Alexonlyalex Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Once again I've interviewed a staff member from LPL, this time it's Astat. Many people may think he is kind of a "Know All Machine" - I thought it was time to find out more about the guy behind the knowledge mask and asked him for an interview. This time I decided to make a live MSN interview without any cuts or censors. I hope you guys enjoy it! alexonlyalex 19:17 Hi, thank you for your consent to make this interview! anthony 19:17 No problem! alexonlyalex 19:18 Many people are wondering about your knowledge in the music industry, could you explain where the knowledge is coming from? anthony 19:20 When I was still going to college, I was a music major...part of that involved taking business classes. I kept my textbooks from all my music-related classes and I've learned a lot about how the music business works from reading them...and I've had some personal experience with it, both being a musician myself and knowing other musicians. alexonlyalex 19:20 So basically you are an insider? .... to see the full interview in the next post click HERE. Let us know what you think! Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexonlyalex Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 anthony 19:22 I wouldn't really say that, I don't have any direct connections to people involved with major companies in the business, it's more of a "people who know people" connection. For example, my uncle was pretty good friends with Alex Lifeson from Rush in the early 1980's, and he'd go out drinking with him whenever they came to Cleveland! alexonlyalex 19:25 That's really interesting, you mentioned you are musician yourself, could you introduce your band? anthony 19:27 Sure! I actually play in two bands...the first is called Felonie Cassette. It's a female-fronted group that covers a pretty wide variety of genres, our singer calls us "Experimental-Indie-Prog-Punk," although I prefer not to classify us. I play guitar, sing some backing vocals (as well as lead vocals on a couple songs), and help write/arrange a lot of the instrumental portions of our songs. We have a 4-track EP out called "Mashed Potatoes and Graves," you can find us at www.myspace.com/feloniecassette alexonlyalex 19:28 I have heard some songs, you sound pretty much different than other bands you decided against mainstream music? anthony 19:31 It's not really anti-mainstream, our influences just vary a lot, and the combination of them all comes out sounding really unique. I'm influenced just as much by bands like Linkin Park as I am classic rock groups like KISS and Alice Cooper. Our drummer is a huge Avenged Sevenfold fan, and our singer loves My Chemical Romance, Blink-182, and Mindless Self Indulgence, but she also takes influence from female singer/songwriters such as Vanessa Carlton. So when you put all that together...the end result doesn't sound like a lot of other stuff out there, haha. alexonlyalex 19:33 Oh yeah a big bucket of everything anthony 19:35 As for my second band, it's called Froot of the Gloom. It's more of a "just for fun" cover band than anything, consisting of me on lead guitar and vocals, my brother Alex on bass, and our dad on drums. We just play covers, most of which are rock songs from the 60s and 70s. We don't really have any serious plans, the only time we've played live was at my high school graduation party! But since we all live in the same house, getting together for band practice isn't much of a problem, LOL. I actually just made a MySpace page for us about a week ago - www.myspace.com/frootofthegloom I'm really not sure when we'll have songs up, but I'd like to get something recorded. alexonlyalex 19:39 Ever thought of creating a LP cover band? Since you cover Brads and Mikes guitar parts on your YouTube channel. anthony 19:41 I've thought about it a bit, but LP is a tough band to cover in a full band setting. For one, I don't really know anybody from around where I live who's as well-versed on playing LP material as I am. It's also next to impossible to find a DJ, haha. Plus, an LP cover band doesn't really have a market...not that I care about money, but bars/clubs etc. would much rather book a classic rock cover band over a modern one. It'd be hard for an LP cover band to find shows to play! I did briefly explore the idea of doing a web-based LP cover band with a couple other fans (you may know them as Reflectionist and DJ Ravok), but the logistics were hard to work out, and nothing ever became of it. I'd like to work with GigaScythe on something one of these days, I've just never gotten around to asking him about it. Maybe he'll read this and find out, haha. alexonlyalex 19:45 Yeah, let's hope for that alexonlyalex Is Linkin Park's music really as easy to cover as many people say? anthony 19:49 It depends on the part you cover...I'd say LP's bass parts are the easiest, followed by the majority of the guitar parts. I think Rob's a very underrated drummer, he uses