Interviews – Page 9 – Spinning Platters

Spinning Platters Interview: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt directing for the first time.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has exactly the air about him that you’d expect — polite, well-dressed, and charming as heck. His latest film, Don Jon, which marks his debut as a writer and director, also stars Gordon-Levitt as a womanizing, body building, porn addict who begins a romantic relationship with a romantic, traditional, sexy young woman played by Scarlett Johansson. It’s a romantic comedy about unhealthy expectations, but Gordon-Levitt expects that it’ll resonate well with audiences. Along with a few other journalists, I sat down with the actor/writer/director (or “Joe” as he introduced himself) and asked about his experience making Don Jon…

What inspired you to choose this particular story for your directorial and writing debut?

Well, I’ve been working as an actor since I was young. Probably because of that, I’ve always paid a lot of attention to the way that TV and movies and all kinds of media affect how we see the world. I think, sometimes, the things we see in the media give us certain unrealistic expectations for life, and especially for love and sex and relationships. I wanted to tell a story about that. I thought a good way to do it would be to have a comedy about a boyfriend and a girlfriend where the guy watches too much pornography and the girl watches too many romantic Hollywood movies. They both have these unrealistic expectations and keep missing each other.

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Local Spin: Interview with Eli Conley

Eli Conley suggests I order the breakfast burrito. With a wide grin, he tells me that it’s a great vegan dish. The Virginia native, now an East Bay resident, has a lot to smile about. He’s finished his first full-length album, At the Seams, to be released on September 28th. He’s setting west coast tour dates for the fall and lovin’ life at the moment. At our small table at Herbivore, I could easily tell that Eli, the queer folk singer-songwriter with a powerful passion for music and an equally powerful voice, was anxious to unleash his music unto the world…

Your album, At the Seams, is done and about to be released. How do you feel?

I’m super excited. I actually got the physical CDs two months ago. I know many musicians who had to rush at the end, not having time to master it or not having them in time for a CD release show. So I’m like, ok, I’m recording in April and I should have them in hand by June so I have time to send them out to press. Then I was thinking when to release it in September, and just figured ‘why not just do it on my birthday!?’

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Spinning Platters Interview: Kyle Patrick Alvarez, writer/director of “C.O.G.”

C.O.G. writer/director Kyle Patrick Alvarez

For the first time, a David Sedaris work has been adapted for the big screen. Kyle Patrick Alvarez, the young filmmaker that helmed the acclaimed indie, Easier With Practice (2010), received the great (and very first) honor of a green light from Sedaris and co. to move forward on an adaptation of the short story, C.O.G. I met up with Mr. Alvarez at Luca in West Hollywood to discuss C.O.G.’s journey to the big screen. After some tea and pleasantries, and some friendly banter about other summer flicks like The To Do List and Kings of Summer, we dove in…

How has the festival circuit been treating you?

It’s been good. It’s been different. My first movie didn’t get into any major festivals at all. We really had to fight for it to get into festivals and fight for people to see it. And this time around, getting into Sundance just set a precedent and made it a little easier. The festivals that are going to be interested in your movie will seek you out. Not to say I haven’t inquired about some festivals I’ve wanted to be a part of, but, it does take a little bit of the leg work out of it. So it’s been good. It’s been weird too, a lot of young filmmakers think ‘well you know, it’s a movie so it should play at festivals’ but they don’t ever ask themselves, which festivals and why. Having sold our film out of Sundance, it became about making sure we’re playing the right cities, where we’ll open the movie later down the line, so that people can see it there and be aware of it. It’s just a different strategy, but it’s been great!

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Local Spin: Interview With Social Studies

Social Studies have had an amazing year… They are currently gigging in support of last year’s excellent Developer, and have played high profile gigs at Noise Pop, Phono del Sol, Converse Represent, and most recently opening the Twin Peaks stage at Outside Lands. We recently had the opportunity to chat with Natalia Rogovin, Michael Jirovsky, Tom Smith, Ben McClintock, and Jesse Hudson about the past year’s experiences and the plan for the future. Special thanks to Raffi Youssoufian for helping me out with this interview. Social Studies are playing Bottom Of The Hill on Saturday, September 21st

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9 Quick Questions with Cody ChesnuTT

Cody ChesnuTT is a mysterious figure. In 2002, he put out a record called The Headphone Masterpiece, which caught the attention of The Roots, prompting them to re-record the song “The Seed” as “The Seed 2.0,” creating The Roots first hit single on the rock charts. Then he disappeared for a decade, only to return last year with a whole new record of modern day soul music called Landing On A Hundred. He will be performing at The Independent on Saturday, September 7th. Tickets available here.

