LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF FREE DOWNLOADS
TSOL’s Jack Grisham talks about the new record designed to help those in need
True Sounds of Liberty emerged from Orange County in 1979 as part of the birth of the California punk scene. Along with bands like Black Flag, Social Distortion, and the Circle Jerks, TSOL was an influential group, essential in the development of the new, exciting music that was rising from the West Coast underground. Remembered for their early political messages in songs like, “World War III,” “Abolish Government,” and “Superficial Love,” they gained larger recognition after their appearance in Penelope Spheeris’s cult classic, “Suburbia.”
Jack Grisham was the band’s front man from inception, but after several shaky years left the band, which then transformed into a surf-goth-punk formula for the albums “Change Today” and “Revenge.” Influenced by the glam-metal debauchery of the lates 80s, “Hit and Run” was released and put the final nail in the coffin of an outfit that had isolated itself from its punk roots in favor of hairspray and spandex. The pain would be over soon as the band would cease to exist.
1991 saw a reunion of the original lineup with Grisham, and they released a live record on Triple X records, and then nearly a decade later, three more releases on Nitro Records: Anticop 7-inch, Dissappear LP, and Divided We Stand LP. This marked the return of the band’s classic Southern California punk sound, now a bit older and wiser. Grisham had also transformed his life of decadence and abuse, to become a personal recovery assistant, helping others with drug and alcohol dependency problems.
This year, the band, in conjunction with the Hurley clothing company, released a new album which can be downloaded for free through the Hurley website (www.hurley.com/tsol).
So why would a band release a free record? Grisham’s hopes are that fans will take a moment to check out the charities on the website and make a donation in exchange for receiving the free record. The organizations included on the site are Midnight Mission, the Orangewood Foundation, the O.C. Food Band, the Surfrider Foundation, and the SPCA.
I had the opportunity to talk with Grisham about the new release, and as the conversation varied from recording to the old days of punk to politics, the singular theme throughout is that all his efforts in life now are giving back for all that he has taken over the years.
JW: So what do you have going on this year?
JACK: We just did a record. So you know the record business is shit. It’s screwed up. It’s a mess. Especially for guys like us, because, yeah, we’ve been around for a while and our name is established, but we don’t sell like a lot of records and we don’t make a lot of money. We make enough records to just keep going and have fun in doing it. So basically the music business is just screwed up so it’s trying to find a way to use it to our advantage. What we did was we went out and we got a clothing company, Hurley, to sponsor us doing a record. They didn’t give us a lot of money. What they did was they paid for the record, they flew our guys out, because one of our guys lives in Nevada and the other one lives in Iowa. They flew them out and covered our bills for two weeks, so we got two weeks to make a record. So, we make a record and then we just give it away for free. We never see any money from them anyway. Normally it’s all tied up in record companies and just a mess. So what we did is make the record, give it away for free, and if you go the Hurley page (http://www.hurley.com/tsol/) there’s a list of my charities, people I try to support, and I put them on the download page with a video of me saying, “Hey kids, look you guys basically get a free record so if you can throw a dollar to our friends, do it.” It has a link to all our charities on there. So it’s kind of like, the clothing company is stoked because they put their name on something. We’re stoked because we get to make the record. The kids get a free record. Our charities get money, even if they throw them a buck or two, it’s great.
JW: And this is the one, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of the Free Download.”
JACK: (laughs) Yeah…haha..It’s a brand new record and it’s actually a great record. I’ve had people who have heard it and they are saying I can’t believe you’re giving this away. I’ve known Bob Hurley for years and I know Nike is the parent company, and people will say their human rights are shit for Nike and that kind of crap, but the guys at Hurley have been really good for the communities around here, a lot of high school programs and stuff. So, I didn’t have a problem teaming up with them and the way I look at it, especially the way things are now, if kids can get money and a place to sleep, get a fucking meal, get taken care of, it’s like I don’t give a shit where the money comes from.
JW: No, that totally sounds like an awesome endeavor. You know some kids will go there and go, “Ahh…I got a free record and I didn’t give anything,” but a lot of people will go there in the like mindset of the punk rock community and be like, “what’s a dollar?”
JACK: Exactly and some people are like, “Well, why would these guys who are supposedly anarchists or whatever hooking up with a corporation?” I could sit back and say “fuck you, we’re not going to do that” and then kids at the Orangewood Children’s Home and the Midnight Mission, then those people aren’t getting served. You see what I’m saying? So, it’s actually kind of hardcore socialism. You know what I mean. It’s like do this, do this, do this, we give this, and then everybody is scratching each other’s back.
JW: And we’re in a different age than when you guys started this back in the 80s. Coming into 2009, we have got to find ways to make Corporate America work for us in a way that we can help the causes that benefit us and the people that need to be helped out.
JACK: Exactly. You’re totally right. It’s really easy being idealistic when you got a warm place to sleep and food in your belly. But some of these things, like the Orangewood Children’s Home, it’s for kids. It’s basically an orphanage. I mean that’s what goes on there. It’s like those kids don’t give a shit, you know, they want a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of milk. I mean they wouldn’t care if Bush was paying for it. They wouldn’t give a shit. They want a warm place to sleep, man. You go down to Midnight Mission, five or ten dollars feeds twenty guys.
JW: Politics don’t come into the equation when you’re talking about breakfast.
JACK: Not at all. Not at all. And, the people that complain are people that “have.” Guaranteed.
JW: Exactly. People bitch about higher taxes and this and that, but the point is, we have to look out for our brothers and sisters, and that’s kind of what drew us to the punk subculture in the beginning.
JACK: Right, exactly, well, at least that’s what I believe and that’s what I was taught. So, that’s what we’re doing, and so far it’s already worked. Some of those people have already got a good amount of money so far, so it’s a success.
JW: So when did this post?
JACK: It’s already up. We actually did live video so people were able to watch us record the whole record. It was live-streaming video up while we were in the studio and you could watch us arguing and shit. I mean it was basically streaming video from start to finish. It was cool. I would be getting emails from kids in Brazil, Finland, Japan, Alaska, you know, all over the place. I was getting emails saying, “Hey, take it easy on the bass player, he’s getting ready to snap.”
JW: That’s awesome.
JACK: (laughs) It was pretty funny. “Jack, you’re an asshole.” Just all that kind of shit.
JW: It’s kind of like the film crews after they shoot the scenes for the movie and they go back and watch the rough cut, but your viewers of the rough cut are your fans.
JACK: The whole thing was rough cut. Even when we were doing vocals, which if you’re like a vocalist, that’s a bitch and a fucking nightmare, man. There’s like no music. When you’re doing the vocals, they’re not hearing any music, just hearing you go “yeah…woah..yeah,” just hearing it with nothing.
JW: (sarcastically) I’m sure you got a lot of positive comments about that then?
JACK: The kids were stoked about the record. I’d say out of ten songs, there’s probably six that are really good, which is good for a record of ten songs. You can’t expect every song on a record to be great.
JW: So you’re pretty happy with the output from the session?
JACK: Yeah, especially because from start to finish, I’m talking starting with zero songs, not even an idea for a song, we got together, wrote a record, recorded it, and released it. Witihin two weeks. Plus, we did it live so everyone could watch.
JW: And that’s the introspective that fans don’t get to see, the creative process from beginning to end. They see the final product after it’s been mixed and mastered.
JACK: Right, and it sounds all nice and everything. What they got over the air was completely raw, uncut, listening to it right then.
JW: So now that this is out there and available for the kids and the fans, what’s the future for you guys this year? Are you going to do some tours, some local tours? What’s the plan?
JACK: Well, we’re getting ready to do a little, quick tour but we just do it for fun. We do it because we like playing with each other. We’ve been playing together for, shit, thirty years so it’s fun to get together but we all have families so we only go a week or two at a time.
JW: It’s not like load up into the bus and go cross country?
JACK: Yeah, I won’t do it. Like my daughter gets bummed and I’m pretty involved in the community here, so they don’t like it either. There’s a lot of people that count on me here. I do a lot of work with alcoholics and addicts, so they like me to be here. When I’m gone on tour, I’m not helping people.
JW: Tell me a little about that. Your day job now seems to come with great responsibility.
JACK: It’s a lot more personal. I mean I take 3000 calls a month on my phone. It’s like…I fucked around a lot of people. You know what I mean. I was a real prick. A lot of people said, “Oh, he was nice. He was a gentleman” and yeah, when I wanted to be I could be very nice and very kind and very giving, as long as it suited my needs. As long as I felt like it, but the minute I was crossed I turned into a real bastard. I did a lot of stuff based on “self,” so I have a lot of paying back to do. It’s not enough for me to just stop fucking people around. It’s like I have to pay back for what I’ve done and so that’s really more important to me now than selling records and being on tour.
JW: Talk about that. What was it like back in the day when you guys were doing this and you were not as comfortable in your skin as you seemingly are now?
JACK: Well, I mean it was fun (laughs). When I got into punk rock, it wasn’t for any noble causes. I was just basically a troublemaking fuck is what it is, and the music was a background for me being a basically total selfish “do-what-I-want” bastard. The only thing we did that I get upset about is we didn’t do a lot of punk-against-punk kind of violence. We figured, “Hey, this is our family” and everything I did was towards people that were against us, if that makes any sense. There were a lot of bands in the scene that I have trouble with, man, because people respect some of these guys and back then they didn’t do anything as far as I was concerned to be respected. Like, they’re real divisive, not family.
JW: And that’s what the punk scene was supposed to be about. Being united.
JACK: That’s what we thought. When I got into punk rock, I used to stop people in the street and ask them what they were into, if I’d see someone with colored hair or something. If I saw someone with dyed hair I’d say, “Hey, who do you like? What bands do you like? What are you into?” I was stoked. Stoked to see them. Then little by little it got to the point where it got real divisive. I was like, “We’re East Coast. You’re West Coast. We’re this. You’re that.” It was a real drag. It really got to be bad news and a lot of these bands, like the Bad Brains, there’s one of them. Musically, I respect those guys, great stuff musically, but some of their views were fucked. They were basically more close-minded than a lot of the people that we were supposed to be going against. I mean all that stuff that happened with the Big Boys down in Texas, you know no one mentions that anymore. The gay bashing that they did on Biscuits, the singer from the Big Boys. It was a drag, man. For people inside our own family to be treating others in our family that way, I had a problem with a lot of that.
JW: And that just isn’t unity.
JACK: I like them, you know what I’m saying. I think their music is great. We played some great shows with them. But when people look back nowadays and they speak with reverence about some of these people, it’s like, “Hey, let’s get a real handle on this. This wasn’t as great as you think it was.” When people start talking about Henry (Rollins- SOA/Black Flag) and Ian (MacKaye-Minor Threat/Fugazi) and what a great guy Ian was, I mean Ian was shit to us. When TSOL went back to play on the East Coast, Henry and Ian got together like a couple of little chicks and they basically started all this, “Oh, the skinheads in DC are going to kill TSOL,” because we had long hair and we drank and we do whatever and they were bummed on us. I mean we went back to DC with that going on and no one talks about that. That’s not mentioned. Let’s just skip all that, skip all that petty bullshit that was happening and let’s forget it. I’m all for forgetting it, but let’s also remember that it happened. Let’s really realize that these people weren’t saints you’re talking about and I don’t mean to sound bitter but it’s like I just don’t like people portraying them like such great guys when that wasn’t the case.
JW: And from what you’re saying, that goes against the whole principle of what punk rock was all about. It was about the outcasts, finding a place that felt like home, and if you can’t go into somebody else’s home and feel welcome, then what are we doing?
JACK: Exactly, and there was a lot of that really going on and I have guys coming up to me and really admiring me for being an asshole. I’m like, “Kid, you’re mistaken.” They want to hear war stories. They want to hear about me fucking people around and that’s what they like. Interview has taken a wrong turn (laughs).
JW: No, no I think that’s important for people who read this. A lot of people that will be reading this are guys like me and you that are older and have been in this for a while or the young kids who are trying to get a sense of the history and heritage of where this started and what really happened. Aside from issues within the band, did a lot of this, the tension you’re talking about, have anything to do with why you left the band.
JACK: Well, a lot of it had to do with the fact that it wasn’t fun anymore.
JW: And that’s the most important thing I’d think?
JACK: Right, exactly. It got to the point where there were some real rock star trips going on where it was like, “Dude, you’re a fucking punk! Stop it, man!” The guys were getting real rock star-ish and against what we’re supposed to be doing. Does that make sense?
JW: It totally makes sense. In the early 80s, punk rock was what it was. It was punk rock, it was from the streets, everybody was doing their own thing. As time went on, labels were catching wind of it and started signing hardcore bands and took the fun out and a lot of the bands’ output suffered, because they started putting out shit.
JACK: But even back in the day, even when people were putting out shit, it didn’t matter. I mean when they were shitty bands, because the attitude of being a family and just having fun and jumping up on stage and like, “Hey, let’s make a band” and it was like “You, me him, and who are you dude? Can you play drums? Get up here.” Just making a band and screwing around and having fun, all that got lost. All that fun got lost. Then it turned into something where, “Hey, we’re making money off this” and even later on when punk rock supposedly broke or whatever with the Offspring and Green Day and all that, then it got to the point where it was a total joke. It was like, “are you fucking kidding me with the way you guys are acting?” I had a band one time, they called me. I was playing a show and they wanted to come see me play, right. So they called up and they wanted to come down, “but can you get us through the back because we don’t want to walk through the crowd,” and I’m like, “Fuck, don’t come down. Fuck You. No.” I was just shocked with that.
