Interview: Monster Truck

Monster Truck are one of an increasing number of bands pumping out frankly excellent old school hard rock. The band have taken to the road on numerous occasions and are no strangers to the UK, and indeed played a belter of a set at the Exchange on the Lord of the Riffs tour. Their hard work has paid off and they’re now playing the Marble Factory in March as part of a massive tour in support of latest LP Sittin’ Pretty. Jeremy Widerman (Guitar) succumbed to our vinyl enquirer as a preview for the show.

What was the first record you ever bought and where did you buy it?

This is unfortunately is a memory I do not possess. My first memories of being hell-bent on going to purchase albums begins with the grunge era with bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. I would have purchased it a Music World or Sunrise location, both of which have since gone bankrupt and disappeared.

What was the most recent record you bought and where did you buy it?

I’m currently using Spotify as my music source and my most recently downloaded album is the new Agnes Obel Citizen of Glass. It is somewhat off the beaten path of what you might expect but I just think it’s some of the most interesting music of our time.

What record do you stick on the deck to sooth your soul?

See above. I honestly can’t say enough good things about Agnes and her music. It’s just inspiring and soothing and intensely original. Whenever I have enough time to sit down and listen to an entire record I almost always choose one of her 3 full length records.

Have you bought a record on the basis of a great single and then been disappointed by the rest of the album? If so, tell us all about it…

That’s funny, this just made me remember a record I definitely would have purchased before the first album I ever bought outlined previously. It was Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way full length, and I had heard that single and been absolutely blown away by how rockin’ it was. So I bought that cassette with my last $10 which meant I was going to go without dinner that day as I was on school trip. I was hoping for even one more song on that album that had the same vibe and to my absolute crushing disappointment the entire record is filled with ballads. I had a long bus ride home with an empty stomach and I must have rewound and replayed Are You Gonna Go My Way 100 times but I will never forget how bummed out I was and to this day it inspires me to NEVER do that to anyone ever with an album. (That is, release a single that is NOTHING like anything else on the album).

What record do you turn up to maximum to get in to that party mood?

Anything by Rage Against the Machine is always a great choice to get excited. The louder you play it the better it sounds, just unreal song writing and production.

If we had the ability to land you at the recording of one classic LP so you could witness the whole recording process, what would you choose and why?

Anything by Jimi Hendrix and I imagine you can guess why. He’s just one of the most prolific guitar players of all time and from the various accounts I’ve heard about his writing and recording process I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to be a part of it or even just witness it.

Ever bought a record solely because you liked the sleeve? If so, what was it and did it delight you or disappoint you?

That totally happened to me and it (luckily) turned out to be one of my favourite albums of all time: NOFX, Punk in Drublic. To be fair I knew before buying it that I wanted to buy a NOFX album but when I went to the store to purchase the record I found about seven NOFX records on the shelf and I had to choose solely based on the album artwork. I ended up owning and loving many more albums by NOFX but none as much as that one.

Oh no, your house is burning down and you can only rescue one record! What would it be and why?

Well since all my music lives in the cloud I’ll have to imagine the physicality aspect but again Agnes Obel’s Aventine would be the album I would save.

What’s your favourite record sleeve? Tell us all about it (and whether or not the music gives you as much pleasure as the sleeve).

My favourite album artwork would be Led Zeppelin III vinyl design.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s a spinning wheel of graphics inside a sleeve that has many cut-outs that shows the wheel’s various images depending on what position it is spun. I spent hours twirling the inner disc while listening to that album always hoping to find something I’d never seen before.

Morbidity alert: what record would you like played at your funeral?

Oh jeez, probably one of our songs as I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done so far. Probably Black Forest or For the Sun. Is that too self-indulgent? Ah well….

Pix by Brooks Reynolds & Matt Barnes