Spotlight on Spotlights: 25 Years of Yellow Scene Artist Interviews

Since the days when Yellow Scene Magazine (YS) was printed on actual yellow paper, we’ve tried to give you a little bit of insight into the music community. Sometimes we found an interesting story about an artist in your backyard that you really ought to be listening to. But, on more than a few occasions, we managed to pull an interview with a fairly big-name artist for a small indie magazine based out of East Boulder County.

I recently took over doing our artist interview spotlights for our last few issues. I have a good amount of experience with interviewing musicians for other publications, but YS is a little different. Either you’re looking to find the interesting story in an up-and-coming artist that the reader hasn’t heard of yet, or you’re trying to find the appeal of a big-name artist for our particular corner of Colorado. In a lot of ways, it’s about finding the stories behind the music that are smaller, but still fascinating.

To celebrate 25 years of YS, we decided to pore over the artist interviews from the past 25 years to pick our 25 favorite interviews. While a lot of them are with the big-name artists we consider ourselves lucky to have gotten a chance to feature, a few of them are from local artists with really interesting stories. But that’s the one thing that unites these 25 interviews: they were all instances where we found riveting stories behind the music that are still interesting to this day.

The Dreamy Jason Mraz, September 2009

Our interview with singer/songwriter Jason Mraz came out when his song “I’m Yours” was becoming popular (and it remains his highest charting song to date). Mraz told us it was his “happy little hippy” song about generosity of spirit and giving your time to someone else, and explained how time in Hawaii and a visit to Bob Marley’s house in Jamaica inspired the tune. He explained that he wrote the song in a stream-of-consciousness style by simply picking up the guitar and seeing what he came up with. He was also donating his tour proceeds at the time to VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, which was fighting to keep music education in schools.

Irish Rockers Flogging Molly, September 2009

Irish band Flogging Molly isn’t the first band to combine Celtic music influences with punk rock, but they are definitely one of the most genuine and authentic bands to do it. In our interview with them, they explained how they thrived on a smaller indie label (at the time, all of their releases had been through SideOneDummy Records, which has gotten a bit bigger since then). They explained that industry professionals told them that their style of music wasn’t going to catch on, so they opted to take matters into their own hands rather than relying on a music industry that thought they were destined to fail.

Spotlight on Mandy Harvey, August 2010

The story of local jazz singer Mandy Harvey is genuinely one of the most unique and fascinating stories we’ve ever had in an artist interview. Harvey grew up in Longmont with dreams of being a singer, and trained her entire life to achieve her dream, only to be dealt a crippling setback in adulthood when she went deaf from progressive nerve damage affecting her cochlear nerves. After deciding, on a whim, to put together a recording of “Come Home” by One Republic for her husband while he was away on a trip, she came to the realization that her singing career was not over, saying that, “a light came on in my head that music was just another thing I needed to do differently.” The amazing singer, who has perfect pitch, by the way, later went on to be a contestant on the 12th season of “America’s Got Talent,” where she performed her own original work.

John Medeski, February 2011

Keyboardist John Medeski has been playing with his band Medeski, Martin, & Wood since 1991, playing a unique style of jazz fusion that incorporates funk, hip-hop, and even jam band elements into their sound. 2011 marked the 20th anniversary of the band’s formation, and we got a chance to talk to Medeski about their longevity as a band. According to Medeski, the band managed to survive changes in the music industry because, as an instrumental band, they never relied on radio play or record sales as their main source of income, but rather focused on selling tickets to their electrifying live show. As someone who has seen Medeski, Martin, & Wood live, I can confirm that their live performance is enough to win over anyone who doesn’t think an instrumental band has a lot to offer.

Hanson, September 2011

Everybody remembers Hanson for their 1997 pop hit “MMMBop,” which came out when the band members were literal children. What a lot of people don’t know is that Hanson is still around today and continues to release albums and tour with a much more mature sound now that they’re well into adulthood. In our interview, we talked with Taylor Hanson about his feelings on their first hit single, “MMMBop,” and how it was 14 years later. Hanson said that, while he would like the band to be noticed for their complete body of work, he still has positive feelings about their first monumental hit single. “There’s no question you always desire for people to have a wide and varied perspective on your career beyond a few hit songs,” he explained, “but you also have to be proud of anything that can reach millions of people, especially when it is with something that you created and has meaning to people.”