JW: They were afraid they might get dirty?
JACK: Yeah, or whatever it was? Just all that kind of stuff. I mean I don’t want to sound like this. My life is great, I mean I have an unbelievably great life. I have a lot of fun and I respect a lot of people. This is just little crap that happens that we talk about sometimes.
JW: And the thing I was getting at was not that what the bands were putting out wasn’t quality, but the mindset was “we’re getting paid for this now and it doesn’t matter, we’re going to put out what the labels want to hear.”
JACK: Right. Like I played with some bands that you would say, “Oh my god, I can’t believe you played with that band.” Musically, I didn’t like what they were doing. I didn’t like it. I didn’t respect it. However, the guys in the band were so unbelievably nice. Just great and kind and no kind of attitude. I mean a couple of these bands were Top 10 bands, but the guys in the band were just nice, man. I mean it was just fun and that’s what I miss. I miss that family kind of fun, this isn’t really a business, let’s have a good time.
JW: Just getting together and playing, regardless of what you’re playing, the style, the kind of music, just getting together with people of like minds and interest and playing music. That’s the experience.
JACK: And that’s really what it’s about, and not tripping, just having a good time.
JW: Yeah. Band practice rules.
JACK: (laughs) Yeah, and see I like doing that too. Like people trip on TSOL sometimes. We don’t soundcheck, we don’t show up for soundcheck, we don’t practice, sometimes we don’t even see each other until we end up on stage. We just do it for fun. It’s like let’s just go out and have a good time.
JW: And that’s what it’s all about. That’s what it was always supposed to be about.
JACK: Yeah.
JW: And maybe that’s the lesson to everybody else. Remember, at the end of the day, we’re all doing this for a good time.
JACK: Right, and now the cool thing about it is sometimes we get the opportunity where we can pay back for how we’ve treated people. Like we take guys on the road with us, that are hurting, like guys that are maybe fresh out of rehab. We’ll take them on tour with us to just basically kind of show the, “Hey, you can have a good time here. You know, it’s O.K. Come with us. We’ll show you fun.” And now, we get to give back to some of these charities by what we’re doing.
JW: That’s an important thing to you?
JACK: Yeah…yeah, that’s all of it. I mean there is nothing else more important than that. Our whole problem as a society is that we’re selfish fucks. I mean that’s the bottom line. There’s no way around it. Everything that’s wrong with the United States or in the world today is because people make decisions based on self. Look at our politics, look at the country, look at what we’re in. I hate to say it but Malcolm X said it when Kennedy got shot. He said, “You’re chickens have come home to roost. “ This is what you guys get. This is what your society’s bred. This is what you do. This is how you turn people out. This is what you make your people. You are getting exactly what you deserve. You can look at the way people look at America these days. I mean basically think about it. Just think about what these guys have done. They basically have said, “I’m going to do this regardless of who it hurts. I don’t care about you, you, you. I’m going to make these cars. I’m going to make this move. I’m going to attack these guys.” With no thought, it’s like “Hey, what’s good for us is good for us. Everyone else can just fuck off,” and that’s basically why we’re in the position we’re in now. It all comes down to selfishness. You look at the whole mortgage system. All of that. It’s all because of selfishness.
JW: And we’re in a rough spot. It’s all going to rely on self reliance from here on in.
JACK: But, we’re in a rough spot because of our own making. We put ourselves in this position. We have done this to ourselves. No one is out to get us. We have done this.
JW: I think that pushes towards the idea that we need to unite to fix this, to make this no longer an issue where we can point the finger saying, “It’s this guy. It’s that country. It’s those people.” Like I said, back to self reliance. We have to take care of this on our own because we can’t rely on anyone else to fix our problems.
JACK: Yes, to look at ourselves and realize what the problem is, is that we are the problem and all that change is going to start with us. Just thinking of other people, realizing that there’s more people in this world than just us. I mean a lot of people don’t realize how much the Guantanamo Bay thing has really hurt us in the eyes of the world. I have a lot of friends who live in other countries and one of my friends from Australia was so bummed that we were holding those guys like that because he even said, “We look to you guys. We look to America as someone with principles,” and to see that just devastated a lot of people. I felt really bad for this guy. When he said that, it was almost like someone that I screwed around saying, “How could you do this to me?” That’s what it felt like when he said that. I was so taken back that that was something that was so important to him.
JW: We’re people in this country and we’re not the ones pulling the strings. I mean, you did not put those people in Guantanamo Bay. I didn’t put those people there. Our government did this. Granted, we elected them, but with all that’s been going on we’ve seen the masses have not agreed with the policies that our government has been doing?
JACK: Right, but they haven’t been really willing to do much about it either.
JW: What do you think we could do to change it?
JACK: I don’t think you saw the kind of protesting you saw in the 60s.
JW: This is true.
JACK: I mean you didn’t see that. You know my father was in the military but my sister and my older brother were hardcore hippies. I mean I used to read stuff about what to do in a riot when I was a kid.
JW: So Dad was pulling into port and brother and sister were out there protesting him?
JACK: Yeah, I mean it was that kind of shit. You know my sister would bring home these yuppie handbooks. Stand in the middle of a crowd, throw bottles. I mean just like craziness (laughs). But I mean you didn’t see that large scale protest like that going on.
JW: In a lot of ways, a lot of Americans are like sheep. They follow and when the get angry, they complain, and they don’t do anything and keep walking.
JACK: Right, and that’s why for me it’s like, “What can I do here at home? What can I do close by? How can I make this easier on the people around me?” That’s really been my goal. That’s it. It’s like, “O.K., let’s start here. Let’s do this. Let’s do whatever I can do within reason. Plus, let’s do whatever I can do to help others.” And that’s kind of what the goal was with this record.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Madball Continues to Infiltrate the System
MADBALL CONTINUES TO INFILTRATE THE SYSTEM
interview by Jason Walsh
In the streets of New York’s Lower East Side, a young Cuban kid grew up around some of the most influential musicians in the city’s hardcore scene. At an early age, older brother Roger Miret took the younger Freddy Cricien on tour with his band Agnostic Front, and before he was even ten-years old, he was singing songs on stage during their set. Madball was a side project formed by Miret and AF guitarist Vinnie Stigma for Cricien in 1989, and from there the rest is NYHC history.
Now, twenty years later, an older and wiser Cricien has taken what he has learned on the road and in the streets and diversified the roles he plays within the scene, from producing to managing bands like Wisdom in Chains and Death Before Dishonor, to forming Black N Blue Productions with cohort “Cousin Joe” Cammarata. He has also recently started his own clothing line (FAMILIA) but at the end of the day, Madball remains the top priority.
The band released “Infiltrate the System,” their seventh studio full-length which was received with great response, and are working on new material for their followup, when they are not touring. I had a chance to talk to Cricien about being the busiest guy in the New York hardcore community and something of great importance to him. Family.
JW: So what do you have going on this year?
FREDDY: Oh man, many things. We’re in the process of starting to write the new album. We’re trying to get it out by this year so we’re trying to scramble. You know, we’re not just going to put out any old record. We’ve got a lot of stuff. Everybody’s been writing stuff for some time now so it’s a matter of compiling everything and getting it out. I guess that’s one of the priorities this year and aside from that, just a lot of touring as usual, y’know.
JW: Right. With this new record, you guys just started writing a little bit but haven’t hit the studio or anything like that?
FREDDY: No, I mean we’ve got a lot of material floating around but we’re not in the studio recording just yet.
JW: Any idea when you might get there or is it more or less, when you’re ready to go, you’ll hit the studio?
FREDDY: Yeah, it’s probably going to be when we’re ready to go, we’ll hit the studio. I mean once we’re ready to go, it should go pretty smoothly, hopefully. It’s just a matter of getting to the point where we’re ready. I mean it’s hard too, because we’re also touring a lot. We’re not touring all year round. I like to split up our tours a little more but we’re still pretty busy, y’know.
JW: Last year, at the Black N Blue Bowl, Rigg Ross announced he was leaving the band and you guys brought in Mackie Jayson (Cro-Mags). Now is Mackie still with you guys or did you guys get a new drummer?
FREDDY: We got a new drummer. Mackie helped us out. Rigg, y’know, we’re all still friends, but he had some personal stuff he wanted to handle. We went ahead and let him do that. Mackie was just our boy and he was there at the right time and just helped us out. We weren’t sure if he would be a permanent thing or not, y’know, on both sides. We just kind of went with it. Turns out it ended up not being a permanent thing just because he got really busy with the Cro-Mags stuff and it started conflicting with Madball schedule and that wasn’t really working for us. We decided to just find someone that could be a little bit more dedicated to just our thing.
JW: So who’s this new guy?
FREDDY: We got Ben (Dussault) from Throwdown. He was the Throwdown drummer for the last four or five years and his background is basically he’s a hardcore dude from Canada, you know what I mean, and he’s a solid drummer. He’s got chops and he also understands the history of our band, where we come from, and where we’re trying to go and all that. He’s just a really good fit, we tried him out, and it’s been working out so far.
JW: So he’s fallen into the Madball family pretty easily?
FREDDY: Yeah, yeah. I mean Throwdown was a little bit more of a crossover type situation, musically speaking, but out of all those guys, not trying to dis anyone, but he was like the hardcore dude out of that camp, you know what I mean? So, it kind of worked. He grew up listening to New York hardcore and it kind of fell right into place.
JW: Do you have any touring coming up with the band any time soon or are you gearing up for the Black N Blue Bowl in May?
FREDDY: Uhhh, both (laughs). I’m gearing up for the Black N Blue Bowl as we speak and I also have some scattered stuff with Madball. A one off in Belgium coming up and then we come back and we have a Canada run, then the Black N Blue Bowl, and then I have stuff after that. The way Madball tours these days, the tours are smaller, or shorter rather, but we still cover a lot of ground throughout the year, y’know.
JW: Does that make it a little bit easier to do it like that as opposed to doing long tours?
FREDDY: Yes, that’s definitely a conscious thing on my part. It makes life easier, it makes home life easier, and it makes it still exciting when we go out there and do it. I mean we could be on tour every day of the year if we wanted to, which I guess is a cool thing. Not every band is in that position and it’s a cool thing that we have that option. I’d rather not be on tour every day of the year. I’d rather do a few weeks out of every month or a month here, you know what I mean? That’s just the way I prefer it and the guys don’t have a problem with it so that’s how we do it.
JW: Does that help rejuvenate the band? You do these short stretches, you come home, you get a new burst of energy before you hit the road again. I mean, does that kind of help you guys?
FREDDY: Yeah, definitely man. You regroup and then when you come and do it, like I said before, it’s that much more exciting when you go back out there. You’re not burnt out and you haven’t been on the road for your third month.
JW: So, tell me about the BNB Bowl at the end of May this year. I saw the lineup. It looks like it’s going to be kick ass.
FREDDY: Yeah, it’s shaping up to be a pretty cool lineup, man. It’s hard. Every year it gets harder because bands are touring more and more and it’s hard to lockdown a good lineup during that time of year.
JW: It’s got to be hard to get so many good quality bands together all at the same time.
FREDDY: That’s exactly what I’m saying. Exactly what I’m saying. It’s not an easy task (laughs). Whether it be younger bands or older bands, everybody’s out there these days, you know what I mean, so it’s a hard task but I think we’re going to manage again this year. We have tons of bands: Earth Crisis, Bold, Crown of Thornz, Murphy’s Law…a bunch of bands. Tons. A couple younger bands. We’re going to officially announce it in the next few days and hopefully it’s going to be another great time. So far, knock on wood, every event has been great, turnout-wise and just show-wise, y’know, just everything. They’ve been peaceful, fun, and that’s what we’re in it for, y’know.
JW: Aside from the music and all that, you’re a busy man. You got this clothing line you’re doing. You’re managing and producing a couple bands like Wisdom in Chains and Death Before Dishonor.
FREDDY: I’m doing all kinds of shit, man (laughs).
JW: Tell me about all that stuff you’re involved with.
FREDDY: In this day and age, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. As I’ve gotten older and more involved in this world, and on the business side and the creative side, I’ve come to realize, Madball will always be a priority for me, but I also have other things and other interests, on the business side of things and even creatively. You know I’ve got a hiphop project. I’ve always been a big fan of hiphop since I was a little kid. I’ve always been involved in that culture so I’m finally dropping my hiphop record. And yeah, I manage a few bands and the management thing just kind of came from me managing Madball and just kind of spiraled into helping out a few other bands. I got to produce an Agnostic Front record last year. I’m pretty excited about that actually and I can’t complain really at this point. I’m just trying to build on everything, but Madball has been the catalyst for it all, y’know.
JW: And that’s the thing. To do a band is one thing, but to be able to branch off and do these different things. Is it rewarding for you, not just talking about making money and all that, but to be able to spread it out like that.
