The Friday 5: Five Important Questions with USS
Earlier this month, Riffyou.com spoke with Jason “Human Kebab” Parsons of USS to discuss the band’s latest album, Advanced Basics. After discussing the long, stressful road that he and cohort Ashley Boo-Schultz took to complete it, we asked Parsons five really important questions.
Here is how that turned out:
Where’s your favourite place to play music?
“The last couple of years, my venues of choice have been those used for college campus shows. Each room has a unique sound to it, but the shows are still intimate enough. There’s a sweaty, young, energy to a room like that. If you walk in and unleash, everything is just perfect when you perform.”
What is your favourite pre-show meal?
“Always, without a doubt, burritos…always Mexican food. There must be some people with pretty weak stomachs, because for me, [Mexican food] makes no difference in the world.”
What album gets you out of a band mood?
“Radiohead’s Kid A. I read Thom Yorke say something to the effect that they designed [the music] so that it wouldn’t get too involved with [you]. You’re so attached to the album, but it wants nothing to do with you. I hear it, and there’s this numbness that comes over me. Generally, I’m a song person…I’m not usually about full albums. But front to back, I can put that on and it takes me to another place.”
What band inspires you?
“Still to this day, it is Converge. [I like] the visceral, raw energy, gut-wrenching screaming, heavy sludge to it. The lyrics are so rooted in despair and perfectly translated through the music they create…and there’s an energy too. They play a show, and the place gets trashed. For that hour and a half that those [fans] get after many months of not seeing the band, they get to let it all hang out for an evening. It’s probably some of the most therapeutic shit ever.”
Who is your biggest fan?
“There’s this woman in Victoria, BC, named Angela, who was going through chemotherapy and she used our song “Anti-Venom” for the process of it. She wrote us about it, and then 91.3 FM The Zone in Victoria surprised her with us, and we performed an acoustic version of the song for her in the boardroom of the radio station…just to give back to her. The fact that somebody was legitimately going through a life-altering, life-threatening situation and took time out of her day to tell us that our song was being used as part of her therapy…to get through something we couldn’t understand, [is humbling].”
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