20 Questions with… Micah P Hinson

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Michah P Hinson’s latest album, Micah P Hinson and The Red Orchestra came out on the 14th July through Full Time Hobby. It’s amazing. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve heard a collection of songs that have hit me square in the heart and the head at the same time. Each song is drenched in emotional termoil, stifled in a sparse musical environment… Perhaps Andrew can describe it better when he reviews the album soon… Anyway, we caught up with the great man himself to get him to answer our 20 Questions.

1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
I’ll give you two…. violent country.

2. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
The velvet underground’s greatest hits. The grey one. I was at a Walmart here in Texas, I think.

3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?
Hell, I don’t know. I don’t drink really. Back in the day i would just smoke it, or sleep, it off.

4. What’s on your rider?
Things I never eat. I’m not sure how it happens.

5. How do you get ready for a live show?
Smoke a cigarette, sit around with my band and my wife. Make sure my tie is straight.

6. What’s your favourite song to play live?
Patience.

7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
I have no guilt. Ha. Ummm, I really dig this one David Gray song. Is that guilty?

8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
What the hell is a stoat?
Based on this, a goat, because I think the first thing is fictional.

9. Who’s your favourite new band at the moment? Tell us a bit about them.
The Twilight Sad. Those guys are incredible. Mind-numbingly beautiful.
They are from outside Glasgow.
Such nice boys.

10. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
Charlie from an American show called ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philidelphia’. Prolly got the spelling of that wrong. I didn’t graduate from college.

11. Dead or alive, what 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
Sigur Ros, The Hives, Patsy Cline, pre-disco Bee Gees, and Camera Obscura.

12. If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favourite album?
‘Trompe le Monde’, by The Pixies. Flawless.

13. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
I just got married and two days later we went to Spain. The trip was amazing. Everything was going right. Our driver left the van, it dot broken into, the bastards took all our shit, I got pissed and kicked a trash can, almost breaking my foot. It was a nightmare.

14. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
Ah hell, at this moment, I can only think of the day I got signed, and the day I got married!

15. What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?
“Life’s a bitch, then you die.”- my father. Damn right I took notice, there was proof all around me.

16. If you had to leave a body part to science, what would it be?
Anything but my eyes.

17. What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?
Book – ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’
Movie – ‘Iron Man’

18. What three things could you not live without?
Not in order of importance….
1. books
2. guitar
3. my wife, ashley bryn hinson

19. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
My eyes turn from green to blue. Depends on how I feel. It’s strange.

20. And finally, we’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
Theme: travelling
1. Massachusetts by the Bee Gees
2. Summer Smile by Beirut
3. Concerning The UFO’s by Sufjan Stevens
4. ‘Take Me Back’ by The Carter Family
5. Tick Tick Boom by The Hives

Links
Micah P Hinson [official site] [myspace]