FREDDY: It’s definitely not financial just yet (laughs). I mean I get by, don’t get me wrong. I pay my rent. I take care of my family and I pay my bills and all that but I’m not in the lap of luxury, you know what I’m saying. The reward is more so just the fact that I was never a one-dimensional type of individual anyways and to be able to do these other things, to be given the opportunity to do these other things, that’s where the reward is for me personally. Then, of course, financially things get better then that’s great as well, because we can all use that. First and foremost, the clothing line was something I’ve been twirling around for a while. People were saying, “Everybody’s got a clothing line. You might as well do one too.” That’s almost the reason why I didn’t want to do one. I had an idea to do one, you know my clothing line is called FAMILIA, and to kind of bring my Latin roots and that aspect into my clothing, you know, not just a hardcore clothing line or hiphop clothing line. More something touching my Latin roots and that was the way to express that side. Relatives of mine are on my shirts, you know what I mean? The first shirt I put out is a shirt of my uncle in the 60s in Cuba. It’s very family related.
JW: You’re family’s got to be pretty proud that you would include them in something you’re doing creatively. They’ve got to think that’s pretty cool.
FREDDY: Yeah, without a doubt. I mean I’ve always been about family. Before the music and after the fact, family will always be there for you. I’ve always been big on family. I talk about it in my lyrics with Madball and it’s an important thing. Whether it’s dysfunctional or not or whatever, family can be your blood relatives or people you’ve grown up with that are like your brothers and sisters. I’m very big on family and they’re psyched about it and so am I.
JW: Last question, what can the kids and fans and family expect from Madball in 2009.
FREDDY: What can they expect? Brutality…hahaha. That’s what they can expect. No, I mean we’re going to bring it how we always bring it. When I do Madball, I want it to be as authentic as possible and as hard as possible and still fresh because we’re a band that, y’know with 2009, marks twenty years that we exist as a band. That’s a good thing and it’s also can be a negative. People could be like, “Well, do they still got it? What are they going to bring to the table?” We like proving to everyone, that not only do we still have it, but we can bring something refreshing to the table in being in the game this long. We’re like fine wine. We’re all getting better as we get older. Hopefully, we can give them something better than the last. That’s what we go for…better than the last.
interview by Jason Walsh
In the streets of New York’s Lower East Side, a young Cuban kid grew up around some of the most influential musicians in the city’s hardcore scene. At an early age, older brother Roger Miret took the younger Freddy Cricien on tour with his band Agnostic Front, and before he was even ten-years old, he was singing songs on stage during their set. Madball was a side project formed by Miret and AF guitarist Vinnie Stigma for Cricien in 1989, and from there the rest is NYHC history.
Now, twenty years later, an older and wiser Cricien has taken what he has learned on the road and in the streets and diversified the roles he plays within the scene, from producing to managing bands like Wisdom in Chains and Death Before Dishonor, to forming Black N Blue Productions with cohort “Cousin Joe” Cammarata. He has also recently started his own clothing line (FAMILIA) but at the end of the day, Madball remains the top priority.
The band released “Infiltrate the System,” their seventh studio full-length which was received with great response, and are working on new material for their followup, when they are not touring. I had a chance to talk to Cricien about being the busiest guy in the New York hardcore community and something of great importance to him. Family.
JW: So what do you have going on this year?
FREDDY: Oh man, many things. We’re in the process of starting to write the new album. We’re trying to get it out by this year so we’re trying to scramble. You know, we’re not just going to put out any old record. We’ve got a lot of stuff. Everybody’s been writing stuff for some time now so it’s a matter of compiling everything and getting it out. I guess that’s one of the priorities this year and aside from that, just a lot of touring as usual, y’know.
JW: Right. With this new record, you guys just started writing a little bit but haven’t hit the studio or anything like that?
FREDDY: No, I mean we’ve got a lot of material floating around but we’re not in the studio recording just yet.
JW: Any idea when you might get there or is it more or less, when you’re ready to go, you’ll hit the studio?
FREDDY: Yeah, it’s probably going to be when we’re ready to go, we’ll hit the studio. I mean once we’re ready to go, it should go pretty smoothly, hopefully. It’s just a matter of getting to the point where we’re ready. I mean it’s hard too, because we’re also touring a lot. We’re not touring all year round. I like to split up our tours a little more but we’re still pretty busy, y’know.
JW: Last year, at the Black N Blue Bowl, Rigg Ross announced he was leaving the band and you guys brought in Mackie Jayson (Cro-Mags). Now is Mackie still with you guys or did you guys get a new drummer?
FREDDY: We got a new drummer. Mackie helped us out. Rigg, y’know, we’re all still friends, but he had some personal stuff he wanted to handle. We went ahead and let him do that. Mackie was just our boy and he was there at the right time and just helped us out. We weren’t sure if he would be a permanent thing or not, y’know, on both sides. We just kind of went with it. Turns out it ended up not being a permanent thing just because he got really busy with the Cro-Mags stuff and it started conflicting with Madball schedule and that wasn’t really working for us. We decided to just find someone that could be a little bit more dedicated to just our thing.
JW: So who’s this new guy?
FREDDY: We got Ben (Dussault) from Throwdown. He was the Throwdown drummer for the last four or five years and his background is basically he’s a hardcore dude from Canada, you know what I mean, and he’s a solid drummer. He’s got chops and he also understands the history of our band, where we come from, and where we’re trying to go and all that. He’s just a really good fit, we tried him out, and it’s been working out so far.
JW: So he’s fallen into the Madball family pretty easily?
FREDDY: Yeah, yeah. I mean Throwdown was a little bit more of a crossover type situation, musically speaking, but out of all those guys, not trying to dis anyone, but he was like the hardcore dude out of that camp, you know what I mean? So, it kind of worked. He grew up listening to New York hardcore and it kind of fell right into place.
JW: Do you have any touring coming up with the band any time soon or are you gearing up for the Black N Blue Bowl in May?
FREDDY: Uhhh, both (laughs). I’m gearing up for the Black N Blue Bowl as we speak and I also have some scattered stuff with Madball. A one off in Belgium coming up and then we come back and we have a Canada run, then the Black N Blue Bowl, and then I have stuff after that. The way Madball tours these days, the tours are smaller, or shorter rather, but we still cover a lot of ground throughout the year, y’know.
JW: Does that make it a little bit easier to do it like that as opposed to doing long tours?
FREDDY: Yes, that’s definitely a conscious thing on my part. It makes life easier, it makes home life easier, and it makes it still exciting when we go out there and do it. I mean we could be on tour every day of the year if we wanted to, which I guess is a cool thing. Not every band is in that position and it’s a cool thing that we have that option. I’d rather not be on tour every day of the year. I’d rather do a few weeks out of every month or a month here, you know what I mean? That’s just the way I prefer it and the guys don’t have a problem with it so that’s how we do it.
JW: Does that help rejuvenate the band? You do these short stretches, you come home, you get a new burst of energy before you hit the road again. I mean, does that kind of help you guys?
FREDDY: Yeah, definitely man. You regroup and then when you come and do it, like I said before, it’s that much more exciting when you go back out there. You’re not burnt out and you haven’t been on the road for your third month.
JW: So, tell me about the BNB Bowl at the end of May this year. I saw the lineup. It looks like it’s going to be kick ass.
FREDDY: Yeah, it’s shaping up to be a pretty cool lineup, man. It’s hard. Every year it gets harder because bands are touring more and more and it’s hard to lockdown a good lineup during that time of year.
JW: It’s got to be hard to get so many good quality bands together all at the same time.
FREDDY: That’s exactly what I’m saying. Exactly what I’m saying. It’s not an easy task (laughs). Whether it be younger bands or older bands, everybody’s out there these days, you know what I mean, so it’s a hard task but I think we’re going to manage again this year. We have tons of bands: Earth Crisis, Bold, Crown of Thornz, Murphy’s Law…a bunch of bands. Tons. A couple younger bands. We’re going to officially announce it in the next few days and hopefully it’s going to be another great time. So far, knock on wood, every event has been great, turnout-wise and just show-wise, y’know, just everything. They’ve been peaceful, fun, and that’s what we’re in it for, y’know.
JW: Aside from the music and all that, you’re a busy man. You got this clothing line you’re doing. You’re managing and producing a couple bands like Wisdom in Chains and Death Before Dishonor.
FREDDY: I’m doing all kinds of shit, man (laughs).
JW: Tell me about all that stuff you’re involved with.
FREDDY: In this day and age, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. As I’ve gotten older and more involved in this world, and on the business side and the creative side, I’ve come to realize, Madball will always be a priority for me, but I also have other things and other interests, on the business side of things and even creatively. You know I’ve got a hiphop project. I’ve always been a big fan of hiphop since I was a little kid. I’ve always been involved in that culture so I’m finally dropping my hiphop record. And yeah, I manage a few bands and the management thing just kind of came from me managing Madball and just kind of spiraled into helping out a few other bands. I got to produce an Agnostic Front record last year. I’m pretty excited about that actually and I can’t complain really at this point. I’m just trying to build on everything, but Madball has been the catalyst for it all, y’know.
JW: And that’s the thing. To do a band is one thing, but to be able to branch off and do these different things. Is it rewarding for you, not just talking about making money and all that, but to be able to spread it out like that.
FREDDY: It’s definitely not financial just yet (laughs). I mean I get by, don’t get me wrong. I pay my rent. I take care of my family and I pay my bills and all that but I’m not in the lap of luxury, you know what I’m saying. The reward is more so just the fact that I was never a one-dimensional type of individual anyways and to be able to do these other things, to be given the opportunity to do these other things, that’s where the reward is for me personally. Then, of course, financially things get better then that’s great as well, because we can all use that. First and foremost, the clothing line was something I’ve been twirling around for a while. People were saying, “Everybody’s got a clothing line. You might as well do one too.” That’s almost the reason why I didn’t want to do one. I had an idea to do one, you know my clothing line is called FAMILIA, and to kind of bring my Latin roots and that aspect into my clothing, you know, not just a hardcore clothing line or hiphop clothing line. More something touching my Latin roots and that was the way to express that side. Relatives of mine are on my shirts, you know what I mean? The first shirt I put out is a shirt of my uncle in the 60s in Cuba. It’s very family related.
JW: You’re family’s got to be pretty proud that you would include them in something you’re doing creatively. They’ve got to think that’s pretty cool.
FREDDY: Yeah, without a doubt. I mean I’ve always been about family. Before the music and after the fact, family will always be there for you. I’ve always been big on family. I talk about it in my lyrics with Madball and it’s an important thing. Whether it’s dysfunctional or not or whatever, family can be your blood relatives or people you’ve grown up with that are like your brothers and sisters. I’m very big on family and they’re psyched about it and so am I.
JW: Last question, what can the kids and fans and family expect from Madball in 2009.
FREDDY: What can they expect? Brutality…hahaha. That’s what they can expect. No, I mean we’re going to bring it how we always bring it. When I do Madball, I want it to be as authentic as possible and as hard as possible and still fresh because we’re a band that, y’know with 2009, marks twenty years that we exist as a band. That’s a good thing and it’s also can be a negative. People could be like, “Well, do they still got it? What are they going to bring to the table?” We like proving to everyone, that not only do we still have it, but we can bring something refreshing to the table in being in the game this long. We’re like fine wine. We’re all getting better as we get older. Hopefully, we can give them something better than the last. That’s what we go for…better than the last.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
SHAMROCK FEST 2009
Shamrock Fest 2009
by Jason Walsh
photos by Jez Beasley
The skies seemed clear on the pilgrimage north along I-95, and the hopes were that the forecasted downpour expected for the day in DC would prove to be wrong. As those familiar sites came into view, the Pentagon, Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol, it seemed that the sun would burn itself out of the dismal gray that blanketed the city. Fans began to roll in at 1pm and the two opening acts started on opposite ends of the parking lot at RFK, throwing down their blend of traditional Irish Rock, before audiences could even find them.
“Yeah, I don’t know why they had it so spread out this year,” Mike Ayres of Charm City Saints said. “They told us gates opened at 12:30, but we didn’t see people coming in until one. We actually stalled ‘til about ten after just so some people could get in.”
Regardless of a packed audience, the boys from Baltimore continued on with their street punk influenced take, entertaining those who found their way to the stage.
“It is a great chance to play in front of people that might not normally come and check us out at a punk rock club like the Ottobar or Sidebar Tavern. Plus, it is one hell of a good time. Good music, lots of free beer. What more could you ask for?”
On the other end of the lot, the Gobshites from Massachusetts were also on hand with their unique style of tearing up traditional Irish standards or covering classics like Black Flag and the Ramones in an unexpected way. The nine-piece from Foxboro came a long ways for their first appearance at the Shamrock Fest.
“We’re psyched to do it because we wanted to do it for a long time,” Peter Walsh of the Gobshites said. “Our fiddle player played in Charm City Saints before and he played it, and we have friends in the Pubcrawlers, who played the last couple years and every time it happened, it was coinciding with South Boston’s parade, which we’re doing tomorrow. We couldn’t line it up and this year, it worked out, the stars aligned, and we found Jesus under the biggest star and got to play.”
Walsh, the guitarist and lead vocalist of the band, said this style of fusing hard, aggressive rock with the elements of Celtic music has always been one that has spoken to him.
“What I like about it is it’s so fucking honest,” he said. “Even like punk rock, which it never should have happened to, it matters about how old you are and how pretty you are, and it never should have been that way and it wasn’t until marketing got their hooks into it. What I like about this is that it’s almost a badge of honor to have lived through some shit and play this type of music. It’s the party, it’s the fun, it’s reality, if that’s your upbringing and the cool part is you don’t have to have the upbringing to enjoy it but that’s what attracted me to it. It’s just real.”