Four Questions with Pop Favorite: G. Love, January 2012

Garrett Dutton, aka G. Love — frontman of the trio G. Love & The Special Sauce who blew up onto the alternative music scene in the mid-’90s with their unique mixture of soul, blues, funk, and hip-hop — sat down with us in 2012 to discuss the history of the band as it approached its 20-year anniversary. When asked about what Dutton missed most about the early days of the band, Dutton said that he missed the “innocence and blindness” of being a 20-year-old who thought he knew everything while driving around to do 250 shows a year in a “crappy van.” Now that he had a tour bus and lost that blind innocence, it seemed like some of the magic was gone.

10 Questions With Jazz Great Ron Carter, October 2012

Ron Carter has been involved with a lot of different projects as a jazz musician, ranging from his early breakthrough as a member of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet to his appearance on alt-hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest’s seminal 1991 jazz-rap album “Low End Theory.” In the interview, Carter explained that his upbringing in Detroit didn’t inspire his jazz career because, when he left Detroit around the age of 17 or 18, he was still playing classical music. It wasn’t until he got to New York and became influenced by the likes of Paul Chambers, Sam Jones, and Charles Mingus that he got turned on to the magic of jazz.

Weird Al Yankovic Talks Parodies, Movies and Children’s Books, June 2013

“Weird Al” Yankovic is a music legend for his parodies of songs, and most musicians consider it an honor and a privilege rather than an insult to be parodied by the legendary comic artist. But in our interview, we talked to Yankovic a little bit about one of his then-new endeavours of writing a children’s book called “When I Grow Up.” In the time since the interview, he wrote a second children’s book called “My New Teacher and Me!” Yankovic explained that he had always wanted to write children’s books and, when an editor from Harper Collins named Anne Hoppe approached him randomly and told him that his clever wordplay would work well in children’s books, he jumped at the chance to fulfill one of his dreams.

Ani DiFranco, March 2015

LGBTQ+ icon and seasoned indie folk artist Ani DiFranco has been a trailblazer in independent music both for her creative talent and her business sense. We talked to her about how her decision to start her own label, Righteous Babe, instead of tying herself to a big label was groundbreaking and almost as important as her music, but she didn’t seem to agree. She said that she gained fans with her music, not her decision to go independent, and that that’s what her staying power has been in her career, which has spanned, at this point, about 35 years.

Duran Duran, September 2015

British new wave legends Duran Duran stopped in Colorado in 2015 to promote their 14th album as a band, Paper Gods. The band took us through some of the details of the two years they spent working on the album and how they connected with collaborators for the album. The first collaborator that contacted them was Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante. The band wasn’t looking to collaborate with anyone, but felt they couldn’t turn down such a talented guitarist as Frusciante. Saying yes to Frusciante opened the door to further collaborations with the likes of Nile Rodgers, who co-produced the album, as well as another co-producer named Mr. Hudson, who has worked with Kanye West and Jay-Z. The result was one of the best albums of Duran Duran’s long and storied career.

Spotlight on Tammy Ealom, March 2016

Tammy Ealom’s Denver-based indie pop band, Dressy Bessy, holds a lot of distinctions that give them indie cred including having had their songs featured in the cult queer classic film “But I’m a Cheerleader” as well as being one of the few Denver-based bands to be part of the legendary Elephant 6 collective. In 2016, we talked to Ealom about the story behind the band’s sixth studio album, “Kingsized,” which was their first album in eight years. Ealom said she never thought of the time in between as a hiatus because she was writing the whole time. The death of her father and the economic impact of the recession were major factors that she cited as the reason for the gap between albums.

Spotlight on Flo, April 2016

Multi-instrumentalist and percussionist Bill Summers has had a lot of major accomplishments in his career, but the one that probably stands out the most is his work on the iconic jazz-funk fusion album “Head Hunters” by Herbie Hancock. In this interview, Summers took us through his journey from dropping out of high school, to working at a racetrack, to winning enough money to go to California and enroll UC Berkeley as a music major where he put together a band that opened for Hancock, leading to him being invited to participate in one of the most important jazz albums of all time.

