For years, through different name changes and magazine formats, the staff at "Grip Monthly" / "Catharsis" has sought to bring Virginia closer to the changing tides (and faces) of popular music. Here are some choice excerpts from some of our interviews, 1986-1996.

Ego

"If you're in a band, and you don't believe you're the best fucking band, what's the point?. . . . I want to be big. I mean, it's isn't necessarily the money, but I don't see any reason we shouldn't be playing Shea Stadium." --- Jim Reid, Jesus and Mary Chain, to interviewer George Paaswell, Feb. 1990

Roots

"My first musical experiences were listening to Hank Williams Sr. 8-track tapes. My dad had this Laz-Y-Boy with an eight-track player built into it. You could kick back, do the Laz-Y-Boy thing, and when you hit on the side, there was an 8-track player in there, with speakers behind your head. I'd listen to Hank, and Lefty Frizzell and Roger Miller and that kinda stuff on the Laz-Y-Boy. That actually was 'Southern Culture on the Skids.' --- Rick Miller, Southern Culture on the Skids, to interviewer Brian Greene, Dec. 1990

Bridges

"Gibby (Haynes) and I went to college at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Gibby majored in accounting and economics and I was an art major who got a minor in business and was going on for a master's degree in finance. It got to the point where it didn't seem like it would be real fun trying to make it in the world of accounting and stockbrokering, so we kind of got stupid and burned our bridges. We kind of had to be in a band at that point. (Our early) music sounded just godawful. I can't believe we ever made it. . . we were about the stupidest band that ever was." -- Paul Leary, Butthole Surfers, to interviewer Sue Smallwood, Sept. 1991

Influences

"I think my primary influences were Elvis Presley and a radio station called WLAC that was an R&B station. They'd have R&B shows every night and they'd also have these great gospel shows. . . and the deejay that had these shows was named Hossman Alan. The Hossman! He was a really wild guy, played a lot of incredible music. I think he even went back on the air here in town recently. . . we needed him then. He was playing a lot of these black gospel records that, of course, I had never heard before, being this sort of white middle-class kid from Indianapolis and I used to call the station up all the time. It was scary that music. So intense." -- John Hiatt to interviewer Don Harrison, August 1987

Opportunities

"I dunno. I just blew an awful lot of opportunities when I was younger and had youth and cuteness on my side. During the short period in which I had a chance to become more popular, I was so drugged out that I didn't really have much of a chance. And after I got cleaned up, I was too old, so. . . musically speaking, I'm better than I ever was. I think, I sing better, I play better, I have more control. I can do crazy shit with much more precision. I have more focus, as opposed to the drunken maniac way of doing things which is very-- it can be magical, but. . . I'm really into, well, not being sloppy. Well, I like sloppiness, but I like controlled sloppiness." --- Peter Stampfel to interviewers Charles Olver and Matt Keenan, May 1991

Punk

"(The Mekons are) a punk band. And we've always said we were a punk band. the trouble is that a lot of people in America have a different view of what punk is, sort of like Black Flag, or something that to me has nothing to do with punk... there's no reason you can't play a Gram Parsons song and still be a punk band." --- Tom Greenhalgh, The Mekons, to interviewer Dave Harrison, July 1992

Punque

"Talking Heads played stadiums too and I don't know if you'd call them a rock band." -- John S. Hall, King Missile, to interviewers J. Calacsan and Paul Phillips, July 1991

Contracts

"We signed with TVT Records under the promise of artistic creativity and control and it's been nothing but problems. And now that we've had success, they're trying to take everything away. Now it's like, 'well, you have to do this, you have to have a top-40 song because now you could be a Platinum.' Everything I've done, I've had to kick the door down to do it.. . . I spend the first two hours of each day fighting on the phone and then, 'OK, write music.'" -- Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails, to interviewer Sue Smallwood, March 1991

Creative Control

"I don't have it written into my contract, but I think (creative control) is a bogus issue anyway. You can put it in a contract, and I guess you can hand them a record they don't like. And you know what? They'll put it out! That's it! They won't put any work into it." --- Dean Wareham, Luna / Galaxie 500, to interviewer Clark Street, August 1993

Philosophy

"Songwriting isn't show business." -- Michael Hurley to interviewer Don Harrison, March 1993

Interview

"We had this woman who interviewed us the other day in New Jersey and halfway through the interview she stops and says, 'I think this is going really well, what with the language barrier since Nova Scotia's in Europe and all.' We just stared at her dumbfounded." -- Jay Ferguson, Sloan, to interviewer Paul Phillips, June 1993

Marxism

"A lot of journalists, because they're so lazy and have to come up with a pre-baked thing, just put the tag, 'marxist' on us. But I'm not really a Marxist. the closest I've come to Marxism was subscribing to a monthly magazine called Living Marxism." --- Laetitia Sadier, Stereolab, to interviewer Brian Greene, October 1995