Returning for a second year was Cutthroat Shamrock from the foothills of Tennesee’s Smoky Mountains. Plundering with their blend of bluegrass and punk with pirate and Irish tendencies, the guys from down South were excited to be back, even as the skies began to drop the predicted rain.
“The crowd accepted easily even though the weather wasn’t as great as last year,” vocalist Derek McRotten said. “We feature Celtic influence in our music and we like to be known for that. A festival like Shamrock Fest draws a crowd expecting that genre and we were happy to give it to them.”
However not every entertainer on the bill of more than forty bands and DJs were playing Irish tunes. The Aggrolites and Dub Trio made their way to the Capital this year, dropping old school ska and dub beats. Fellow label mates from Savannah, Georgia, Passafire also came along for the ride. Keyboardist Adam Willis is a local who grew up in Alexandria, coming frequently to RFK in his youth for Redskins games.
“It is a hometown gig so I’m psyched,” he said. “As soon as we heard about it, we were like ‘we got to get on it.’ It seems like there is a lot of different kind of bands and it is, of course, a St. Patty’s celebration, but I feel like there’s a lot of different bands that are here doing unique sounds and styles, so we were just excited to get on board and share the stage with some bands we really like.”
It was also a home game for DC’s Scythian, who have played the festival every year and are renowned in the District for their energetic stage show. Danylo Fedoryka said that the steady stream from above and chill in the air did not discourage Shamrockers from having a good time.
“Every festival’s nightmare is having a cold, rainy day,” Fedoryka said. “They had the perfect headliner for this type of day, Flogging Molly, whose fans are diehard and who’d scoff at people who’d stay home ‘cause of a little inclement weather. Numbers were down a bit from last year, but the people who were there really wanted to be there and made the most of it.”
Promoters estimated 30,000 waterlogged patrons were in attendance this year and from the looks across the crowds that continued to grow throughout the day, not a sad face could be found. Fedoryka continued that this is the power of the Irish inspired sounds.
“Most people can identify with Celtic music,” he said. “Maybe since much of America was built on the backs of Irish immigrants, or maybe because it’s inherently catchy. Either way, the music lends itself to clapping your hands, jumping up and down, and letting loose.”
Fans descended on RFK from all over the country, but none may have come as far as foreign exchange student, Lenka Hemczeova. She is from Slovakia, studying English in Petersburg, Virginia, and coming to an event like the Shamrock Fest was an eye-opening experience.
“I loved it,” she said. “It was awesome. I enjoyed seeing how different kinds of people are and how they act. It was something different and it doesn’t matter how it looks outside, because if you like the kind of music and you enjoy it, it’s awesome.”
The Pubcrawlers may have not come the furthest distance, but they likely came from the coldest. Hailing from Portland, Maine, the eight-piece delivered a frothing audience what they call “the perfect soundtrack to a rowdy, drunken night out.” Fiddler Emily Freeman was happy to take part in the mayhem.
“It’s a really awesome feeling,” she said. “Just the fact that that amount of people are having such an awesome time and it doesn’t matter that the weather is kind of shitty like today. It’s a fine Irish day.”
Pubcrawlers drummer Andy Hercock agreed that a festival this large that caters to this style of music is a dream for a band like theirs.
“It’s more fun than we can possibly tell you. This is the biggest crowd we play for every year. The crowd is ridiculously receptive. They’re all extremely friendly.
They seem to love what we do and we love the energy from the crowd. It’s just a great time. We look forward to it every year.”
The brothers from Chicago’s South Side finally made their first appearance at the Shamrock Fest this year. Flatfoot 56 has carved a niche in Celtic street rock and did not fail in setting the crowd off. Vocalist and guitarist Tobin Bawinkel said the audience did not disappoint him either.
“They’re nuts,” he said. “It was a blast. We were kind of excited to see what to expect and when we got here it was raining, people beat the snot out of each other, and had a good time so the party atmosphere is still here.”
Bawinkel says the legacy of this ever-evolving style of music with Gaelic roots speaks to people worldwide, regardless of their background, heritage, or creed, and in these uncertain times, the messages translate fluidly.
“When people are struggling, music is something that always kind of has historically been something that encourages people a lot,” he said. “For me personally, one of the things that makes it so attractive to people is that it’s a music born out of a history of persecution and difficulty and whenever people have to deal with difficulty, they tend to make the best music because they’re singing about what they’re going through. Celtic music, inherently, is from people that are being oppressed but are trying to look for joy just in life and finding joy in the little things. That really speaks volumes to people that are just looking to have a good time and put off what the world has cast upon them and just put their head down and have fun while dancing.”
The last performance of the night was Flogging Molly, and as the rain continued to fall, barricades began to crumble, and the PA intermittently turned off, the folks who had gathered continued to sing along as the innovators from Los Angeles took the stage.
“We did it two years ago and that was a lot of fun,” guitarist Dennis Casey said. “It’s always funny to see people dressed in green and getting loaded. It’s kind of like nothing really changes much for us, but it’s great playing big festivals. I love doing it.”
Flogging Molly made the stop as part of their Green 17 tour, and after a short break, will be heading to Japan. Casey is proud that the music they do is appreciated by a legion of fans across the country and that a festival like the Shamrock Fest can showcase their patent sound.
“I think they’re great, especially for a band like ours,” he said. “There’s something to say for Irish and Celtic heritage and culture, because it’s so alive and vibrant in America. The fact that people like to celebrate their heritage and have events like this is really special and it’s great that they try to keep it all alive and celebrate their Celtic roots.”
by Jason Walsh
photos by Jez Beasley
The skies seemed clear on the pilgrimage north along I-95, and the hopes were that the forecasted downpour expected for the day in DC would prove to be wrong. As those familiar sites came into view, the Pentagon, Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol, it seemed that the sun would burn itself out of the dismal gray that blanketed the city. Fans began to roll in at 1pm and the two opening acts started on opposite ends of the parking lot at RFK, throwing down their blend of traditional Irish Rock, before audiences could even find them.
“Yeah, I don’t know why they had it so spread out this year,” Mike Ayres of Charm City Saints said. “They told us gates opened at 12:30, but we didn’t see people coming in until one. We actually stalled ‘til about ten after just so some people could get in.”
Regardless of a packed audience, the boys from Baltimore continued on with their street punk influenced take, entertaining those who found their way to the stage.
“It is a great chance to play in front of people that might not normally come and check us out at a punk rock club like the Ottobar or Sidebar Tavern. Plus, it is one hell of a good time. Good music, lots of free beer. What more could you ask for?”
On the other end of the lot, the Gobshites from Massachusetts were also on hand with their unique style of tearing up traditional Irish standards or covering classics like Black Flag and the Ramones in an unexpected way. The nine-piece from Foxboro came a long ways for their first appearance at the Shamrock Fest.
“We’re psyched to do it because we wanted to do it for a long time,” Peter Walsh of the Gobshites said. “Our fiddle player played in Charm City Saints before and he played it, and we have friends in the Pubcrawlers, who played the last couple years and every time it happened, it was coinciding with South Boston’s parade, which we’re doing tomorrow. We couldn’t line it up and this year, it worked out, the stars aligned, and we found Jesus under the biggest star and got to play.”
Walsh, the guitarist and lead vocalist of the band, said this style of fusing hard, aggressive rock with the elements of Celtic music has always been one that has spoken to him.
“What I like about it is it’s so fucking honest,” he said. “Even like punk rock, which it never should have happened to, it matters about how old you are and how pretty you are, and it never should have been that way and it wasn’t until marketing got their hooks into it. What I like about this is that it’s almost a badge of honor to have lived through some shit and play this type of music. It’s the party, it’s the fun, it’s reality, if that’s your upbringing and the cool part is you don’t have to have the upbringing to enjoy it but that’s what attracted me to it. It’s just real.”
Returning for a second year was Cutthroat Shamrock from the foothills of Tennesee’s Smoky Mountains. Plundering with their blend of bluegrass and punk with pirate and Irish tendencies, the guys from down South were excited to be back, even as the skies began to drop the predicted rain.
“The crowd accepted easily even though the weather wasn’t as great as last year,” vocalist Derek McRotten said. “We feature Celtic influence in our music and we like to be known for that. A festival like Shamrock Fest draws a crowd expecting that genre and we were happy to give it to them.”
However not every entertainer on the bill of more than forty bands and DJs were playing Irish tunes. The Aggrolites and Dub Trio made their way to the Capital this year, dropping old school ska and dub beats. Fellow label mates from Savannah, Georgia, Passafire also came along for the ride. Keyboardist Adam Willis is a local who grew up in Alexandria, coming frequently to RFK in his youth for Redskins games.
“It is a hometown gig so I’m psyched,” he said. “As soon as we heard about it, we were like ‘we got to get on it.’ It seems like there is a lot of different kind of bands and it is, of course, a St. Patty’s celebration, but I feel like there’s a lot of different bands that are here doing unique sounds and styles, so we were just excited to get on board and share the stage with some bands we really like.”
It was also a home game for DC’s Scythian, who have played the festival every year and are renowned in the District for their energetic stage show. Danylo Fedoryka said that the steady stream from above and chill in the air did not discourage Shamrockers from having a good time.
“Every festival’s nightmare is having a cold, rainy day,” Fedoryka said. “They had the perfect headliner for this type of day, Flogging Molly, whose fans are diehard and who’d scoff at people who’d stay home ‘cause of a little inclement weather. Numbers were down a bit from last year, but the people who were there really wanted to be there and made the most of it.”
Promoters estimated 30,000 waterlogged patrons were in attendance this year and from the looks across the crowds that continued to grow throughout the day, not a sad face could be found. Fedoryka continued that this is the power of the Irish inspired sounds.
“Most people can identify with Celtic music,” he said. “Maybe since much of America was built on the backs of Irish immigrants, or maybe because it’s inherently catchy. Either way, the music lends itself to clapping your hands, jumping up and down, and letting loose.”
Fans descended on RFK from all over the country, but none may have come as far as foreign exchange student, Lenka Hemczeova. She is from Slovakia, studying English in Petersburg, Virginia, and coming to an event like the Shamrock Fest was an eye-opening experience.
“I loved it,” she said. “It was awesome. I enjoyed seeing how different kinds of people are and how they act. It was something different and it doesn’t matter how it looks outside, because if you like the kind of music and you enjoy it, it’s awesome.”
The Pubcrawlers may have not come the furthest distance, but they likely came from the coldest. Hailing from Portland, Maine, the eight-piece delivered a frothing audience what they call “the perfect soundtrack to a rowdy, drunken night out.” Fiddler Emily Freeman was happy to take part in the mayhem.
“It’s a really awesome feeling,” she said. “Just the fact that that amount of people are having such an awesome time and it doesn’t matter that the weather is kind of shitty like today. It’s a fine Irish day.”
Pubcrawlers drummer Andy Hercock agreed that a festival this large that caters to this style of music is a dream for a band like theirs.
“It’s more fun than we can possibly tell you. This is the biggest crowd we play for every year. The crowd is ridiculously receptive. They’re all extremely friendly.
They seem to love what we do and we love the energy from the crowd. It’s just a great time. We look forward to it every year.”
The brothers from Chicago’s South Side finally made their first appearance at the Shamrock Fest this year. Flatfoot 56 has carved a niche in Celtic street rock and did not fail in setting the crowd off. Vocalist and guitarist Tobin Bawinkel said the audience did not disappoint him either.
“They’re nuts,” he said. “It was a blast. We were kind of excited to see what to expect and when we got here it was raining, people beat the snot out of each other, and had a good time so the party atmosphere is still here.”
Bawinkel says the legacy of this ever-evolving style of music with Gaelic roots speaks to people worldwide, regardless of their background, heritage, or creed, and in these uncertain times, the messages translate fluidly.
“When people are struggling, music is something that always kind of has historically been something that encourages people a lot,” he said. “For me personally, one of the things that makes it so attractive to people is that it’s a music born out of a history of persecution and difficulty and whenever people have to deal with difficulty, they tend to make the best music because they’re singing about what they’re going through. Celtic music, inherently, is from people that are being oppressed but are trying to look for joy just in life and finding joy in the little things. That really speaks volumes to people that are just looking to have a good time and put off what the world has cast upon them and just put their head down and have fun while dancing.”
The last performance of the night was Flogging Molly, and as the rain continued to fall, barricades began to crumble, and the PA intermittently turned off, the folks who had gathered continued to sing along as the innovators from Los Angeles took the stage.
“We did it two years ago and that was a lot of fun,” guitarist Dennis Casey said. “It’s always funny to see people dressed in green and getting loaded. It’s kind of like nothing really changes much for us, but it’s great playing big festivals. I love doing it.”
Flogging Molly made the stop as part of their Green 17 tour, and after a short break, will be heading to Japan. Casey is proud that the music they do is appreciated by a legion of fans across the country and that a festival like the Shamrock Fest can showcase their patent sound.
“I think they’re great, especially for a band like ours,” he said. “There’s something to say for Irish and Celtic heritage and culture, because it’s so alive and vibrant in America. The fact that people like to celebrate their heritage and have events like this is really special and it’s great that they try to keep it all alive and celebrate their Celtic roots.”
Thursday, March 12, 2009
An interview with heidiminx
Thank You was all it took…
An interview with heidiminx
by Jason K. Walsh
“In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human being.” – Joe Strummer
What can one person do to make a difference? In the age of change, that is the mindset that Americans hopefully strive towards, as the economy plummets, jobs disappear, and hope seems to be evaporating before our eyes. We look to our leaders to make a difference, when the solutions lie within us all. We are the ones who can bring about change. We are the ones who can make a difference.
