Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Actor Abby Ryder Fortson On ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET
    • Two Siblings Track Father’s Footsteps In Godzilla-Based MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS
    • Composers Daniel Pemberton and David Schweitzer on Whodunnit THE AFTERPARTY (Season 2)
    • Actor David Keith For Thriller WALDEN
    • SOCIETY OF THE SNOW: Of Extreme Measures In 1972 Uruguayan Plane Crash
    • Danica McKellar Talks About A ROYAL DATE FOR CHRISTMAS – It’s About Second Chances
    • “Queen’s Gambit” Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera on LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY
    • FAIR PLAY: Director Writer Chloe Domont Urges “Tell the Story You Are Afraid To Tell”
    AMFM Magazine.tv
    • Features
    • Movies
      1. Movies – Indies
      2. Movie Reviews
      3. Movies- Wide Release
      Featured
      November 16, 20230By christine

      Comedy? Drama? Thriller? You Decide. Director Emerald Fennell Talks SALTBURN

      1 Min Read
      Read More
      Recent
      December 11, 2023

      Actor Abby Ryder Fortson On ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET

      December 11, 2023

      Two Siblings Track Father’s Footsteps In Godzilla-Based MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS

      December 8, 2023

      Actor David Keith For Thriller WALDEN

    • Photography
      1. Event Photos
      Featured
      December 7, 20210By christine

      Nat Geo Photographer Joel Sartore Founds Photo Ark Project To Document All The World’s Species – Before They Disappear

      1 Min Read
      Read More
      Recent
      August 22, 2023

      STRYPER At The Arlington Music Hall 3/14 Photo Essay

      February 11, 2022

      NAT GEO EXPLORER Gabby Salazar Documents Conservation Around The Globe

      December 15, 2021

      Nat Geo’s Photographer Gordy Medroz On Ski And Snowboard Illustrated Guide ‘100 Slopes Of A Lifetime’

    • ABOUT US
    • Music
      1. Indies
      2. Majors
      3. Reviews
      Featured
      June 10, 20230By christine

      RINGO STARR & HIS ALL STARR BAND Take A Break From Rehearsals To Answer Questions About The New Tour

      1 Min Read
      Read More
      Recent
      December 11, 2023

      Composers Daniel Pemberton and David Schweitzer on Whodunnit THE AFTERPARTY (Season 2)

      November 30, 2023

      “Queen’s Gambit” Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera on LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

      November 21, 2023

      SALTBURN: Composer Anthony Willis On Working With Emerald Fennell

    • The Wire
    • Literarians
    • Great Conversations Reprised
    • Movie Minute Reviews
    AMFM Magazine.tv
    You are at:Home»Entertainment»Music»Indies»Johnette Napolitano Interview – Concrete Blond

    Johnette Napolitano Interview – Concrete Blond

    0
    By amfmstudios on July 24, 2018 Indies, LATEST, Music, Video Interviews
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=A1Zf6ImfYW8

    Johnette Napolitano – bass, vocals, guitar
    James Mankey – guitars, bass, vocals
    Gabriel Ramirez Quezada – drums, vocals
    “The thing right now for me,” says Johnette Napolitano, “is to figure out how everything in my life fits together.” The Concrete Blonde singer-songwriter-bassist goes on to say she just graduated tattoo school and a “sewing thing.” It sounds just like what a retired musician might do with herself after decades spent on a record-tour-record cycle. Except Concrete Blonde’s future has never been so cemented. While the critically-lauded trio took two six-year breaks since forming in 1982, they always came back around. In the last few years, says Napolitano, the phone would ring with invitations to perform in Brazil, China and Peru. The prospect of “going places we’ve never been” appealed to her, guitarist James Mankey and drummer Gabriel Ramirez Quezada. And there was always the call of the road and the band’s rabid fans. Even during a “hiatus,” the band would sneak off for little one-week jaunts.

    So when another opportunity to explore new territory – by staying home – came up, the band jumped.

    “Things have changed; nothing’s the same. There are so many new mediums. Something we’ve always wanted to do is just be able to webcast from wherever we are. Finally, it seems like the technology has finally caught up to be able to do that, more or less.” ~ Johnette Napolitano

    Via online webcast promoter/venue StageIt, Concrete Blonde now performs monthly 30-minute shows featuring classics, rarities and, potentially, new songs. All this, live a different location on the last Sunday of each month. The shows are ticketed just like regular gigs. For a lean twenty bucks, fans can tune in to the show on their laptops and watch from the couch Napolitano, Mankey and Quezada play their trademark dark, poetic rock n’ roll. They may even work in bonus material like “Mankey’s Worry of the Day.”

    “The first one was from Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree (Dave from Eagles of Death Metal’s place),” says Napolitano. “This time [August] at SoundBite Studios in LA, and September will be from Stagg Street Studios, where we’ve been recording new material on and off for the last two years. In October, we’ll play a Halloween soundcheck-cast live from Houston. Part of the fun of this is thinking up different locations every month.”
    For a band that, after so long together, still thrills at the chance to play together – just not for grueling night-after-night stretches, it’s a gift. “We rehearse every Sunday,” says Napolitano, “and we have a really good time.” This is what Concrete Blonde wants to present to their fans; the band, in an even more intimate setting than a club, where they’ll deliver the goods in a more casual, communal atmosphere. “We haven’t ever really been that calculating at what we do, and there’s no reason to really be that way now.”