Spotlight: It’s Times Like These We Need Flobots Most, May 2017

Hip-hop group Flobots may be remembered by the rest of the country as a one-hit wonder for their 2007 hit “Handlebars,” but in Colorado, they’re known for being a pillar of the local hip-hop scene and political activists. In the interview, MC Johnny 5 (aka James Laurie), told us about the Flobots’ mentor, the late Vincent Harding, who was a social activist and Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Harding encouraged the band to think more deeply about what protest music really was, so the band started gathering people together to come up with songs that could be sung at rallies, which became the basis for Flobots’ 2017 album “Noenemies.”

Spotlight on Josh Barrett of The Wailers, March 2018

Reggae band The Wailers were once the backing band for the legendary Bob Marley, but since his death in 1981, they’ve soldiered on without him. In 2018, we talked with the band’s then-vocalist Josh Barrett about filling the huge shoes of Marley, and he spoke about his journey from singing in church choir, to learning instruments from his community, to starting his band, Judah Tribe, which had the opportunity to open for the Wailers in 2012. Barrett talked about the privilege of fronting such a legendary band and how the music that Marley wrote is still relevant today.

Spotlight on Bill Frisell, June 2018

Bill Frisell is not just a legendary guitarist — having appeared as a session musician on tons of albums, not to mention his solo material and his long-standing working relationship with the legendary John Zorn — he’s a local legend, having grown up in Denver and graduated from Denver’s East High School. In this interview, Frisell talked to us about how he started playing music with neighborhood kids, but he owes a lot of his musical education to music programs in local schools like Teller Elementary and the now-defunct Gove Junior High. “I’m so glad they still have a music program in Denver because in so many places it goes away,” Frisell told us.

Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot!, June 2018

Brian Setzer is famous for his role in the legendary rockabilly group Stray Cats as well as his role in the ‘90s swing revival when his band, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, covered Louis Prima’s “Jump, Jive, an’ Wail.” In this interview, when he was promoting his latest “Rockabilly Riot!” album, we talked to him about the changes in the music industry since he started, and he talked about the changes in how important record sales and music videos were and how so much has shifted to the importance of live performances. Luckily, Brian Setzer could always put on a good live show.

Spotlight on Jeff Gutt, August 2018

Iconic grunge band Stone Temple Pilots has had bad luck with frontmen, with both of their first two lead singers — Scott Weiland and Chester Bennington — having died at tragically young ages. Former Dry Cell frontman and “X-Factor” contestant Jeff Gut became the third person to step into the lead vocalist spot in the band, and we talked to him about the process of auditioning for the gig. He talked about how nerve-wracking it was to meet a band he had admired for so many years, but eventually his idols turned to friends as they worked together on the band’s second self-titled record.

SPOTLIGHT on Nick Urata of DeVotchKa, January 2019

It’s hard to talk about the Denver music scene without bringing up the dark, indie folk powerhouse that is DeVotchKa, who rose to prominence in 2006 with their talked-about performance at Bonnaroo as well as their score for the Oscar-winning film Little Miss Sunshine. In 2018, the band released their album “This Night Falls Forever,” their first record in seven years, and we talked to them about the gap between albums. They said that, with all the opportunities they had gotten since their previous album — including working with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and being involved with movies like “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and “Paddington” — they had to take the time to make their new album as grand as all their other side projects.

SPOTLIGHT on Tivoli Club Brass Band, April 2019

Denver’s Tivoli Club Brass Band isn’t your traditional brass band, with their 2019 debut album featuring covers of Queen, Taylor Swift, The White Stripes, and even Aretha Franklin. In our interview, bandleader and percussionist Dean Hirschfield talked about the band’s origins, which apparently started with a meal at Jose O’Shea’s in Lakewood when someone asked, “What would the song ‘Seven Nation Army’ sound like if it were played by a brass band?” They also talked about the Kickstarter campaign to finance their album, which was initially planned to be an EP. However, after the overwhelming support for Kickstarter, they decided they might as well put out an LP.

