Live music and touring have been on lockdown and fans as well as artists are going through withdrawals. We wanted to come up with something fun to help bridge that distance between fans and artists right now. What we came up with is something called The Lockdown Lowdown and it’s a Q&A session with fun questions for artists to answer. They’re not your typical interview questions, so it gives you a peek inside of the artists themselves. We’re big music nerds here at I’m Music Magazine and we love learning things like this about the artists that we love. We’re pretty sure that you’ll get a kick out of these, so we hope you’ll take the time to read them. In this installment, we sat down a while back for a fun Q&A session with Ryan Rosoff of Little King.
How have you been doing during the pandemic and how are you spending your time?
Good morning! We are fine…I live with my teenage son, so I have been using a big chunk of this madness to reinvesting in our relationship. He’s a great kid and he makes it very easy. He’s also turning into quite a good pianist, which is very fun.
On the music side, our plans for touring the universe are on hold indefinitely, just like everyone else. So we have spent time curating Spotify lists and that’s been fun and successful. We are up over 24,000 monthly listeners, and the song “The Skin That I’m In” from Occam’s Foil has over 41,000 spins. Pretty cool!
Finally, I HAVE NEW SONGS! 6 and a half of them, to be precise…finishing up #7 this week. The music is done and they all have (tentative) names, just no words yet. I am SO stoked to share them. My son, who is not easily impressed by anything (especially his old man) told me the other night that he thinks this is going to be my best work ever. Honestly, coming from him, that’s like winning a fucking Grammy.
Can you tell us a little more about the new music?
Yeah, as I just mentioned, I am knee-deep in new tunes. I think I hit my stride on Occam’s Foil, which we released right at the end of last year. It’s clearly, at least to me, my best and most confident work every. I have released 6 albums over the last 23 years, so I have some frame of reference, right? But I love the last record, and press/radio/social media/streaming seem to agree. Very gratifying, but also just another new start in a career filled with them.
Any artist worth their salt should be creating right now. Time at home, tons of fodder for creativity, and a climate that NEEDS quality art are all in the here and now. With a crashing economy, global pandemic, and as of this morning every major city in the USA rioting, if you can’t draw inspiration now, you should check your pulse.
The new songs are awesome, if I do say so myself. I even have a name for the new album! But I can’t tell you quite yet…coming soon. I hope to track this summer and release this fall.
5 albums that changed your life:
Nice! Okay, without explanation, here they are, in no particular order:
Rush – Exit…Stage Left
Iron Maiden – Number Of The Beast
Led Zeppelin – IV
Talking Heads – Naked
Steely Dan – Countdown to Ecstasy
Honorable mention go to Tupac – All Eyez on Me, NWA – Straight Outta Compton, Run DMC – Raising Hell, Pink Floyd – Darkside of the Moon, and Grateful Dead – Mars Hotel. And sooooo many more.
5 artists that influenced you as a musician.
Again, no explanation, and not repeating the artists listed above, as that would be redundant and boring…so besides them, here you go:
The Who, Soundgarden, Midnight Oil, The Police, Metallica
Your 5 favorite live albums
Rush – R40
Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense
Led Zep – The Song Remains the Same
Widespread Panic – Panic in the Streets
Various Artists – Woodstock
Life on the road; 5 of the craziest/funniest/scariest tour stories
Hahahaha…no way. Not doing it. Let’s just say my band has been FILLED with characters who love to have a good time. TOO good a time. I did have a kick drum hurled at me by our old drummer, Wes, in New Mexico one time. IN THE MIDDLE OF A SONG. That was bad.
5 favorite movies
That’s impossible. But in a pinch:
Borat (Laughed so hard I cried in the theater…BY MYSELF)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (A perfect movie, really)
Wedding Crashers (The first hour may be the finest hour of movie comedy ever)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (All Jack movies rule)
Inglorious Basterds (all Tarantino rules)
Best and worst advice you ever heard.
Best – Understand the business of music if you are going to be a musician. Get an education and figure out how to take care of yourself and then hire people to help you execute that vision.
Worst – You should quit music and all other sports and concentrate on playing basketball. Seriously?
Strangest thing you ever autographed
A dildo. Seriously.
If music was over today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your wrestling name be?
Your Mother