    It’s this ethos – along with Napolitano’s powerfully literate songs and the band’s playful but visceral live performances – that established Concrete Blonde as a fan’s band since their inception in 1982. The band thus ensured their devotees would stand by them through peaks like when Bloodletting’s “Joey” ruled radio, valleys like those six-year Mojave dry spells, and those welcome, thirst-quenching recommencements – like this new era of Concrete Blonde.
    Now there’s almost no limit to the interactions between the band and their fans. While other bands wear down their tires and their bodies on the road, Concrete Blonde can keep this up a lot longer. In doing so, they can continue to build on their rapport with extant fans and win new ones.
    “It’s great on the webcast because there’s a chat room so you can see what songs people want, what they know, what they like,” says Napolitano, “just to galvanize where we stand, just to get the information, because we’re so all over the place. You just have to check your shit every couple years. Especially in the climate now. We’re getting a lot of information off of YouTube as far as what people know, who they think we are, finding us for the first time. It’s crazy what’s going on now, in new media.”

    Concrete Blonde is energized by the potential created by their new online existence which, in a very real way, has brought them full circle. Every band, she says, gets to a point where they get together because there’s something to do. There’s a tour coming up, they need to rehearse, figure out the set. “It’s hard to not be that way because everyone expects you to be that way,” says Napolitano. “We like to have plans up until two or three months in advance. After that – you just can’t plan life like that. And then they call you out of nowhere and they’re like, “You want to go to China? You got to answer now.”
    In this new age of Concrete Blonde, Napolitano hails “a good balance.” The most fun a band can have, she continues, is from slogging it out together in a small space, rehearsing. “You rehearse when you start off as a band, whether you have a gig or not. And everyone’s focused on one thing: ‘I hope we get a gig, man.’ It’s those days that are really cool, because some really good things come out of that.”

    featured
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleKYLEE KATCH ON LATEST COLLABORATION WITH ERICK MORILLO AND ANDREW COLE – COCOON
    Next Article LOVE NEVER DIES: REVIEW
    amfmstudios

    Related Posts

    Featured Music

    Composers Daniel Pemberton and David Schweitzer on Whodunnit THE AFTERPARTY (Season 2)

    Read More
    Featured Music

    “Queen’s Gambit” Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera on LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

    Read More
    Featured Music

    SALTBURN: Composer Anthony Willis On Working With Emerald Fennell

    Read More

    Comments are closed.

    SEARCH BY CATEGORY
    • MOVIES
    • Music ICON
    • AUTHORS
    November 27, 2023

    Director Chad Stahelski for John Wick Chapter 4 – Will There Be A John Wick Chapter 5?

    November 18, 2023

    THE HUNGER GAMES Movie Minute Review

    November 16, 2023

    Comedy? Drama? Thriller? You Decide. Director Emerald Fennell Talks SALTBURN

    November 14, 2023

    Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold Talk NAKED IN THE RIDESHARE (Stories Of Gross Miscalculations)

    May 11, 2023

    Author Robert Rosen On NOWHERE MAN: THE FINAL DAYS OF JOHN LENNON

    April 21, 2023

    JUDY BLUME FOREVER: Co-Directors Davina Pardo & Leah Wolchok On Critically Acclaimed Author

    AMFM INSTAGRAM
    Recent Posts
    • Actor Abby Ryder Fortson On ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET
    • Two Siblings Track Father’s Footsteps In Godzilla-Based MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS
    • Composers Daniel Pemberton and David Schweitzer on Whodunnit THE AFTERPARTY (Season 2)
    • Actor David Keith For Thriller WALDEN
    • SOCIETY OF THE SNOW: Of Extreme Measures In 1972 Uruguayan Plane Crash
    Archives
    Movie Reviews
    December 11, 20230By christine

    Actor Abby Ryder Fortson On ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME MARGARET

    2 Mins Read
    Interview by Paul Salfen For over fifty years, Judy Blume’s classic and groundbreaking novel Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. has impacted generations with its timeless coming of age story, insightful humor, and candid exploration of life’s biggest questions. In Lionsgate’s big-screen adaptation, 11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is uprooted from her life in
    Read More
    Movie Reviews
    December 11, 20230By christine

    Two Siblings Track Father’s Footsteps In Godzilla-Based MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS

    1 Min Read
    MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS is based on Legendary’s Monsterverse and stars Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Joe Tippett and Elisa Lasowski. Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco, and the shocking revelation that monsters are real, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”
    Read More
    Featured Music
    December 11, 20230By christine

    Composers Daniel Pemberton and David Schweitzer on Whodunnit THE AFTERPARTY (Season 2)

    2 Mins Read
    SERIES SYNOPSIS: After a murder is discovered at a high school reunion, the attendees try to remember what happened, despite all of them remembering the fateful night differently and the murderer remaining at large. About Daniel Pemberton: Daniel Pemberton is an Ivor Novello winning and multi-BAFTA nominated composer well known for embracing a wide range
    Read More
    Movie Reviews
    December 8, 20230By christine

    Actor David Keith For Thriller WALDEN

    1 Min Read
    Interview by Paul Salfen David Keith talks to Paul Salfen about his role as Judge Boyle in the horror film WALDEN. Keith's breakthrough role was that of aspiring Navy pilot Sid Worley in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), for which he received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and New Star of the
    Read More
    Copyright AMFMSTUDIOS LLC
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    • Cookie Policy (US)
    Copyright AMFMSTUDIOS LLC
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    • Cookie Policy (US)

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.