I had the opportunity to talk with heidiminx about her personal journey to bring change to the lives of people who have been suffering for decades. She has recently returned to Dharamasala, India for a second time as a volunteer at the Tibet Hope Center, a refugee community where many now call home after fleeing the political oppression that drove them from their own nation.
Growing up on the streets of Baltimore, heidiminx found punk, Oi, and hardcore at an early age. She relocated to New York City and found family amongst the New York Hardcore underground community and has become an important part of the success of Black N Blue Productions with partners in crime, Joe Cammarata and Madball’s Freddy Cricien. She started Built on Respect as her way of furthering her ability to bring change through education and good, old fashioned humanity.
JW: First question. How did you get into volunteering?
heidiminx: Several years ago when I had just moved up to New York and started doing some different corporate PR, I was actually working with a Playboy account and actually had a personal publicist that told me about a woman named Susan Scott Krabacher, who was a playmate who started her own non-profit called the Mercy and Sharing Foundation and she started orphanages and schools in Haiti. The Peace Corps would not take her because she did not have a college education and she just went and started on her own. I called her up and said, “Hey, I work with Playboy and it sounds like what you are doing is really cool. How can I be involved?” Then she said, “Well, we are doing a press tour later this year and we’re taking thirty journalists over to Haiti and if you could help me that would be wonderful.” I rolled up my sleeves and said, “Hell yeah.” In my early twenties, I was on a lot of different boards for different charities and things like that and it wasn’t really doing it for me. It was nice and we sat there and made some fundraisers and got a bunch of people together and everyone sat around and patted themselves on the back and it was so further removed from the actual cause that it bored me to tears. So after having gone over to Haiti, I’m not one to sit still so, you know, the idea of a vacation in Hawaii is fairly repugnant. My dad’s a travel writer and I’ve been traveling since I was a little kid, and I wanted to go to India, so I decided the best way to do it was doing a volunteer vacation and that’s what I did. I hooked up with one particular group called Cross Cultural Solutions and I went over and I decided specifically that Dharamasala, you know because of me being Buddhist and that’s where the Dalai Lama and the entire Tibetan government in exile is, that that’s where I wanted to go. I went over and I spent my mornings, you know about four hours each morning, working within the Indian community, helping, you know with their assessment of my skills, teaching English and computers to some rural students who lived in Dharamasala, and then I started to spend my afternoons up in Mcleod Ganj, which is the Tibetan enclave of Dharamasala and I tripped upon a little community organization called the Hope Center. It was run by two early twenties Tibetan refugees and they put together such a compelling community program. It takes a lot for someone to really truly inspire me and they truly inspired me. The last day that I was there I made the determination and promised that I’d be back and I don’t renig on my word. So, I came back home and figured out how to use my voice and to work with my friends and to inspire other people.
JW: So, you’re going to be over there for three months. What kind of things are you going to be doing over there?
heidiminx: There’s a lot of different things. Every day I like to participate in the conversation classes where different tourists come through town and the students and refugees of that community are there. It’s basically conversational English classes, where they can tell their stories and exciting them through conversational English. They have other programs. Once a month, they work with one of the old-age homes and they bring different volunteers and students in to interact with some of the older residents and do tea parties. They do a “Clean up the Town” project. One of the main things I am concentrating on is “Stories of Our Students,” they call it the S.O.S. project. Over the past two years, the Hope Center has been collecting stories of what it took for the different students to be able to leave different regions of Tibet and come in through Nepal and into Delhi, then in Dehli back into Dharamasala. Basically, it’s what their stories were that made them leave their country, to get an education or to get a spiritual leader. These have already been collected in a series of one-to-two pages and I want to use them as a basis for English lessons and then work with the Center’s director to set up some online stores and probably self-publish that book through the Center and make it something that could be a sustainable form of income. I’ve also been working with Michael Distelkamp, who owns Convoy Films and produced the Black N Blue Bowl DVD. He’s been very inspired by what I’ve been doing and he and I are actually pursuing a grant right now to see if he can come over to India and we can make a Built on Respect documentary.
JW: What was it about your first experience over there that inspired you to decide that you wanted to return? What was it about the people there?
heidiminx: My students said “thank you.” It was that simple. The last day I was there, you know I didn’t want to make a big deal out of leaving and I think in this world today, “please” and “thank you” are hardly overrated. They’re kind of rare gems and people forget to say it so often. There were students that day saw me taking pictures and all of a sudden I hear yelling in Tibetan and forty, fifty people are surrounding me, and Kusang goes and gets me a “khata,” which is a Tibetan scarf that you would give in thanks and respect to somebody. He puts it on my neck and we take this group picture and the next thing I know the students that I hadn’t even taught were just all filing past and saying just thank you so much for helping make a difference and we really appreciate what it is you’ve done for us in this small community center. It was so heartfelt that I knew that in barely the two weeks I spent there, if that was the impact and response that if I really dedicated and worked hard that that could be exponentially increased. So, I made the decision that day to go back over and do whatever I could. I’ve got a very, very, very good group of friends around me and wonderful people that I do business with. Many of them are in bands and they’re amazing people and they’ve inspired other people worldwide through their music. Everybody from Al Barr from the Dropkick Murphys to Randy from Pennywise to Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed, Jasta) to Pete and Lou Koller from Sick of it All and Freddy with Madball, and even Joe (Cammarata) with Black N Blue, and the Street Dogs. They’ve all banded together to help me get a message out there and tape PSA’s (Public Service Announcements) and rasie awareness for what I’m doing.
JW: Was that flight back pretty tough for you? Did you not want to leave?
heidiminx: I knew that I was coming back. I’ve lived in so many different cities, so many different countries, New York is my home. But, New York is also what I call my home base. There’s always phone, there’s always internet as long as I’m surrounded by good people at home, I can be anywhere. So, I knew that I’d be coming back and I was looking forward to coming back and seeing my friends and in fact the hardest thing for me was the first week when I came back, just walking down the street and looking at the newsstands and seeing Lindsay Lohan’s lack of underwear on the front of US Weekly or hearing people complain about the most mundane things. “My text message didn’t go through.” Wow, you’re fortunate enough to have a cell phone? You know? It’s kind of the old adage, “mo’ money, mo’ problems,” if that’s even an adage. I came back home and just some of the things, it was really hard for me, some of the things I heard people crying and complaining about were so inconsequential in the grander scheme that I pretty much just spent my first month back telling all my friends what I saw and what I heard and what I learned. The more that I talked, the more of an understanding that they had. Some of my friends weren’t aware that it’s against the law to fly a Tibetan flag. That if you call Tibet from India, the Chinese government monitors your phone calls. Could you imagine the uproar if you knew all of your phone calls were being listened in on by the U.S. government, never mind the Patriot Act? If you were told you can’t fly the American flag, and oh, by the way, we don’t speak English anymore in this country. Here’s your new language. We’d be beside ourselves. So that was just some of the stuff that I spent the first couple of weeks, even still, just in parting, I’m trying to share the stories and make people understand.
JW: Obviously, you feel very connected to these people. What did you take away from the experience you did have with them? As far as for people who might read this, what kind of people are they compared to your everyday American, if there is such a thing?
heidiminx: I think one thing is while America might consider itself “one nation, under God,” be that Christianity, be that Judaic, the Tibetan people as a whole are Buddhists and I think one of the most important things is the practice of “ahimsa,” which means nonviolence. The Tibetans as a whole have met their oppression not with violence. They’ve not taken the “eye for an eye” stance. They’ve tried to understand and even people that I’ve met who have been through the worst and most horrible situations are very happy and very light of mind and they don’t hate the people who have oppressed them. They just try to gain understanding. I think as a whole that’s a lesson the rest of the world needs to learn. There’s no mother in this world that says I’m having a child because I hope to God one day he dies at war. No one, yet our world is still full of war and hate. As a whole, the Tibetans have been through so many horrible things and they can still be very likeminded and all they all they ask for is patience and justice and they do it with an open mind and a very honest heart. I really think the rest of the world could stand to learn from them.
JW: And that leads me into my next question…maybe you have learned a lot from these people?
heidiminx: I had already been studying Buddhism. My teacher is Tibetan and he fled Tibet in 1972. He changed my life through what he’s taught his students and what his students have imparted to me, which is part of the reason I’m so attracted to it. Studying Buddhism and being in America is drastically different than studying Buddhism and being amongst a Buddhist community. You know it just really helped give me a visual and cultural understanding that these practices can work and can make for a very happy group of people.
JW: Very cool. Now tell me about the $1 drive. How can people help out?
heidiminx: I mean honestly right now, we’re in a recession. So many of my friends work really hard for their money. Within three or four weeks of building the Built on Respect website, we had I think over 178,000 hits to the site. At first I thought, if I’m doing this maybe I can try and find some corporate sponsors that want to underwrite the charity work I’m doing. Maybe they’ll write checks and at the end of the day, corporate America is a wonderful scapegoat as a letdown. I realized that if individuals, just one on one, were shown, hey, if you can donate a dollar, I’m taking a computer over with me and I’m blogging every day and I’m taking video and I’m showing you what I’m doing with it and this is how far it goes. If people want to be a part of it, they can. I don’t know many people that can’t afford one dollar or a pound or a euro or a lira. Even one ruppee. I really decided to focus in on this as a DIY campaign because I’m doing it DIY style.
JW: Tell me a little about how people can log on and follow you along as you take this journey over there.
heidiminx: If people come to Bulitonrespect.com, I have my own blog on that website, that I’ll be doing text updates. I’ll be doing some video updates and picture updates on there. I’m going to be blogging pretty much every day to make it a very interactive process. On some days, it might be a recap of what was done. Another day, it might be a fun video with me and one of my students, with them teaching me to cook something traditional vegetarian Tibetan.
JW: What would you say to people who read this and become inspired as well by the example you’re setting doing some positive stuff like this, helping your fellow man? How would you encourage folks to take up the reigns and try and find something like this for themselves?
heidiminx: First of all, I’d be very flattered if I’m inspiring anybody. That’s really awesome. If somebody wants to do something, I’ve got a list of ways people can help what I’m doing. If they go to Dosomething.org and try to start a project or even if it’s just smiling at somebody walking down the street, you know, pay it forward. There’s a hundred things you can do a day and frankly, smiling or just saying “please” and “thank you” is the first and most important thing. The only limits that any person has are the ones that they’ve set for themselves and if you break those down, there’s absolutely nothing that can stop you and you can do whatever you want. If you have that option that’s the ultimate freedom, especially if you’re here in the States you have a lot more freedom than everybody else in the world. Don’t take it for granted, exercise it, and share it.
An interview with heidiminx
by Jason K. Walsh
“In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human being.” – Joe Strummer
What can one person do to make a difference? In the age of change, that is the mindset that Americans hopefully strive towards, as the economy plummets, jobs disappear, and hope seems to be evaporating before our eyes. We look to our leaders to make a difference, when the solutions lie within us all. We are the ones who can bring about change. We are the ones who can make a difference.
I had the opportunity to talk with heidiminx about her personal journey to bring change to the lives of people who have been suffering for decades. She has recently returned to Dharamasala, India for a second time as a volunteer at the Tibet Hope Center, a refugee community where many now call home after fleeing the political oppression that drove them from their own nation.
Growing up on the streets of Baltimore, heidiminx found punk, Oi, and hardcore at an early age. She relocated to New York City and found family amongst the New York Hardcore underground community and has become an important part of the success of Black N Blue Productions with partners in crime, Joe Cammarata and Madball’s Freddy Cricien. She started Built on Respect as her way of furthering her ability to bring change through education and good, old fashioned humanity.
JW: First question. How did you get into volunteering?
heidiminx: Several years ago when I had just moved up to New York and started doing some different corporate PR, I was actually working with a Playboy account and actually had a personal publicist that told me about a woman named Susan Scott Krabacher, who was a playmate who started her own non-profit called the Mercy and Sharing Foundation and she started orphanages and schools in Haiti. The Peace Corps would not take her because she did not have a college education and she just went and started on her own. I called her up and said, “Hey, I work with Playboy and it sounds like what you are doing is really cool. How can I be involved?” Then she said, “Well, we are doing a press tour later this year and we’re taking thirty journalists over to Haiti and if you could help me that would be wonderful.” I rolled up my sleeves and said, “Hell yeah.” In my early twenties, I was on a lot of different boards for different charities and things like that and it wasn’t really doing it for me. It was nice and we sat there and made some fundraisers and got a bunch of people together and everyone sat around and patted themselves on the back and it was so further removed from the actual cause that it bored me to tears. So after having gone over to Haiti, I’m not one to sit still so, you know, the idea of a vacation in Hawaii is fairly repugnant. My dad’s a travel writer and I’ve been traveling since I was a little kid, and I wanted to go to India, so I decided the best way to do it was doing a volunteer vacation and that’s what I did. I hooked up with one particular group called Cross Cultural Solutions and I went over and I decided specifically that Dharamasala, you know because of me being Buddhist and that’s where the Dalai Lama and the entire Tibetan government in exile is, that that’s where I wanted to go. I went over and I spent my mornings, you know about four hours each morning, working within the Indian community, helping, you know with their assessment of my skills, teaching English and computers to some rural students who lived in Dharamasala, and then I started to spend my afternoons up in Mcleod Ganj, which is the Tibetan enclave of Dharamasala and I tripped upon a little community organization called the Hope Center. It was run by two early twenties Tibetan refugees and they put together such a compelling community program. It takes a lot for someone to really truly inspire me and they truly inspired me. The last day that I was there I made the determination and promised that I’d be back and I don’t renig on my word. So, I came back home and figured out how to use my voice and to work with my friends and to inspire other people.
