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 for a fun Q&A session with Monotronic guitarist, Ramsey Elkholy.
1. 5 albums that changed my life.
Zeppelin IV
Beatles: Abbey Road (actually all the later Beatle’s albums, starting with Sgt. Pepper’s to the White Album, etc.)
Nirvana: Nevermind
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
John Coltrane: Giant Steps and any of the later released Live recordings (Live! At the Village Vanguard for example)
If I could add a #6 it would be The Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street
2. 5 artists that influenced me as a musician.
Too many to name, but Jerry Garcia would be at the top of the list. Many Indian musicians such as Ravi Shankar would also be at the top of the list. Bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin were huge influences; and all the great jazz out there equally influenced me, especially John Coltrane. He got me thinking out of the box in terms of approaching the guitar in a more melodic, less “riff-based” way.
3. My 5 favorite live albums
Rush in Rio
Led Zeppelin: How the West was Won
John Coltrane: Live at the Village Vanguard
Kiss Alive!
Countless Grateful Dead bootlegs, Cornell ’77 is a great one
4. Life on the road; 5 of the craziest/funniest/scariest tour/show stories
We have only done brief East Coast tours and they have all been surprisingly organized, even “tame” I would say – no wild orgies or tv’s being thrown out of hotel windows 🤣. So not much to say on this!
5. 5 favorite movies
This is a tough one! I am kind of a movie buff and during these last few months with the Covid situation I have been watching a ton of movies. Here are a few of my recent faves and some older faves:
Ingrid Goes West
Parasite
Pulp Fiction
Good Fellas
Good Will Hunting
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