Hey Fartheads! Dig this. Every month this year I will randomly choose a Farthead of the Month. I have some truly awesome, dedicated, and awesome readers and I consider you all friends. Anyways, every month I am going to randomly choose a Farthead of the Month and if chosen, you will do a 12 question Q&A that will be featured as a post on the blog! This is your way to get semi-famous or at least give you the ability to brag that you’re on a shitty metal blog!
Making the honor roll this month is Andy. Andy has been a long time, loyal reader, and supporter of The Great Southern Brainfart and I couldn’t think of a more deserving Farthead of the Month. Andy is also a VERY talented songwriter/musician in his own right (check his shit out at www.andysamford.bandcamp.com) and he’s also a father to a really awesome, sweet daughter. When he told his daughter about being chosen as Farthead of the Month, she said, “Who would ever want to be known as a farthead of the month?” Well, obviously your old man does! Congrats Andy, come get your award, and pleas keep your speech short!
What’s your name and what the hell do you do with your life?
Andy Samford. I am a musician with the perfect day job. I work security at a strip club. However, most of my time is spent raising my 14 year old daughter.
How did you discover the Great Southern Brainfart?
I can’t remember exactly. We have many mutual friends, so I imagine I saw a link that grabbed my attention. The first thing that sticks out in my memory is reading a review of Graveyard’s Hisingen Blues. The review led me to check out the album, and I loved it so much that the first thing I thought to do was to thank the reviewer for writing such a great review and for turning me on to my favorite album that year.
What’s your favorite thing about the Great Southern Brainfart?
Probably a toss-up between the album-by-album challenges that review a band’s entire career output (I’m always curious about how people rate popular bands’ later albums released far past their peaks) or the interviews which always seem to bring out a more personable side to an artist, the interviews feel more like conversations between friends as opposed to typical media/artist interactions.
How did you first get into heavy metal?
Christmas of 1980, I was 4. I was already into music and my favorite songs were “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner and “Revolution” by The Beatles, which both feature lots of great loud guitars. For Christmas that year, my mom bought me the 4 KISS solo albums because, as she said, I liked music and I liked clowns, so she figured they would be perfect. The Ace album immediately became my favorite of the 4, and I think we all can agree that album is the “heaviest” of the 4. For my 5th birthday I got KISS Alive II and I was hooked for good. We got cable right around the time MTV first got started and that turned me on to bands like Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, and a lifelong addiction to heavy music was forged. I also got free reign over my dad’s vinyl collection and fell in love with Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper among others.
What are your Top 5 metal bands?
KISS, Black Sabbath, Cathedral, Bigelf, Twisted Sister, WASP, Alice Cooper. I listed 7, because I imagine depending on how you look at it, there are a couple of bands there that some might argue are not “metal”.
What is currently your favorite metal album?
Well, if we consider Purson to be metal, “Desire’s Magic Theater” is my Top Album of 2016, and I don’t think it’s going to be topped in the last month and a half. The two metal albums that I’ve been listening to most recently would be Witchcraft’s “Nucleus” and Opeth’s “Sorceress”.
What is the least metal thing about you?
Disney World is probably my favorite place on earth, aside from maybe a KISS concert.
If you could have dinner with any metal musician alive or dead, who would it be, what would you talk about, and what would you have?
Garry “Gaz” Jennings, guitarist of Cathedral. Through liner notes and interviews, that dude has turned me on to more cool obscure music than I could even begin to list. However, he hasn’t done a lot of interviews and seems to shy away from any kind of limelight. I’d just like to talk to him about music and bands we like and his songwriting and riff-creating process. I’d probably have whatever he’s having because I like to try new food things, and experience other people’s favorites. If the choice were in turn left to me, I’d pick Mexican and have enchiladas.
Others I’m sure I’d enjoy a meal and good conversation with: Gene Simmons, Dee Snider, Lee Dorrian, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler.
What is one metal album that everybody should own?
Either the first Black Sabbath album or Blue Cheer’s “Vincebus Eruptum”. No matter what your taste in metal may be, it’s good to be familiar with where it all started.
What is your favorite metal t-shirt and why?
Probably my Sleep shirt where Tony Iommi’s head has been superimposed onto the Great Sphinx Of Giza. I also have it as a poster.
In your opinion, who is the worst metal band out there?
easy. Buck Cherry. Their music makes my skin crawl.
Finally, what does being selected as Farthead of the Month mean to you?
It means all of the ass-kissing and brown-nosing has finally brought some tangible results! Woohooo!! I told my daughter about this honor and she said “who would ever want to be known as a farthead of the month?” Everyone likes to be recognized for something. One thing I am definitely good at is being a fan of things. So it feels like it means that I have excelled as a “professional appreciator.”
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