JW: So, you’re going to be over there for three months. What kind of things are you going to be doing over there?
heidiminx: There’s a lot of different things. Every day I like to participate in the conversation classes where different tourists come through town and the students and refugees of that community are there. It’s basically conversational English classes, where they can tell their stories and exciting them through conversational English. They have other programs. Once a month, they work with one of the old-age homes and they bring different volunteers and students in to interact with some of the older residents and do tea parties. They do a “Clean up the Town” project. One of the main things I am concentrating on is “Stories of Our Students,” they call it the S.O.S. project. Over the past two years, the Hope Center has been collecting stories of what it took for the different students to be able to leave different regions of Tibet and come in through Nepal and into Delhi, then in Dehli back into Dharamasala. Basically, it’s what their stories were that made them leave their country, to get an education or to get a spiritual leader. These have already been collected in a series of one-to-two pages and I want to use them as a basis for English lessons and then work with the Center’s director to set up some online stores and probably self-publish that book through the Center and make it something that could be a sustainable form of income. I’ve also been working with Michael Distelkamp, who owns Convoy Films and produced the Black N Blue Bowl DVD. He’s been very inspired by what I’ve been doing and he and I are actually pursuing a grant right now to see if he can come over to India and we can make a Built on Respect documentary.
JW: What was it about your first experience over there that inspired you to decide that you wanted to return? What was it about the people there?
heidiminx: My students said “thank you.” It was that simple. The last day I was there, you know I didn’t want to make a big deal out of leaving and I think in this world today, “please” and “thank you” are hardly overrated. They’re kind of rare gems and people forget to say it so often. There were students that day saw me taking pictures and all of a sudden I hear yelling in Tibetan and forty, fifty people are surrounding me, and Kusang goes and gets me a “khata,” which is a Tibetan scarf that you would give in thanks and respect to somebody. He puts it on my neck and we take this group picture and the next thing I know the students that I hadn’t even taught were just all filing past and saying just thank you so much for helping make a difference and we really appreciate what it is you’ve done for us in this small community center. It was so heartfelt that I knew that in barely the two weeks I spent there, if that was the impact and response that if I really dedicated and worked hard that that could be exponentially increased. So, I made the decision that day to go back over and do whatever I could. I’ve got a very, very, very good group of friends around me and wonderful people that I do business with. Many of them are in bands and they’re amazing people and they’ve inspired other people worldwide through their music. Everybody from Al Barr from the Dropkick Murphys to Randy from Pennywise to Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed, Jasta) to Pete and Lou Koller from Sick of it All and Freddy with Madball, and even Joe (Cammarata) with Black N Blue, and the Street Dogs. They’ve all banded together to help me get a message out there and tape PSA’s (Public Service Announcements) and rasie awareness for what I’m doing.
JW: Was that flight back pretty tough for you? Did you not want to leave?
heidiminx: I knew that I was coming back. I’ve lived in so many different cities, so many different countries, New York is my home. But, New York is also what I call my home base. There’s always phone, there’s always internet as long as I’m surrounded by good people at home, I can be anywhere. So, I knew that I’d be coming back and I was looking forward to coming back and seeing my friends and in fact the hardest thing for me was the first week when I came back, just walking down the street and looking at the newsstands and seeing Lindsay Lohan’s lack of underwear on the front of US Weekly or hearing people complain about the most mundane things. “My text message didn’t go through.” Wow, you’re fortunate enough to have a cell phone? You know? It’s kind of the old adage, “mo’ money, mo’ problems,” if that’s even an adage. I came back home and just some of the things, it was really hard for me, some of the things I heard people crying and complaining about were so inconsequential in the grander scheme that I pretty much just spent my first month back telling all my friends what I saw and what I heard and what I learned. The more that I talked, the more of an understanding that they had. Some of my friends weren’t aware that it’s against the law to fly a Tibetan flag. That if you call Tibet from India, the Chinese government monitors your phone calls. Could you imagine the uproar if you knew all of your phone calls were being listened in on by the U.S. government, never mind the Patriot Act? If you were told you can’t fly the American flag, and oh, by the way, we don’t speak English anymore in this country. Here’s your new language. We’d be beside ourselves. So that was just some of the stuff that I spent the first couple of weeks, even still, just in parting, I’m trying to share the stories and make people understand.
JW: Obviously, you feel very connected to these people. What did you take away from the experience you did have with them? As far as for people who might read this, what kind of people are they compared to your everyday American, if there is such a thing?
heidiminx: I think one thing is while America might consider itself “one nation, under God,” be that Christianity, be that Judaic, the Tibetan people as a whole are Buddhists and I think one of the most important things is the practice of “ahimsa,” which means nonviolence. The Tibetans as a whole have met their oppression not with violence. They’ve not taken the “eye for an eye” stance. They’ve tried to understand and even people that I’ve met who have been through the worst and most horrible situations are very happy and very light of mind and they don’t hate the people who have oppressed them. They just try to gain understanding. I think as a whole that’s a lesson the rest of the world needs to learn. There’s no mother in this world that says I’m having a child because I hope to God one day he dies at war. No one, yet our world is still full of war and hate. As a whole, the Tibetans have been through so many horrible things and they can still be very likeminded and all they all they ask for is patience and justice and they do it with an open mind and a very honest heart. I really think the rest of the world could stand to learn from them.
JW: And that leads me into my next question…maybe you have learned a lot from these people?
heidiminx: I had already been studying Buddhism. My teacher is Tibetan and he fled Tibet in 1972. He changed my life through what he’s taught his students and what his students have imparted to me, which is part of the reason I’m so attracted to it. Studying Buddhism and being in America is drastically different than studying Buddhism and being amongst a Buddhist community. You know it just really helped give me a visual and cultural understanding that these practices can work and can make for a very happy group of people.
JW: Very cool. Now tell me about the $1 drive. How can people help out?
heidiminx: I mean honestly right now, we’re in a recession. So many of my friends work really hard for their money. Within three or four weeks of building the Built on Respect website, we had I think over 178,000 hits to the site. At first I thought, if I’m doing this maybe I can try and find some corporate sponsors that want to underwrite the charity work I’m doing. Maybe they’ll write checks and at the end of the day, corporate America is a wonderful scapegoat as a letdown. I realized that if individuals, just one on one, were shown, hey, if you can donate a dollar, I’m taking a computer over with me and I’m blogging every day and I’m taking video and I’m showing you what I’m doing with it and this is how far it goes. If people want to be a part of it, they can. I don’t know many people that can’t afford one dollar or a pound or a euro or a lira. Even one ruppee. I really decided to focus in on this as a DIY campaign because I’m doing it DIY style.
JW: Tell me a little about how people can log on and follow you along as you take this journey over there.
heidiminx: If people come to Bulitonrespect.com, I have my own blog on that website, that I’ll be doing text updates. I’ll be doing some video updates and picture updates on there. I’m going to be blogging pretty much every day to make it a very interactive process. On some days, it might be a recap of what was done. Another day, it might be a fun video with me and one of my students, with them teaching me to cook something traditional vegetarian Tibetan.
JW: What would you say to people who read this and become inspired as well by the example you’re setting doing some positive stuff like this, helping your fellow man? How would you encourage folks to take up the reigns and try and find something like this for themselves?
heidiminx: First of all, I’d be very flattered if I’m inspiring anybody. That’s really awesome. If somebody wants to do something, I’ve got a list of ways people can help what I’m doing. If they go to Dosomething.org and try to start a project or even if it’s just smiling at somebody walking down the street, you know, pay it forward. There’s a hundred things you can do a day and frankly, smiling or just saying “please” and “thank you” is the first and most important thing. The only limits that any person has are the ones that they’ve set for themselves and if you break those down, there’s absolutely nothing that can stop you and you can do whatever you want. If you have that option that’s the ultimate freedom, especially if you’re here in the States you have a lot more freedom than everybody else in the world. Don’t take it for granted, exercise it, and share it.
Monday, February 2, 2009
CHEETAH CHROME
by Jason Walsh
In the mid 70s, a band emerged in Cleveland, Ohio, that would later transform into one of the most influential American punk outfits. Rocket from the Tombs, though short lived, morphed into the band Frankenstein, and after encouragement from Joey Ramone, relocated to New York City, where they finally became the legendary Dead Boys. “Young, Snotty, and Loud” and “We Have Come for Your Children” remain classic records in the annals of the seventies underground era, as well as the band’s renown anthem, “Sonic Reducer.” Fronted by Stiv Bators, the band included Jimmy Zero, Jeff Magnum, Johnny Blitz, and a fellow named Gene O’ Connor on lead guitar, better known as Cheetah Chrome.
Cheetah is one of the most iconic and prolific guitarists in the history of American Punk Rock and throughout the years, has continued to remain an active musician, reforming Rocket from the Tombs as well as his own solo and studio work, and has dropped in on numerous sessions with bands from all over the place.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Cheetah about the future of Rocket from the Tombs as well as other projects which includes Joan Jett’s Blackhearts, and most importantly to him, balancing it all out with a family.
JW: So what do you got going on this year?
CHEETAH: Starting off I’m going to do some recording with Rocket from the Tombs. We’re going to be working on that, got the whole big gang, David Thomas, Richard Lloyd, and then I’ll be releasing some new material of my own that I recorded over the past year, and then I’ll be doing some shows here and there, some with the Blackhearts, some without, some with Rocket.
JW: Where you going to be recording the Rocket from the Tombs stuff?
CHEETAH: At Suma studio which is out in Painesville, Ohio. It’s where we’ve always done our stuff with the Black Keys, just did their new record. It’s got quite a history actually, done the James Gang and Grand Funk.
JW: So this is going to be a new record of new material?
CHEETAH: Yeah, well, we don’t know if it’s going to be a record yet or what because with the internet and all that we’ve been doing some stuff where it’s just downloading online but they do it with an MP3 with a real high quality. We’re thinking we might do something like that, but we haven’t decided on that yet. Just want to get it out.
JW: I got you, and in a case like that, there’s less production you have to worry about in getting the records out. You put it up there and “boom,” it’s available.
CHEETAH: Yeah, well, you know, it’s like the fact that MP3s right now, the way they’re done on ITunes and all that, they’re pretty crappy really. The files are small, you know, and it sounds like you’re getting a good deal but you’re not. They don‘t sound as good as vinyl, they don’t sound as good as CD, and if you do it and make it a bigger file, it’s the same quality. You don’t lose anything. So, we’re thinking about doing it that way.
JW: So are you thinking about hitting the road at all or are you just going to go in the studio and do some recording?
CHEETAH: Well, we always like to do that. We got a whole bunch of songs that are new. We’re only going to go in and do a few right now. I would guess we’ll probably want to do some touring this year. We’ve picked the last couple of years where, you know, not many gigs at all in 2006. In 2007 and 2008 we were pretty much all doing other projects, so I guess this year we’ll get together a bit more and hopefully do at least a week on the East Coast, a week on the West Coast.
JW: Very cool. So, tell me about the solo stuff you’re working on right now.
CHEETAH: Well I’ve just been, you know, I’ve got a studio in my basement and I’ve been working on various things over the years, like different demo tapes and stuff. The result of it came out really good, so it’s kind of like “The Basement Tapes,” you know, where just different things I’ve done over the years that I like, I want to stick them out. Some of them I’ll fix them up and some of them I’ll just leave them like they are.
JW: Are you still playing out the solo stuff? I see you have some different dates this year.
CHEETAH: Yeah, you know New York is a tricky market. I usually go up to Toronto a lot, up by the Midwest and all that. The East Coast is the hardest because I live in Nashville and if I use a band, I usually use a local band. In New York, I’ll use either the Black Angels, and now I’ve been using the Blackhearts for some shows. In Toronto, I use this band, The Screwed, and out on the West Coast I would use Sweet Justice. I’ll fly into town a couple days ahead of time, we rehearse a few days, and do some nice long rehearsals so it’s not like a complete mess. Nashville being centrally located, it’s either I got to fly out there or they got to fly here. I figured we start, you know there’s a lot of expenses involved in getting started and right now New York just doesn’t have any clubs, and the ones that they do have don’t want to pay you anything, you know. They are all just offering you door deals and it feels like the 80s again. I actually had an offer where they were like “you can run the club and you can sell tickets.” I was like, wait a minute, that’s like freakin’ Gildersleeves or something.
JW: 80s mentality in a 2009 economy.
CHEETAH: Yeah, like no, I didn’t play for years because of that. I mean, New York, I didn’t play from 1996 to 2003 for exactly the same reason. Then, as soon as there were clubs around that wanted to pay you at least, you know, give you a guarantee, “yeah…ok,” then I played in New York a lot. Then slowly they all moved out to Brooklyn and now they’re all claiming poverty. So, I don’t know, it’s the same old bar business it’s always been out there.
JW: How long have you been out of the city now?
CHEETAH: Oh god, since ’96 I guess.
JW: So you’ve been gone for quite a while and you’ve been in Nashville all that time?
