{"id":10042795,"date":"2025-12-11T04:32:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T09:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/?p=10042795"},"modified":"2025-12-12T14:09:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T19:09:46","slug":"year-in-review-vanyalands-favorite-617-qa-recommendations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanyaland.com\/2025\/12\/11\/year-in-review-vanyalands-favorite-617-qa-recommendations\/","title":{"rendered":"Year in ReView: Vanyaland\u2019s favorite 617 Q&A recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the best parts of the 617 Q&A<\/strong> series (Six Questions; One Recommendation; Seven Somethings<\/a>) is the one recommendation portion. Typically, if we haven\u2019t flipped them already with our somewhat standard interview portion, it\u2019s when the artist really comes alive and often provides some deeper insight into what they\u2019re buzzing about off the stage as we ask them to tell us what they\u2019ve been into recently that isn\u2019t their current project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, we\u2019ve had some doozies, from a stone-faced Billy Duffy from The Cult telling us to drink more water<\/a>, to Ash\u2019s Tim Wheeler advocating for Muay-Thai<\/a> while casually revealing he\u2019d spent time in Bangkok training intensely in the full-contact martial art. Sometimes, the nut is harder to crack as our subjects can\u2019t get out of self-promotion mode, whether it’s pimping the band that\u2019s opening the current tour, or pushing some vanity endeavor on the side \u2013 like Dave Mustaine and his wine business<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The past 12 months were no different, as a wide range of conversations left us running to make purchases online, stream a film or artist, and getting introspective during a period when everyone could do with some looking inward. Here are 10 of our favorites recs, in order of when we chatted with our interviewees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marty Friedman <\/strong>on Cap\u2019n Crunch Arctic Crunch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman<\/strong> has been living in Japan for more than two decades now, carving out a career as a bona fide multi-genre, multimedia star. But while the move may have expanded his cultural awareness more than most of us could ever fathom, it hasn\u2019t taken away his penchant for all things junk food \u2013 especially sugary breakfast cereals. When he was back on these shores for a run of solo dates last winter, he was excited to indulge in the latest limited edition offering from General Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCap\u2019n Crunch\u2019s Arctic Crunch cereal is awesome!\u201d he enthused.<\/a> \u201cI just picked it up on the tour here in the U.S. I wish they had it in Japan, but sadly, cereal in general is not really a thing over there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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