Actually, I recorded this song with a short-lived band in college called "Rubber Band", and the song was called Fifth Avenue. Anyway a couple of friends of mine back at home heard the song and liked it, and decided we needed to rename the band "Mat on Mat" and become a hit in Sweden. Anyway, later on I started writing and recording solo work and I thought the name was cute, so I used it.

I have played a few solo shows, probably close to ten. Generally I don't like doing it very much, because my songs tend to suffer from just having one guitar and vocals, and the times I've tried to have my computer accompany me with drum machines and such it's tended to flake out in the middle of songs, which is embarassing. I've had some pretty great live moments playing in bands; that's the most fun thing in the world. No good stories at the moment, though, just sort of what you'd expect would be awesome about playing live rock to a receptive audience.

Well, musicians never made much money from selling CDs, so the availability of free music doesn't really hurt them much, directly at least. It does hurt record companies' profits, which, at least in theory, means they're less able to take risks on unknown artists. Of course, the fact that music can now be distributed for next to nothing on the internet means that record companies shouldn't have to make as much of an investment, but there's still stuff time, marketing, all that fixed-price stuff. Perhaps the recording industry is doomed, but who cares? The music industry lives on. All music should be free!

Maybe as a solo musician. The band I'm in the process of forming, we've already decided we're going to be a one-act record label, just incorporate as a business but then only release our own records. We're called No Records. Get it?

Anyway, as I was alluding to before, it's getting harder and harder for the process of recording and releasing music to be profitable, right? But if you consider that process to be just a part of the entire business of being a band, of making music and getting it out there, and as more of a promotional tool than a moneymaker, I think bands are in just as good shape as they've always been (but less reliant on a label).

The Mountain Goats, Death Cab for Cutie, The Cure, Elliott Smith, Neutral Milk Hotel, John Vanderslice, The Dismemberment Plan, my friends Eric Lindley and Don Stewart.

The Gasworks, Seattle, WA

I can't stand rock bands that go on and on on their website about their guitars and amps and pedals, as if anyone cares.

I will let on that I record onto ProTools through an Mbox, using an AT3035 large-diaphragm condenser, some sort of Octava small-diaphragm condenser, and a Shure SM57 dynamic mic.