a lot of ghost notes on his snare drum and other subtle things that are tough to copy at times. Chester's probably one of the hardest vocalists in modern rock music to imitate. But even with the guitar parts...it's easy to play them well enough to sound good, but there are little things that make it hard to play them perfectly. When I record one of my Youtube videos, there's usually one or two little tricky things in a song that cause me to have to do a few takes before I get it right. Easy to play well, hard to play perfectly. I guess that's how I'd sum it up. alexonlyalex 19:52 That makes sense, without mentioning all the samples by Joe and EQ options. anthony 19:53 The DJ parts are the hardest, because since LP creates all their own samples, you pretty much have to recreate everything from scratch on your own. You can't just go online and find the exact MPC pad sample used in Crawling, for example. Although I don't really have any experience trying to perform that part of LP's music, so it might not be quite as hard as I think it is. alexonlyalex 19:56 I saw your LP guitar website http://linkinparkguitar.webs.com/ I've never seen such a site for any other band before, how did you come up with it? anthony 19:57 When it comes to anything I have a major interest in, I always pay way too much attention to detail, haha. I'm always making lists...I think I have something around 400 text documents on my computer, most of which are lists of various things I've made at one time or another. I love Linkin Park, and I love guitars, so it was a pretty natural thing! I started out with a Notepad text file, just to keep track of as much of their live gear as I could, and it eventually evolved into finding pictures of everything...at some point, I figured other people might be interested in this kind of stuff, so I threw together a little website about it. alexonlyalex 20:01 I think I should now ask questions which are really interesting for our readers ^^ anthony 20:01 Which reminds me...I need to make a couple little updates to that site sometime, haha. alexonlyalex 20:01 lol, anyway, have you ever attended a LP show, if yes which one? anthony 20:03 I've been to the last 3 Cuyahoga Falls, OH shows in a row (Projekt Revolution 2004, 2007, and 2008). alexonlyalex 20:04 Which one is your favourite (let me guess, the 2004 show)? anthony 20:04 2004 was my favorite from a performance/setlist standpoint...2008 was the best experience though, because I had lawn seats in 2004 and 2007, but I got seats in 2008. It was nice to actually be able to see the band for once, haha. alexonlyalex 20:05 Oh yeah I know what you mean anthony 20:07 2007 wasn't a bad setlist either though, with Hands Held High, Cure for the Itch, and QWERTY! alexonlyalex 20:07 What is the story behind LPL, have you been member since day 1, and whats the story behind your Admin rights? anthony 20:10 The whole concept of a Linkin Park live guide was something that Hahninator, nkramar, AndOne, and I had been discussing for a while...I don't think I originally signed up on "day 1" when Mark created the initial website, but I was there pretty much from the beginning. I was a staff member on LPL for quite a while, then there was a big falling out between Mark and me (and some other staff members) last summer. Long story short, I wasn't a staff member anymore. That all got smoothed over eventually though, and everybody's friends again. Mark made me a staff member again recently, I think it was around the end of October. But for some reason, nobody ever changed my member status/title to say I'm a staff member, LOL. So I'm kind of like the "staff member nobody knows about." alexonlyalex 20:14 well, thats how LPL works, half koala modus ^^ Another question from my side is about the LP management What do you think are the biggest flaws in the whole management thing? And what can be done to solve them? anthony 20:19 I honestly think LP needs to go the independent route once their contract with Warner expires. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails both did it with great success, and LP is more than popular enough to do the same. They've got a huge Internet presence, and so does their fanbase. They're like the perfect band to do it. As far as I can tell, things have gotten better as far as LP's relationship with Warner ever since they re-negotiated their contract in 2006...but Warner's still giving fans a hard time. The whole Youtube vs. Warner licensing dispute and subsequent removal of so many videos was really bad for everybody involved. That's been resolved finally, but I don't think all the damage can be undone. alexonlyalex 20:22 If I'm not wrong, they signed for 5 albums anthony 20:23 I forget how many it was...I know their contract was extended 2 albums longer than what it was on their old contract. But I'm really not sure what counts as a release on their contract, if it's just studio albums or if things like Road to Revolution and Songs from the