CHEETAH: Yeah.
JW: And that’s a great city for musicians, not just Country. There’s so much going on down there.
CHEETAH: Oh yeah and I just love it because it’s very low key, and like you said, there’s musicians all over the place. You got guys from Cinderella down here, Jack White lives down here, guys from English bands are here, you know. If you want to go out and hang out, you’ve got a very, very good crowd to hang out with. I don’t really play here. I have my little thing I do in my basement and all that, and I play all the time, but as far as playing a show, I haven’t played here in two years. Even national acts coming through don’t draw in Nashville and that’s the only sad thing about it, because everybody and their brother is a musician and everybody’s too cool to go see somebody else play (laughs).
JW: Who’s going to go pay $50 to go see a band play some big venue when they can just go up the road and go see all their friends in a bar?
CHEETAH: Exactly, and the bar bands here, the competition’s pretty strong, especially in country music. Rock ‘n roll, there’s only a couple clubs but there’s quite a thriving rock ‘n roll scene going on here. I haven’t been part of it in a while. Last time I was out and saw some bands they were good. There’s a band called the Pink Spiders that are from down here that’s real good and there’s this band Paramore that just went platinum I guess.
JW: It sounds like you’re going to be pretty busy, you got a lot of stuff on your plate, but at the same time, you’re not straining yourself out too much.
CHEETAH: Well, that’s the thing, I got a kid that’s going to be four in March and right now, he’s my priority, so you know, I’m going to be 54 and I don’t like jumping in the van and going out for six weeks. That’s like ridiculous. I don’t have to do it. I just do gigs that are worth doing. Periodically, you hit markets that you like, have fun, pay the rent, and that’s all you got to do.
JW: Is it weird having different bands that you hook up with in different cities? Are you doing the same material, or are you doing different stuff with different bands when you go do this, or do they kind of know what you have in mind when you head to say, Toronto or out West.
CHEETAH: No, I’ll send them a CD and usually they’re all pretty well familiar with the Dead Boys stuff, so I just name the songs and they learn those. The new stuff and the solo stuff, I send them a CD a couple months ahead of time and they can rehearse it a bit on their own and I usually try to get in three or four nights ahead of time so we actually have some good rehearsal time. It’s not like a “wham-bam” thing. We do at least two nights rehearsal.
JW: Get everything nailed down and play the shows. But you know, each different venue, you look over and you got different guys playing the same stuff. Is that kind of weird though?
CHEETAH: No, because we’re all friends, you know what I mean, it’s all guys I know. I mean I hooked up with the Blackhearts, like friggin’ Thommy Price, I’ve known him forever. The Black Angels, I’ve done many gigs with them, same with The Screwed. It’s all people I know well and I know I can trust them. It’s not like Chuck Berry coming to town and hiring musicians, you know (laughs).
JW: Right, right. So what keeps you still doing this? Do you still have a love for this, a passion for this, or is it just a job for you?
CHEETAH: Oh, I love it. I mean, I love to play and I do it every day pretty much now. I’ll at least go down and play my guitar for an hour, sometimes two, or I’ll get in and mix something. There’s always something to be done. I just really enjoy it, it’s very kind of therapeutic for me, and playing live I enjoy a lot. It’s kind of becomes a pain in the butt when you got all the family involved now. I am kind of sick of the travelling, but at the same time I take my family with me more now when I play out. So like when I go to Canada, I’ll take them with me, or New York or something like that. So it’s nice, I get to hang out and my son gets to come see me play. He’s pretty interested in music and all now too.
JW: You said he’s 4?
CHEETAH: Yeah, he’s going to be 4.
JW: Does he get what’s going on?
CHEETAH: Oh yeah, yeah. Big Beatles fan right now. He heard the Beatles, I was listening to Sgt. Pepper’s for some reason, I guess I was trying to study a bass sound or something like that, and he was like, “Dad, what’s this music?” and I was like, The Beatles. “Play another one, play another one!” and next thing you know, I was like, “oh, I got more Beatles stuff.” I started playing it for him and now he knows all the words. Now, I’m trying to get him into the Stones (laughs). He likes a few Ozzy things too.
JW: And at the end of the day, going home is the best thing, huh?
CHEETAH: Oh yeah. I’m lucky and I’m very glad I’m able to share it with my family. It’s fun to be able to get out on the road and all that, but like I’ve done that for years and years and years, so now it’s just nice to be part of the family life, you know.
In the mid 70s, a band emerged in Cleveland, Ohio, that would later transform into one of the most influential American punk outfits. Rocket from the Tombs, though short lived, morphed into the band Frankenstein, and after encouragement from Joey Ramone, relocated to New York City, where they finally became the legendary Dead Boys. “Young, Snotty, and Loud” and “We Have Come for Your Children” remain classic records in the annals of the seventies underground era, as well as the band’s renown anthem, “Sonic Reducer.” Fronted by Stiv Bators, the band included Jimmy Zero, Jeff Magnum, Johnny Blitz, and a fellow named Gene O’ Connor on lead guitar, better known as Cheetah Chrome.
Cheetah is one of the most iconic and prolific guitarists in the history of American Punk Rock and throughout the years, has continued to remain an active musician, reforming Rocket from the Tombs as well as his own solo and studio work, and has dropped in on numerous sessions with bands from all over the place.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Cheetah about the future of Rocket from the Tombs as well as other projects which includes Joan Jett’s Blackhearts, and most importantly to him, balancing it all out with a family.
JW: So what do you got going on this year?
CHEETAH: Starting off I’m going to do some recording with Rocket from the Tombs. We’re going to be working on that, got the whole big gang, David Thomas, Richard Lloyd, and then I’ll be releasing some new material of my own that I recorded over the past year, and then I’ll be doing some shows here and there, some with the Blackhearts, some without, some with Rocket.
JW: Where you going to be recording the Rocket from the Tombs stuff?
CHEETAH: At Suma studio which is out in Painesville, Ohio. It’s where we’ve always done our stuff with the Black Keys, just did their new record. It’s got quite a history actually, done the James Gang and Grand Funk.
JW: So this is going to be a new record of new material?
CHEETAH: Yeah, well, we don’t know if it’s going to be a record yet or what because with the internet and all that we’ve been doing some stuff where it’s just downloading online but they do it with an MP3 with a real high quality. We’re thinking we might do something like that, but we haven’t decided on that yet. Just want to get it out.
JW: I got you, and in a case like that, there’s less production you have to worry about in getting the records out. You put it up there and “boom,” it’s available.
CHEETAH: Yeah, well, you know, it’s like the fact that MP3s right now, the way they’re done on ITunes and all that, they’re pretty crappy really. The files are small, you know, and it sounds like you’re getting a good deal but you’re not. They don‘t sound as good as vinyl, they don’t sound as good as CD, and if you do it and make it a bigger file, it’s the same quality. You don’t lose anything. So, we’re thinking about doing it that way.
JW: So are you thinking about hitting the road at all or are you just going to go in the studio and do some recording?
CHEETAH: Well, we always like to do that. We got a whole bunch of songs that are new. We’re only going to go in and do a few right now. I would guess we’ll probably want to do some touring this year. We’ve picked the last couple of years where, you know, not many gigs at all in 2006. In 2007 and 2008 we were pretty much all doing other projects, so I guess this year we’ll get together a bit more and hopefully do at least a week on the East Coast, a week on the West Coast.
JW: Very cool. So, tell me about the solo stuff you’re working on right now.
CHEETAH: Well I’ve just been, you know, I’ve got a studio in my basement and I’ve been working on various things over the years, like different demo tapes and stuff. The result of it came out really good, so it’s kind of like “The Basement Tapes,” you know, where just different things I’ve done over the years that I like, I want to stick them out. Some of them I’ll fix them up and some of them I’ll just leave them like they are.
JW: Are you still playing out the solo stuff? I see you have some different dates this year.
CHEETAH: Yeah, you know New York is a tricky market. I usually go up to Toronto a lot, up by the Midwest and all that. The East Coast is the hardest because I live in Nashville and if I use a band, I usually use a local band. In New York, I’ll use either the Black Angels, and now I’ve been using the Blackhearts for some shows. In Toronto, I use this band, The Screwed, and out on the West Coast I would use Sweet Justice. I’ll fly into town a couple days ahead of time, we rehearse a few days, and do some nice long rehearsals so it’s not like a complete mess. Nashville being centrally located, it’s either I got to fly out there or they got to fly here. I figured we start, you know there’s a lot of expenses involved in getting started and right now New York just doesn’t have any clubs, and the ones that they do have don’t want to pay you anything, you know. They are all just offering you door deals and it feels like the 80s again. I actually had an offer where they were like “you can run the club and you can sell tickets.” I was like, wait a minute, that’s like freakin’ Gildersleeves or something.
JW: 80s mentality in a 2009 economy.
CHEETAH: Yeah, like no, I didn’t play for years because of that. I mean, New York, I didn’t play from 1996 to 2003 for exactly the same reason. Then, as soon as there were clubs around that wanted to pay you at least, you know, give you a guarantee, “yeah…ok,” then I played in New York a lot. Then slowly they all moved out to Brooklyn and now they’re all claiming poverty. So, I don’t know, it’s the same old bar business it’s always been out there.
JW: How long have you been out of the city now?
CHEETAH: Oh god, since ’96 I guess.
JW: So you’ve been gone for quite a while and you’ve been in Nashville all that time?
CHEETAH: Yeah.
JW: And that’s a great city for musicians, not just Country. There’s so much going on down there.
CHEETAH: Oh yeah and I just love it because it’s very low key, and like you said, there’s musicians all over the place. You got guys from Cinderella down here, Jack White lives down here, guys from English bands are here, you know. If you want to go out and hang out, you’ve got a very, very good crowd to hang out with. I don’t really play here. I have my little thing I do in my basement and all that, and I play all the time, but as far as playing a show, I haven’t played here in two years. Even national acts coming through don’t draw in Nashville and that’s the only sad thing about it, because everybody and their brother is a musician and everybody’s too cool to go see somebody else play (laughs).
JW: Who’s going to go pay $50 to go see a band play some big venue when they can just go up the road and go see all their friends in a bar?
CHEETAH: Exactly, and the bar bands here, the competition’s pretty strong, especially in country music. Rock ‘n roll, there’s only a couple clubs but there’s quite a thriving rock ‘n roll scene going on here. I haven’t been part of it in a while. Last time I was out and saw some bands they were good. There’s a band called the Pink Spiders that are from down here that’s real good and there’s this band Paramore that just went platinum I guess.
JW: It sounds like you’re going to be pretty busy, you got a lot of stuff on your plate, but at the same time, you’re not straining yourself out too much.
CHEETAH: Well, that’s the thing, I got a kid that’s going to be four in March and right now, he’s my priority, so you know, I’m going to be 54 and I don’t like jumping in the van and going out for six weeks. That’s like ridiculous. I don’t have to do it. I just do gigs that are worth doing. Periodically, you hit markets that you like, have fun, pay the rent, and that’s all you got to do.
JW: Is it weird having different bands that you hook up with in different cities? Are you doing the same material, or are you doing different stuff with different bands when you go do this, or do they kind of know what you have in mind when you head to say, Toronto or out West.
CHEETAH: No, I’ll send them a CD and usually they’re all pretty well familiar with the Dead Boys stuff, so I just name the songs and they learn those. The new stuff and the solo stuff, I send them a CD a couple months ahead of time and they can rehearse it a bit on their own and I usually try to get in three or four nights ahead of time so we actually have some good rehearsal time. It’s not like a “wham-bam” thing. We do at least two nights rehearsal.
JW: Get everything nailed down and play the shows. But you know, each different venue, you look over and you got different guys playing the same stuff. Is that kind of weird though?
CHEETAH: No, because we’re all friends, you know what I mean, it’s all guys I know. I mean I hooked up with the Blackhearts, like friggin’ Thommy Price, I’ve known him forever. The Black Angels, I’ve done many gigs with them, same with The Screwed. It’s all people I know well and I know I can trust them. It’s not like Chuck Berry coming to town and hiring musicians, you know (laughs).
JW: Right, right. So what keeps you still doing this? Do you still have a love for this, a passion for this, or is it just a job for you?
CHEETAH: Oh, I love it. I mean, I love to play and I do it every day pretty much now. I’ll at least go down and play my guitar for an hour, sometimes two, or I’ll get in and mix something. There’s always something to be done. I just really enjoy it, it’s very kind of therapeutic for me, and playing live I enjoy a lot. It’s kind of becomes a pain in the butt when you got all the family involved now. I am kind of sick of the travelling, but at the same time I take my family with me more now when I play out. So like when I go to Canada, I’ll take them with me, or New York or something like that. So it’s nice, I get to hang out and my son gets to come see me play. He’s pretty interested in music and all now too.
JW: You said he’s 4?
CHEETAH: Yeah, he’s going to be 4.
JW: Does he get what’s going on?
CHEETAH: Oh yeah, yeah. Big Beatles fan right now. He heard the Beatles, I was listening to Sgt. Pepper’s for some reason, I guess I was trying to study a bass sound or something like that, and he was like, “Dad, what’s this music?” and I was like, The Beatles. “Play another one, play another one!” and next thing you know, I was like, “oh, I got more Beatles stuff.” I started playing it for him and now he knows all the words. Now, I’m trying to get him into the Stones (laughs). He likes a few Ozzy things too.