Conspiracy

"The fact that every major corporation, whether its General Electric, Time-Warner, Ford, large corporations that even own the majority of our media, have an interest in war, whether it is making computers that make and run the weapons or making the weapons themselves or parts for airplanes. All you have to do is look at the corporations and who owns them and where some of their interests lie. . . it's just amazing that people don't see the comparison between the rise of fascism in the '30's and the rise of 'friendly fascism' now." --- Phillip Steir, Consolidated, to interviewer Sue Smallwood, July 1991

Advice

"If you know what restaurant has the best grilled cheese, go to it." Terry Adams, NRBQ, as recounted by archivist Charles Olver, Nov. 1989

More Advice

"I was watching Dick Cavett last night and James Garner said, 'People really don't care what kind of actor you are, they just care if they like you.' I think that's a very astute remark. It's difficult to come to that point, I think. I mean, I've always liked James Garner, no matter who he played. That's a real big part of show business (being liked) that I've never tried to address. What you have to do as an artist is to go in and reveal yourself. . . and it really doesn't matter if people like you or not. All you can do is put your cards on the table, be as generous as you can and let the chips fall as they may." --- T-Bone Burnett to interviewer Don Harrison, Nov. 1987

One Theory

"Lately I've been thinking that a lot of (rock) groups come out and make their most vital work right at the beginning. Traditionally, I guess you could say it's usually like that and they're either successful quite soon or they split up quite soon. A lot of people seem to think that, if you're not a big hit by the end of your first year, then you might as well split up, which I think is quite a shame. A lot of people operate under that idea. . . if artists are really successful right away, then you find that their first LP or two tend to be the most interesting. It's a pattern that repeats itself." --- Mark Cox, Wolfgang Press, to interviewer Phil Pegg, August 1993

Role Playing

"(My brother Neil and I) spent years together in Split Enz, but I think we were busy playing the brother roles there and protecting our position, perhaps. And also trying to find our own voices. We needed a bit of time apart, I think, to drop a lot of that stuff. To write songs with somebody you have to be vulnerable, you have to be prepared to make a fool of yourself, suggest a bad idea that might get to the good idea eventually. It's hard to do that with somebody if you're playing a role with them or defending your position" --- Tim Finn, Split Enz / Crowded House / The Finns, to interviewer Sue Smallwood,

Listening

"The hardest thing about record companies is that they want the hit first. The hardest thing to crack is radio. Radio stations want the sound of your record to fit in with others, and Lolita Nation didn't do that. People will tell you not to start your record the way you want to, and they can be very persuasive. it does take some willpower to say, 'I want to start it my way.' I believe that listening should be challenging, and that a record should take the listener somewhere new." -- Scott Miller, of Game Theory / Loud Family, to interviewer George Paaswell, June 1993

Hearing

"Look at the charts now. The radio is catering to the 35-year-old rock audience. It's nothing but watered-down lawyer music. Even today's heavy metal has become too formula. I mean, this devil worship stuff is so stupid. . . people didn't really get it when Alice did 'The Hollywood Squares' a few years ago, but that was the point. Alice didn't really want to be there. That was the fun of it." --- Alice Cooper to interviewer Don Harrison, Dec. 1986

Limits

"I think that music is produced primarily for discovery, to express different kinds of feelings and stuff. And I think it's good not to give yourself limitations. As long as you're honest and coherent with what you do, you have to keep challenging yourself. I hope I can stand behind this speech five years from now." -- Franz Treichler, The Young Gods, to interviewer Phil Pegg, July 1992

Extra Texture

"The sounds I come up with are all premeditated. There's very little spontaneity in my recording. . . What I'm after is texture. It's all about texture and mood and feeling." -- Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 / Spectrum, to interviewer George Paaswell October 1993

Industrial

"What Nine Inch Nails is about is trying to say something honestly over an aggressive electronic landscape of sound. When I wrote (Pretty Hate Machine) I was just concentrating on what was bothering me at the time. I don't know that that's an 'industrial' way to write an album. I don't know that (industrial performers) even care about lyrics or care about anything else." --- Trent Reznor to Sue Smallwood

Background noise

"There's usually a lot of talking and stuff going on when we're playing, but that seems fine. Hopefully the people who want to hear the band can." -- Mark Nelson, LaBradford, to interviewer Stephen Head, Sept. 1996

Synthesis

"I'm really interested in being in a situation where music can be a non-sequiter thing, where you have a foundation of rock instruments and you're maybe putting something completely clashing on top of that. That's something I've done in the past that's always seemed to work. I used to be really into the 'rock band with clarinet' thing." -- Chris Connelly to interviewer Sue Smallwood, Jan. 1992

Outcome

"I never really like anything I do after a certain point. Right when I do it I'm into it and then I'm just creeped out by it after that. Even today I did this in-store at Kemp Mill, a lot of people showed up to get my autograph, and they were playing (Girlfriend) the whole time and I was cringing, going 'turn it off!'" -- Matthew Sweet to interviewer Steve Guion, March 1992

The Continental

"I want to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with Americans. You see, I'm only having breakfast now." -- Julio Iglesias to interviewer Don Harrison, Sept. 1987

Seafood

"It's great being on the water, relaxing, hanging out. A way of life. And, hey, maybe it's even dinner." --Les Claypool, Primus, to interviewer Kari Curles, January 1992