Underground count. alexonlyalex 20:24 ok, lets go back to LPL, do you have access to LPL 4.0? anthony 20:25 Nope, not direct access anyway. Mark's shown me a few of the design changes and new features being implemented with 4.0 though, and I like what I've seen so far. alexonlyalex 20:26 Is it possible for you to say your favourite new feature out of 4.0? anthony 20:29 Without giving too much away, the setlist pages are getting redesigned, and the new ones are going to have a lot more information on them. I haven't seen a whole lot of the new site though, so there's most likely something cooler than that, that I don't know about. I will say this though, we still don't know when "that big exclusive" is coming exactly, but there is another pretty cool exclusive coming up soon...hehehe. alexonlyalex 20:30 hmm, ok Dead By Sunrise You like it? You hate it? Management? anthony 20:32 I'm still sticking by my 8 out of 10 rating for the album. It's a lot closer in style to the older rock stuff that I was raised on than LP is...I just don't care for how the album was mixed. DBS's management has been absolutely terrible though, in my opinion. Not having an official website these days is inexcusable, especially when your only "website" of any kind is a Myspace page. Myspace is nowhere near as popular as it used to be. If you're an independent band without a record deal, yeah, running your web-based promotion from a Myspace page is fine. Not ideal, but it's easy and it works. But DBS has major label support and is fronted by the lead singer of one of the biggest bands of the decade! There's no reason not to have a website. alexonlyalex 20:39 Yeah, since the best source for the live shows dates are the twitter accounts by the band members! anthony 20:39 Yeah, things are pretty bad when people have to spam the guitar player's Twitter account to find out if the band's playing a show, haha. alexonlyalex 20:40 so true But the free show in Germany was a smart move, but they really should've announced that a bit earlier anthony 20:41 Yeah. I also think the album's timing wasn't very good, releasing it in late 2008 would've given the band a lot more opportunity to do some real promotion without competing with Linkin Park. alexonlyalex 20:42 To mention my website lp-collection.net, do you collect LP stuff? anthony 20:44 I do, but not to the extent that a lot of other people do. I don't have a whole lot of REALLY rare stuff...I have an LPU HTEP reissue, a copy of Tasty Snax - Run Joseph Run, a Fort Minor - Where'd You Go? promo DVD that turned out to be really rare, and a few other things but most of my collection is just regular CDs, singles, things you can find at stores And a lot of stuff from LPU packages and leftover promo materials from the street team. alexonlyalex 20:47 Well, thats actually already a nice collection anthony 20:48 My collection can be viewed here, for anybody who's interested - http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/bul...l/LPcollection/ alexonlyalex 20:49 1 last question Are you in this taper/trader thing? anthony 20:50 I was for a long time, but that whole community has died off quite a bit. Once sites like Chestersings, LPLive, etc. came along that focused largely on live recordings, there wasn't as much of a need for people to trade things. Before sites like those (as well as a lot of torrent sites) existed, the easiest way to get new shows was to trade them from person to person over MSN and other IM services. Taping-wise, all I've ever done was tape the first 6 songs of the Projekt Revolution 2008 show I went to on my crappy digital camera, haha. alexonlyalex 20:53 lol anthony 20:56 Another reason the trading community has died off is because a lot of the big-name traders aren't really around anymore. JoshW, Linkinparkee, Omar Osatch, Energy, Crewdy, to name a few...they're all either gone completely or not very active in the community anymore. alexonlyalex 20:56 I haven't heard these names at all, but this is probably because I never was in this scene anthony 20:58 JoshW was the first trader I actually had contact with...I remember the first show I got was Nottingham 2003, and a few days after that, JoshW sent me Los Angeles 2004, which had just been released, and I traded that for a bunch of other shows, since hardly anybody had it at the time. 200+ shows later...the rest is history. alexonlyalex 20:58 ah, cool anthony 20:59 Before I go, let me just say that for anybody who keeps up with my YouTube channel, 2010 is going to be an exciting year! I'll have more info soon. alexonlyalex 21:01 http://www.youtube.com/astatslpvids Brought you by lp-collection.net. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50571 Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahninator Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Badass interview. Learned a lot. Nice job Alex...good information. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50577 Share on other sites More sharing options...
