Rewind back to the Spring of 2000 and I'd done a few stories for my college newspaper, The Badger Herald (I innocently answered a couple of trivia questions they had about John W. Campbell (the author of the story that inspired The Thing and Gordon Parks (the director of Shaft, can you dig it?) and found out that they were looking for writers...) which lead to a couple of stories in the album collector magazine, Goldmine, which lead me to be on a bunch of rock publicist's mailing lists. So, I get a notice that Glenn Danzig was doing interviews and Hell, who wouldn't want to talk to the Evil Elvis himself? I wanted to do it, but I didn't know any magazines that were interested. I met Rökker, Max Ink's publisher, a short time earlier at his first Bomblastica party (which incidentally was the first time I got to see Rockford's cowpunk-metal gods, The Goodyear Pimps, and we've played with them a dozen times since) and I thought, hell, he's gotta want to have a little Danzig in his magazine, right?
Well, I was wrong on that account, because he wasn't interested at all. But, he was looking for some stories anyway and that meant I could probably get some ad space in for Sunspot and then (as now) we could use all of the promotion that we could get. So, he floated some stories at me that summer and I started writing and never really stopped. So, looking back, I've gotten to cover almost all of my favorite local Madison acts, but there are some big articles that I'm pretty proud of (I'm definitely not proud of all of them, ha, there's a ton where I hacked my way through, including two go-rounds with Buckcherry, but we don't have to talk about those.)
Most of the articles are online from 2005 on, but I've been writing for them regularly since 2000, and some of my favorites are interviewing some of the artists that have influenced Sunspot and to be able to ask them questions about their art has been enlightening. I loved talking to Butch Vig because he's the living epitome of Hometown-Boy-Who-Done-Good. Hell, he's still making awesome albums a decade and a half after the Alternative Nation has died out and he was just about as nice, honest, and interesting as you could hope from someone whose sonic skills defined most of what my 1990's high school mind considered what music should sound like. Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai were goddamn inspirational and it was nice that their personalities matched their talent.
Some guys just go through the motions. Rob Zombie was pretty nice, but you could tell that he was just doing press to promote the White Zombie box set and didn't really care that much about the band anymore (indeed, he mentioned that after the last show they played together, they didn't even say goodbye, they just got into their separate tour buses and rode off.) Brian Wheat from Tesla was alright, but he's he bass player, how much does he have to say? Well, I shouldn't say that, because Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith was really cool.
Some guys you think are going to be total dicks, but end up being really nice. I was fully prepared for Art Alexakis from Everclear to be a prick, but he was lovely as can be. Michael Schenker was cool as hell and I would never expect that from a guy who wears fucking sunglasses in all his press pictures (helluva guitarist, though.) Even Juliette Lewis was legitimately sweet and excited when she was talking about her album. But the biggest surprise was probably Yoko Ono. Yeah, that chick is weird. But you expect that, probably the most interesting thing is somehow her earnest hippie bullshit worldview becomes infectious. By the time I was done talking to her, I was all like "Peace, love, and art, man" too. She had such a natural energy, I really couldn't believe that so much piss was thrown in her direction for so long.
Anyway, it's just weird to think that I ended up typing out hundreds of thousands of words for something that I thought was just a cool way to get to talk to Glenn Danzig (who I eventually interviewed for the magazine in 2004 and surprisingly my phone didn't burst into flames - tip to parents, he did say that his gateway drug to Satan was Edgar Allan Poe, so watch your kids when they come home from 7th Grade English Class!) It's been an awesome opportunity, so pick up the copy of the next issue (don't forget to look for the Sunspot ad) and listen to Max Ink Radio, these guys (and I guess I'm included in that bunch by now, too) have been supporting Wisconsin music (even running some stories about Sunspot over the years) for over a decade and a half. And here's to many more years!
Here's us at a Max Ink party in 2005 and we're celebrating winning the Wisconsin Area Music Award for Artist of the Year. Check out the dude in the blue, he is not fucking impressed.
