Heute am 02. Juni 2023 erscheint das neue Album „See Change“ von Don’t Sleep über End Hits Records. Passend dazu haben wir Garrett Rothman dem Bassisten der Ban ,unsere 10 Wunderfragen gestellt.
Frontstage Magazine: If you could trade places with a musician/band for a concert….
DON’T SLEEP: Oh that’s a tough one. There are a lot of musicians/bands that it would have been fun to trade places with during their early days when the excitement and anticipation of the band was at its height – like pre-internet when you
couldn’t watch a live video of a band before you saw them. Public Enemy when they were first blowing up but still playing in small venues would have been amazing. Listening to them still gives me chills. Minor Threat from that live video at the 9:30 Club was amazing. Just a band fully locked in but also totally unhinged. What an incredible band. Those Beatles appearances where all the fans were chasing them down the street after the gig – that looks terrifying but also kind of thrilling.
Frontstage Magazine: If one of you drops out at the next concert, but you have to play, then…
DON’T SLEEP: Lol, well I assume you just mean that if one of us gets sick or has some family or work obligations so we have to miss the show, not that one of us drops dead! If we had to replace any of the musicians in the band, we’d just ask a friend to step in and play the show, and we’d maybe design an amazing hologram of the missing member of Don’t Sleep ala the Tupac hologram to project onto the stage. If Dave couldn’t make the show . . . that would be tough. I think we’d just play an entire set of Dag Nasty songs and let the people in the crowd jump up on stage and sing the songs!
Frontstage Magazine: If you looked at your Wikipedia entry 10 years from now, it would say …
DON’T SLEEP: This is a great question! It would say that we rocked stages around the world and broke hearts! No seriously… I’d like to think that it says that we continued to write and release music that people enjoyed. Hopefully there’s not a section on the wikipedia page about members of Don’t Sleep being indicted or something. Our guitarist Tom is an amazing cocktail bartender so hopefully it says that he opened several incredible cocktail bars and became a celebrity bartender. Tony our other guitarist started his own business that is doing well right now, so maybe for him it will say that he sold the business for $1 billion to become asubsidiary of Google and now is running his own DIY coffeehouse / bar / record store / music venue. Jim is seriously an incredible drummer and successful real estate agent, so for his
sake I hope it says that he’s the new touring drummer for Van Halen and sellinghomes on Mars or something cool like that! Dave will hopefully be inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame considering his contributions to punk and hardcore music since the early 80’s, or at least maybe he will have a star in the Hollywood walk of fame. Garrett’s would hopefully say that he was still playing bass in Don’t Sleep and hadn’t been kicked out of the band yet!
Frontstage Magazine: If you could host your own festival, then…
DON’T SLEEP: It would be a healthy mix of current bands – not just a festival of the same style of bands playing over and over again. There are so many great current bands right now to choose from, but I’d definitely want to hit up Be Well, Praise, Fiddlehead, End It, get my friends in Hoover to reunite for a show, same with my friends in Karate, Bedmaker, Mindforce, any of Walter Schreifels’ bands because we love all of them!
Frontstage Magazine: If your absolute favorite band/artist would play with you in the opening program, then…
DON’T SLEEP: That’s so hard and definitely everyone in Don’t Sleep would have a different answer, but I would be over the moon if Fugazi would play one more show and Don’t Sleep could open. My old band Junction had the opportunity to open for Fugazi a couple of times and it was truly a religious experience. Hands down the best live band that I’ve ever seen. To watch a band perform for 90 minutes without a set list – just letting the set finds its own path throughout the performance. They were tight, well-rehearsed, prolific at their instruments but also totally dialed in with each other to the point that they instinctively knew what each person was going to do next. Incredible!
Frontstage Magazine: If you had to do any job well for the rest of your life, you would…
DON’T SLEEP: Man, that’s another good question. Well, one of my favorite things to do is ski and I get mesmerized watching the ski groomers grooming the slopes at night. I picture them in those snow cats, cruising up and down the slopes in the middle of the night, blasting some good music, and just enjoying the satisfaction of moving the snow around and making it look like corduroy for all the early bird skiers the next morning. So that would be fun for me, and I think really satisfying.
Frontstage Magazine: If, starting tomorrow, every human being could travel back and forth to any number of parallel Earths untouched by humans, then…
DON’T SLEEP: I’d like to think that all the cool, tolerant, fun, creative, open-minded,nurturing people would pick the same version of Earth and set up a utopian colony there where we’d all get along and make good art and grow a peaceful community!
Frontstage Magazinre: If your biggest idol asked you for some advice, it would be….
DON’T SLEEP: Man, I guess I’d be like “dude, you’re MY idol – I should be asking YOU for advice!” But seriously, I guess I would just tell them that from the point-of- view of being their fan, I think it’s really great when famous / highly accomplished people remain humble and treat all of their fans with respect and appreciation.
Frontstage Magazine: If you had everyone’s attention for 30 seconds, then…
DON’T SLEEP: I’d say check out the new Don’t Sleep album “See Change” on End Hits Records PLEASE!
Frontstage Magazine: If you wake up tomorrow and don’t know anything about your band in the morning…
DON’T SLEEP: I’d be subconsciously really bummed out, because the guys in Don’t Sleep are some of my closest friends in the world, and my life without them would be substantially less fulfilling.
Das Album findet ihr z.B. hier.
Fotocredit: Ryan Brosius
