Interview: Jonathan Segel

Multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Segel is a founding member of the eclectic alternative rock band Camper Van Beethoven. The band’s first album Telephone Free Landslide Victory, which came out in 1985, includes such classic songs as “The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon”, “Where the Hell is Bill?”, the Black Flag cover “Wasted”, and “Take the Skinheads Bowling”. He also appeared on the independently-released II & III and self-titled Camper Van Beethoven, and on the band’s major-label debut Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart. Segel has been back with the band since they reformed at the end of the end of the 1990’s, including on their most recent album, 2014’s El Camino Real. Segel has also played with many other bands and artists including Sparklehorse and Eugene Chadbourne.

This interview was for a preview article for the Camper Van Beethoven concert at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara on 12/28/16. It was done by email, with answers received 12/14/16.