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Part One of the Spinning Platters Interview: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of The World’s End

Maybe we can get a fourth movie in this trilogy if we ask nicely.

Tomorrow sees the U.S. release of The World’s End, the third film in a so-called trilogy of films from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting around a table with a group of San Francisco film writers to talk with them for a few minutes. Those few minutes became a lot more minutes, as once they started talking, they had a lot to say. Part one of this two-part interview will touch on subjects such as traveling to England, Raising Arizona, and putting peanuts in a log. Come back tomorrow for part two of this interview, and a review of the movie as well.

You mentioned during a post-film Q&A that you wanted to show parts of England that weren’t London, but then these parts of England that aren’t London have zombies, they have murderers, they have what we see in this movie …

Edgar Wright: Which is basically saying “Don’t go to England.” Continue reading “Part One of the Spinning Platters Interview: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of The World’s End”

Spinning Platters Interview: Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails

Robin Finck, bathed in green at Outside Lands Music Festival

As San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival made a seemingly bold move by including Trent Reznor’s freshly reunited band of heavy hitters in Nine Inch Nails to its weekend roster, some wondered if this was the right decision considering a historically safe trend of artists who provide the soundtrack for having a good time in the park. It ended up working out brilliantly – Nine Inch Nails’ Saturday night closing performance will go down as one of the greatest since the festival started in 2008. Not bad for having to follow Sir Paul McCartney’s nearly three-hour rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza the previous evening. We were lucky enough to catch up with touring guitarist and longest standing live member, Robin Finck, for a few questions just before the musical onslaught. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails”

Spinning Platters Interview: Laurent Brancowitz of Phoenix

It’s been a pretty amazing year so far for Phoenix. Their latest record, Bankrupt!, is receiving amazing reviews, and they are playing to the biggest crowds of their career! We had the opportunity to chat with their guitarist Laurent Brancowitz ahead of their upcoming set at Outside Lands. They are playing the Twin Peaks stage at 8:40 PM on Saturday night. Just a warning, we pretty much only talked about how much we like R Kelly.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Adam Duritz of Counting Crows

The first CD that I ever bought with my own money was August and Everything After, Counting Crows’ debut album. I listened to it to death, and still love it. So, I was pretty giddy when I scored the opportunity to interview their frontman Adam Duritz ahead of their upcoming tour with The Wallflowers. The band is playing two shows in the Bay Area this summer: Wente Vineyards in Livermore on July 17th (Tix Here!) and America’s Cup Pavilion in San Francisco on July 18th (Tix Here!). Plus, if you buy tickets on line in advance, you get a free download of their latest live record, Echoes Of The Outlaw Roadshow!

SP: You used BitTorrent to help promote Underwater Sunshine. Why did you decide to pick such a controversial method to promote the record?

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Round-Table Interview: Simon Pegg and John Cho of “Star Trek Into Darkness”

Simon Pegg and John Cho, reprising their roles as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott and Hikaru Sulu respectively in the newest chapter of the Star Trek film franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness, sat down with a few members of online press outlets to answer a few questions. Dressed in casual clothing and beaming with smiles, the two actors couldn’t be more welcoming and polite. We sat around a tiny circular table and jumped right into it…

J.J. Abrams is a huge fan of the Star Trek franchise, how does the fact that he’s such a big fan of both the Star Trek films and the original TV series translate into the fact that he’s making the new franchise…with this film especially?

Simon Pegg: I don’t think he was. I think he was more of a Star Wars fan growing up.

John Cho: Yeah.

Simon Pegg: And I think he came to Star Trek as somewhat of an outsider…

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