Spotlight: Jimbo Mathus and the Squirrel Nut Zippers, June 2019

Squirrel Nut Zippers are somewhat of a relic of the short-lived neo-swing craze in the 1990s, despite the fact that they didn’t quite fit in with the other swing bands with their neo-vaudevillian style. We talked to the band three years into their reunion and talked to founder and frontman Jimbo Mathus about why he chose to reunite the band in 2016. Mathus said that he thought of just doing a few shows around the 20th anniversary of their 1996 album “Hot,” but decided that there was so much theatricality and musicianship that went into the band that doing a few one-off shows seemed hardly worth it, and it would be better to revive the whole band and jump back into the swing of things, so to speak.

Spotlight on Lynyrd Skynyrd, October 2019

Lynyrd Skynyrd was probably the biggest name band that we have ever interviewed. At the time, the band’s so-called farewell tour was coming through Fiddler’s Green, and we talked to the band’s guitarist, Rickey Medlocke, about why they were retiring from touring. Medlocke talked about how it was no secret that founding guitarist Gary Rossington was having heart issues and the band could no longer handle rigorous touring. Still, Medlocke assured us the band was not completely done and might record another album and play one-off shows. “The funny thing about this all is — when you’re a musician that’s been playing for as long as we’ve been playing, you just don’t wake up one day and say, ‘Okay, I’m going to put my instrument down that I’ve had this big love affair with for 50-60 years,’ and not pick it up anymore and not want to play music or anything like that,” Medlocke told us. Sadly, Rossington died in 2023, but the band continued on and did another tour with ZZ Top in 2023-2024.

Spotlight on Reese Roper and Five Iron Frenzy, March 2021

Since their founding in 1995, Denver’s own ska band Five Iron Frenzy has made a career out of Christian-ish music, but it was always a more progressive form of Christianity than what we’ve come to expect from the religious right. Frontman Reese Roper talked to us about his brand of Christianity and said he didn’t align with the right-wing form of the religion, which he chalked up to a plot between Richard Nixon and Jerry Falwell to turn the Republican party into the Christian party by using wedge issues like abortion to garner Christian votes. “There are so many diabolical things that have been done in the name of Jesus Christ in this world,” Roper told us. “But, I cling to the character of Christ. I know that what He offers is redemption and forgiveness.”

Spotlight on Taj Mahal, March 2022

Legendary blues musician Taj Mahal is one of the most prolific and enduring musicians in the genre, having put out over 50 albums in the course of about 60 years. We talked to him about what was, at the time, his most recent album, “Get On Board,” which was a collaboration with fellow music legend Ry Cooder. Mahal told us about how Cooder had worked with him on the 1966 album “Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder” and on Mahal’s 1968 self-titled album. After Cooder and Mahal ran into each other and started hanging out again, they decided to collaborate again, but the pandemic got in the way until 2021, when restrictions had lifted enough for the two great guitarists to work together again.

Courtesy of Steve Schnepel

Spotlight on Faceman, December 2022

FaceMan is both the name of a Denver-based indie-American trio and the stage name of the band’s mysterious frontman, Steve Schnepel, who performs in various masks and costumes that give him different faces. Schnepel told us that the idea was inspired by his youth when his father told him he had a “rubber face,” and, in 2008, after taking a brief hiatus from music, Schnepel came up with the vision of a band he could front anonymously with a constantly changing face. The idea really took off when he met designers Justin Hicks, Katie Webster, and Kellie Sequoia from the Denver Center who elevated his basic idea into an even bigger spectacle.

Dervish Takes the Stage with Traditional Irish Music | Spotlight, February 2025

Traditional Irish band Dervish has been lighting up stages with their unique take on Irish music for almost four decades now, since the early days when the original members met at a pub and named themselves the Boys of Silgo, after their hometown in Ireland. We talked to them about their music, which is about 90% traditional songs, and they explained how there’s still a lot of writing and creating that goes into playing traditional songs, including creating new arrangements, harmonies, and instrumental breaks, to the point where traditional music practically becomes their own.

Like journalism like this? Support the local press that’s been telling the truth for 25 years. Become a sustaining member and get our monthly print edition at home. We’ve weathered 9/11, floods, fires, economic crashes—and some deeply chaotic years. With your support, we’ll keep going. Because democracy still depends on journalism.