products.