Michael Rodi

Where did you grow up?
Valley Stream, NY.

What is spinning in your cd player right now?
It's not technically spinning, but upon inspection I find that the X-ecutioners "Built from Scratch" is there. Who knew?

What was the best live show you have ever seen?
Robert Plant at Madison Square Garden in the late eighties was amazing. I also saw Paul Simon in the Park, which was just cool because there 750,000 people. That's a lot. The Marvelous 3 put on an amazing stage show.

What's your favorite colour?
Green.

What's your favorite food?
That's a tough one because I love food...sometimes it's Tom Yom Goong, sometimes it's fresh steamed crabs or oysters on the half-shell…I would have a hard time just picking one.

Do you have a motto?
No.

What group contributed the most to the "rock" of the last millennium?
I think I'd have to say Led Zeppelin, even though, as Marx definitively established in his "Critique of Rock n Roll," rock has been a dialectical unfolding in history, and so any single Rock-Historic Figure must be placed in the larger context of his/her particular historical moment.

Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Probably Chincoteague, VA, although I guess I love New Orleans too, even though I wouldn't call it a "vacation spot."

How do you spend a day off?
I don't understand…?

Do you have any non musical hobbies?
No.

If you could play with any other musician or group of all time, who would it be?
I'd love to sit in with the Monkees, because they're too busy laughing to put anybody down.

Got any tattoos? Describe.
I have a guitar with the Aquarius symbol (two waves) in its middle and a celtic knot armband.

What's the worst lie you've ever told?
Uh, that I could play guitar.

Worst job you ever had?
I've had some atrocious jobs, although some of them didn't last long enough to count. The one that still stays with me most was a construction job with this asshole Mario, who basically screamed at me for two weeks straight and paid me $200 a week to work about 60 hours. I walked off.

What's your sign, baby?
See tattoo question above.

Name your poison.
Jamesons neat in a snifter (for the cooler weather) and Absolut citron on the rocks with a wedge of lemon (for the warmer days). Beer doesn't count because I drink it like water.

What's it like, being in a band with the other members of Clare Quilty? I checked with my lawyer, and he said that it's a very fulfilling and satisfying experience, and that I look forward to working with them in the future. Seriously, we really do have a lot of fun, and these are talented, funny, intelligent people, both with their instruments and without. (in a significantly quieter way without). Being in a band is like being in a family. A dysfunctional family, at times…

When did you first realize you wanted to be a musician?
I was writing songs with my cousin Anthony when I was about 6 or 7, and used to look at the electric "guitars" in the JC Penny catalogue and dream about playing…I started my first band before I had an instrument with my friend Rocky in the 5th grade (I was supposed to play drums because my father was a drummer). Then Rocky got a drumset for Christmas and turned out to be a natural, playing "Sometimes a Fantasy" by Billy Joel along with the record perfectly. So we decided I would play guitar.

Given the economical and social changes in eastern culture over the last 300 years, describe the influences western civilization has had on the industrialization of Eastern civilization. Site no less than six examples that directly support your argument.
Assuming for a moment that we accept "eastern," "western," and, for that matter, "civilization," as having some objective, or at least agreed upon, signified, this question has an internal reference error, considering that "the industrialization of Eastern civilization" is itself and influence of western civilization.

When did you first get excited about music?
I guess I really first got excited about music when I first heard Elvis Presley.

What excites you now?
I'll just assume that you mean musically. Electronic music, sample based music: these things are doing a lot to change the way I think about composition, and so I find them exciting because they challenge me to re-invent my own approaches. I listen to a lot of Kruder & Dorfmeister, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Lamb, Nightmares on Wax, Herbaliser, Massive Attack, Avalanches, Cold Cuts, DJ Cam, and so on. My favorite album, though, is probably still "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" by Sparklehorse.

How do you feel about the French?
God, I love the French. They're so…French.

Is there a song that you wish you had written, or a part you wish you had played?
Any of the guitar on "How Soon is Now?" by the Smiths; wish I'd written and sung "Fascination Street" by the Cure; wish I'd written "Dancing Daze" by Led Zepp, and this line from "Bones" by Radiohead: "And I used to fly like Peter Pan." That may be the saddest line ever.

What's your favorite movie?
I'm on a bit of a Lynch kick, so I'm tempted to say "Mulholland Drive," although there's "Fight Club," and there's "Hi Fidelity." Plus I just really love "Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels" and "Vertigo." Most Kubrick.

Beatles or Stones?
For most of my life I would have said Beatles. Now I'd really have to say the Stones. As I work on production and I think about what gives records a good vibe, I just keep coming back to Stones records. They're just so…spot on. Charlie Watts was the most laid back drummer ever, and Keith Richards definitely established drugs actually make you a groovier person. And of course those vocal tracks are just the bomb.