Musician Interviews
"While living in L.A., one of my jobs was talent scouting for child actors and models. It sucked."
"I always wonder how such brilliant musicians could be so unsatisfied with themselves when they have the ability to create art that touches so many people."
Jon Shimmin is a hard-working local drummer with a day job; at night, he's at area clubs behind the skins. He has played in several bands such as the Reaganomics, Junk, and Negative Filter. Sometimes …
Mike Stax moved from the U.K. to San Diego in 1981 to join his favorite band, the Crawdaddys. Two years later Stax launched Ugly Things magazine. "We cover underground garage bands, many of them obscure …
John Hermsmeier, a.k.a. Josh Herms, is a local drummer for hire. "I came to San Diego in 1996 to begin my freshman year at Point Loma Nazarene University," he says. "I developed a number of …
"I was pretty shocked that [Tommy Lee] would call me at 10 a.m. on his birthday."
'I play for a myriad of artists in a variety of venues," says Brandon "the Sideman" Walters. Walters can be seen all over San Diego -- and up and down the West Coast -- performing …
When Deep Purple played 4th&B on August 16, I hoped they wouldn't play "Smoke on the Water," which I consider one of the worst songs of all time. How could they not, though? That riff …
Hip-hop artist MC Flow -- a.k.a. Abby Schwartz -- raps about politics and women's issues. She grew up in New York City and moved to San Diego in 2000 at the age of 30 to …
Steve Serrano, drummer for Dynamite Walls, says that the first night of their first national tour was, unbeknownst to the band, spent in a home where one of Seattle's worst shootings had taken place the …
Since forming in 2005, the CHI Club have been playing shows around San Diego wherever they can. Whether you run across the band rocking on the beach, at a house party, a farmers' market, or …
AntiQuark is a San Diego electronic music duo with an international feel and flair. Ant Dakini is originally from Torino, Italy, and when she is not composing music she works as a marine biologist specializing …
"I don't know. I think they were called Krunk. They didn't last long."
Some of the Beatles' first recordings -- before they became "The Beatles" -- were collaborations with English rocker Tony Sheridan. Today Sheridan frequently appears at Fab Four events, though Blizzard singer/guitarist Chris Leyva says, "I …
Sacha Boutros attended the University of San Diego on an athletic and academic scholarship. "I played soccer growing up; I learned how from hall-of-famer Jean Willrich." She played soccer semiprofessionally for ten years. Going pro …