shabanini Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 great interview Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50579 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiman Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 (edited) Astat, Gigascythe, and Goshikas are the big YouTube cover people that seem to know what they're doing, that I know of. Pianolp325 is good too, (you may know him as 8thnotes on the LPU) but he's not very active. Edited December 20, 2009 by Aiman Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50580 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papelbon Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Cool interview, learned alot about Astat... Which I guess is the point.... lol Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50582 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelbeats Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Awesome interview If it wasn't for Astat i wouldn't played the LP songs correct Can't wait to see more video's Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50586 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rav0k Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 JoshW was the bomb..still is. He's running a music venue and sells custom t-shirts now. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50587 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexonlyalex Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Badass interview. Learned a lot. Nice job Alex...good information. - great interview - Cool interview, learned alot about Astat... - Awesome interview Thank you all for all this kind words, the next interview will be with Mark, oh yeah baby, Hahninator, not sure in which way you'll get it to see it but I promise you'll get it soon. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50588 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astat Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 JoshW was the bomb..still is. He's running a music venue and sells custom t-shirts now. Yeah I know...I got like 4 billion event invites from him when I was still his friend on Facebook...which is pretty much why I'm not his friend on Facebook anymore. A couple things to point out...my name/status finally changed to reflect that I'm a staff member the day after I did this interview, and the exclusive I mentioned is probably going to be up tomorrow. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50590 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rav0k Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Yeah I know...I got like 4 billion event invites from him when I was still his friend on Facebook...which is pretty much why I'm not his friend on Facebook anymore. Wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't make 10 invites for 1 event. Oh well, guess you have to promote somehow. It was him that provided the Mike earpiece, right? Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50591 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckCheese Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Very nice interview, pretty interesting. Excited for this apparent exclusive as well. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50596 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astat Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't make 10 invites for 1 event. Oh well, guess you have to promote somehow. It was him that provided the Mike earpiece, right? He and Jeff were the 2 guys who acquired it from the original taper, I believe. It didn't circulate beyond them for a while. Anybody else remember the-untitled.tk? Jeff, Josh, and I started that site, it was pretty much the first live-oriented LP fan site, I remember Mark posting there before Chestersings was around. A few shows originated from that site...I know one of the Budokan 2003 shows was one of them. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50597 Share on other sites More sharing options...
INK 1 2Many Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 The live show trading sounds like it was an awesome way to meet new fan friends. Awesome! Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50598 Share on other sites More sharing options...
shabanini Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 (edited) A couple things to point out...my name/status finally changed to reflect that I'm a staff member the day after I did this interview, and the exclusive I mentioned is probably going to be up tomorrow.congrats for status upgradenice to hear about exclusive, thanks Edited December 21, 2009 by shabanini Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50604 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astat Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 The live show trading sounds like it was an awesome way to meet new fan friends. Awesome! In a lot of cases, it was. Other times, it could be pretty unpleasant. I know a lot of people think I have an attitude problem and act superior to others at times...trust me, I'm nowhere near as bad as a few of the traders I've dealt with over the years. I'm sure Jonas and Nick can attest to this as well. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50607 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkViper30000 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 "Know All Machine"... Can't disagree more. What guitar and amp you use and which will you prefer? Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50609 Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahninator Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 "Know All Machine"... Can't disagree more. Why? Astat is looked at by most in the community as someone that knows his LP shit very very well (including me). Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50610 Share on other sites More sharing options...
shabanini Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 "Know All Machine"... Can't disagree more. What guitar and amp you use and which will you prefer?Please agree, or you will be punished! Just joking, but youre indicating that you dont agree with "Know All Machine" title ... Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50612 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geki Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Pretty cool interview. I learned a lot about Astat. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50613 Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahninator Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Need to do a Geki one next, lol Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50617 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuben7o7 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Need to do a Geki one next, lol Jesus Christ, spare us. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50620 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPxDC Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Adam interview! Cuz he's the shit. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50621 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkViper30000 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Can't disagree, dudeys. I'm sleepy and might have written in the wrong statement. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50622 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geki Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Need to do a Geki one next, lol I'd be up for that. Quote Link to comment https://lplive.net/forums/topic/3225-interview-with-astat/#findComment-50623 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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