JW: And at the end of the day, going home is the best thing, huh?
CHEETAH: Oh yeah. I’m lucky and I’m very glad I’m able to share it with my family. It’s fun to be able to get out on the road and all that, but like I’ve done that for years and years and years, so now it’s just nice to be part of the family life, you know.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
D.O.A.
D.O.A.: Avengers from the North Celebrate 30 Years of Hardcore
Some words with punk legend Joey Shithead
interview by Jason Walsh
The late 70s was an era when popular culture was immersed in the phenomenon created by "Saturday Night Fever" and the decadence of Studio 54. From the streets of Vancouver, a band emerged to challenge the ills of society and plights of the proletariat, and with their first 1978 EP, "Disco Sucks," they began this unrelenting, frontal assault that would amazingly last three decades.
With the release of their second LP, "Hardcore '81," Joey Shithead and the guys from D.O.A. brought a new term into the vernacular of the thriving underground music scene. "Hardcore" was now synonymous with the faster, more aggressive incarnation of punk rock and the newly appointed moniker spread throughout North America and the world. Their mantra of "talk minus action equals zero" coupled with blazing guitar riffs, reactionary lyrics, and deviant stage antics brought Dead on Arrival to the forefront of the hardcore scene and pioneers of the genre.
Fast-forward to 2009. Joey Shithead has continued to fly the flag for the underground movement, never wavering from the cause. D.O.A. just released their newest offering, "Northern Avenger," and will be touring the world in support. I had a chance to catch up with Joey following a brutal snowfall in the Northwest that blanketed British Columbia. We had a chance to talk about recording the new album with notable Metallica producer Bob Rock, his independent label," Sudden Death Records," the upcoming D.O.A. tour, and what drives him, thirty years later, to continue taking the stage.
JW: So what happened yesterday? You guys had a big blizzard up there?
JOEY: Yeah, we had like a foot of snow, which is like, hey we live in Canada but this is the one part of Canada where it's not very snowy. We usually get one or two big snowfalls a year; some years we don't get any snow.
JW: Do you still live in Vancouver?
JOEY: Yeah, in Vancouver, right. Like Vancouver, Victoria. The only two towns that really are not covered with snow like the rest of Canada for three or four months a year, right? So, yeah, this blizzard sucks and completely screwed up everything especially with Christmas and all that kind of stuff. What town are you in?
JW: I'm in Virginia but I spent the last week up in Michigan and we had snow every day, chilling with my kids and sledding every day, so for us it was perfect.
JOEY: Yeah, yeah (laughing)
JW: So you had a 30th anniversary mark. What's that like for you, having done this for three decades now?
JOEY: Well, that's a pretty general question. It's good, it's fine. We've just done a few special shows and stuff like that, and there's more coming up in the New Year, like this whole stretch out to the end of '09, 'cause there's a new album out and such, right. At some point in the future, you know it might be the 30th-and-a-half or burning up 31 (laughs) or that kind of thing, right. It doesn't really feel any different. I mean, obviously change is a gradual thing as it goes along as opposed to a sudden thing. I didn't just sit there and think, "god, we've been playing fucking punk rock for thirty years, right?" (laughs...) Although somebody else might have said that, "oh my god, they've been...hahaha."
JW: I mean, to you it's really just a number. It doesn't really change what you're doing?
JOEY: Put it this way. Sure, yeah, it's got special significance that we've been going thirty years, pretty well continuously. The only time we weren't playing was for about twenty months, between '90 and '91, in that period, right? So, I would suppose in a continuous sense, we'd be pretty close to being the longest running punk rock band in the world, now that the Ramones aren't around anymore. The only other ones I could think of that would be kind of close would maybe be the Dickies, but I don't think they stuck together the whole time, but they've been pretty active for most the time if you ask me, right? There might be somebody else but most of them, there was a ten or fifteen year hiatus where they didn't do anything, right, so. To me, D.O.A.'s kept going and keeps drawing people. You know, actually we're getting the younger crowds all the time, too, and I think that's because people see D.O.A. as being a progressive band as opposed to being a nostalgia act, right?
JW: Right.
JOEY: Because we come up with new ideas and new albums, and it's the same sound granted, because, hey, that's our style. Why change it? If you want to go for a different style, become a different band I always say, right? Don't change your style so drastically that you're unrecognizable, y'know. 'Cause that's always been the kiss of death when people go, "OK, this is just pure nostalgia." Then you're verging into that corny, vaudeville review, right, in a modern sense.
JW: What has kept you continuing to do this for all this time? Like you said, there hasn't been a big, long hiatus. You've been the centerline of this band. What keeps you motivated to keep doing this?
JOEY: Y'know when I started out, there was kind of three basic motivations when we got together. One, to have a lot of fun, cause a lot of trouble, and to go out and try and change the world. Those kind of motivations haven't changed. I mean, obviously I'm not twenty years old anymore, right? I'm over 50, I'm 52, right? To me, D.O.A. has always been a perfect soapbox for me, to say what I think about the world through actions and song and whatnot. That's, to me, what's really kept me going. You know, it feels good to get people excited, it's fun to play, and you get to say what you think. That's what keeps it going. That, and an awful lot of gaff tape. (and we both laugh...) The key ingredient besides beer. Beer and gaff tape: two things that are never very far away from D.O.A., right?
JW: That should be the next album?
JOEY: Hahaha, Beer and Gaff Tape. Yeah, it gets it pretty close, right?
JW: So, is it still fun for you?
JOEY: Oh yeah, no, I actually really enjoy it. We played a couple of big shows in the fall (2008) in Chicago at the Riotfest and the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, also in the fall. Those things were like a total riot. We're going to China, leaving in about two weeks, we're going there for a week. So to me, that will be a total eye-opener. If you can go and do things that are different or at least a little bit momentous or doing something for a cause, like a benefit type show that's got some meaning to it, then that's fun. I love doing that. To go now, on the other hand, and go on a trip where it would be six months of playing every single town between here there and everywhere, and passing by every strip mall, or club in a strip mall kind of thing, I wouldn't think that would be that fun. That's what bands should do when they're young and that's what D.O.A. did. We've done over 3000 shows accumulated over the thirty years, right? You know, we had road trips when we were young where the trip would be eight months long and you'd be home for four days out of the eight months. You know, we'd think nothing of going somewhere for three months, right, so that's how you do it, that's how you build up a reputation. That's a good thing to do for a band, right?
JW: This tour that you're heading over to China to do, is this supporting the new album or is this just something you want to do?
JOEY: No, I think when D.O.A. goes somewhere, yeah of course we like to promote the new album, I think it's a good album and stuff like that, but D.O.A. is really based on reputation, right? And that's why you get kids coming out that have never seen the band and that's why we can go to a place that we've never been to and draw a crowd, right, because it's the reputation of the band for like wild, unbridled mayhem coupled with blatant sloganeering and also coupled with obnoxious guitar riffs.
JW: Now talking about going and doing shows, you got people coming out who saw you back in the day and now they're bringing out their kids and maybe even in some cases, bringing out their grandkids to see you guys.
JOEY: Well I haven't seen the grandkids thing. The one thing I have noticed sometimes, we have a really well-known truck called "Reek Fleming" that we take on some of the trips. It's about twenty years old, people recognize it, and amazingly it still runs. Sometimes there will be a knock on the door and they'll go like, "hey, yeah I went to see you guys at the Smiling Buddha thirty years ago and I'm just dropping my kids off at the show." (laughs...) You know, that kind of thing. We used to get people saying, "yeah, I heard about you guys from my older brother and sister." Definitely, you're getting a bit of the kid thing from the parents, right? It's interesting, you know 'cause everybody, as they go through life, they have to change and usually people become somewhat responsible or in a lot of times they have families, whether they're responsible or not, right? I goes along, they don't go to shows like they used to. But sometimes they'll show up, and yeah, sometimes we'll get people that will come up and stay at the show, them and their kids. Usually the kid won't think it's too cool if the parents hang around. I mean that kind of fucks it up for them. They'd be smart enough to say, "OK, you go experience D.O.A. I'll pick you up in four hours.Try not to get arrested in the meantime."
JW: "I got knocked out by my Dad in the pit." That's just not something you want to talk about at the dinner table.
JOEY: Hahaha, yeah that would suck. That would be just a little too odd.
JW: Let's talk about the new record a little bit. First of all, produced by Bob Rock, and when I think of that, that's like the fifth member of Metallica. What was it like working with him?
JOEY: Bob's an old friend of mine, so it was pretty easy, like we didn't have to get to know him. He's a funny guy and pretty easy-going, which I guess you would have to be to work with something like Metallica, not to say Metallica are bad guys, but you know what I mean, it sounds like it was pretty intense at times. With us in the studio, it was a laugh. We'd do a track and from the studio over the talkback, I'd say to him, "so, how was that?" and then he'd quip back, "wow not bad, but when are you going to start trying?" Then I'd shoot back, "as soon as you start producing." Stuff like that. It was actually pretty much a howl, right? You know, funny guy and yeah, some people go, "wow, that's really cool you got Bob Rock" and other people get totally kind of weirded out by it almost, right? But I think, if a good producer is capable of getting like a great sound, which obviously Bob is. Like what a good producer would do in any case, he'll try to see what the strengths of the band is and work on those strengths, you know what I mean? That's what he did with D.O.A. on this album so that's why we came up with what I think is a real good album, right?
JW: And the album is called "Northern Avenger." I really dug it and I read on there what Bob was calling your guitar, or was that the name you had for it?
JOEY: No, actually that just sort of fell in at the same time. I came up with the album title last fall before we started recording. I had the title and I said "hey, by the way guys the title of the album is 'Northern Avenger,' right" and that totally suited D.O.A. because D.O.A.'s always been about trying to, uh, not avenge the score as in like, "I'm going to get ya next friday night, fucker!" Not that kind of thing, right? There's things that are wrong in this world, so you try and set them right, and we're from the North obviously, so hence "Northern Avenger." But I said, "OK. Hey guys," and I said that to Bob and Jamey (Koch) the co-producer, the name of the album is "Northern Avenger" and Bob looked at my guitar which he'd known and seen thirty years previously on one of our first singles which he helped on, "The Prisoner" single, our second single. Anyways, he went, "No, no, no. Your guitar is Northern Avenger, right?" It ended up that that's the nickname he gave my old guitar that I've had since 1976 or '74. Something like that.
JW: And that's what, an old Gibson SG?
JOEY: An old SG that the body's like half gone and it's been rebuilt and it's got a metal plate on the front. It's got gouge marks bigger than the ones on Willie Nelson's guitar. (laughs) It's pretty...it's pretty classic. It's easy to play, it sounds great, and yeah, it's been stolen three times and I've gotten it back every time, right?
JW: How'd you get it back every time?
JOEY: Well, the first time a guy stole it at a show and everybody ran around the hall and they guy had stashed it out in these bushes. They finally get the guitar and I got the guitar and these girls that were hanging out with the band, they went and beat the guy up, right, and chased him off. The second time, Zippy Pinhead, who's an old buddy of ours, caught a guy stealing it in an elevator at a show in Portland. The third time, our roadie was just packing up the van, we were in like in the north of Spain. This was the worst time easily. He turned around and someone had seen him packing the stuff and got it and ran off with it and so the guy had it for like six or eight months. Eventually, I got a letter in Spanish and I could read just enough of it to realize he was talking about my guitar and he wanted to give it back and he did. You know, it cost about $400 to get it back. The funniest thing was about five years later, we went back and played in the same area in Spain and the promoter came up and said he had the guy who stole the guitar but he couldn't speak English, so he had to translate his saying he was sorry to me and he had to translate my English back to the guy who stole the guitar. So, I had two choices, I could hop across the table and beat the living fuck out of him (laughs) or I could, uh, it was almost like a priest at a confessional, so I chose the priest at the confessional routine. I got the guitar back and I wished the guy good health and all that, right, so what the hell. So I guess at the time, he said, "wow, I've got a hell of a souvenir, look what I scored," but I'm sure his friends called him an asshole, right, because that's the way it goes.
JW: Right. So what do you got going on in the New Year? After you guys are over there in Asia, are you coming back and doing the States and Canada? What's the plan?
JOEY: Yeah, we got China in January, there's California, and the Northwest like in late January then California in February. You know, California, Arizona, Nevada type thing. Then, we're off to Europe in April for the whole month of April and after that we'll do some more American shows. Probably some in the summertime but more in the fall of '09, that we'd get out your way, the East Coast and the Midwest and all that kind of thing.
JW: You taking anybody with you of note on the road?
JOEY: We were just talking about that the other day. We haven't figured it out yet and it's a ways away, so no, not yet, but yes, we will.
JW: Talk about Sudden Death Records. What made you decide to do that and now it's kind of like a full-time thing for you?
JOEY: It was really just a way to get D.O.A. records out in the first place. Like we did about four or five singles back in the last 70s, early 80s. We kind of sat down one day and says," well, everybody hates us, nobody will ever sign us, and we'll never get a record out." So, we just took the DIY route and put out the Disco Sucks 7-inch EP and that kind of started Sudden Death. But I really didn't take it seriously and we got offered another record deal, Alternative Tentacles amongst others, did that and about ten years ago I started up Sudden death, in earnest. We have about 82 different releases now. Something like that, between EPs, singles, albums, imports that we get from Europe and stuff like that that we distribute. It's been going well. The main idea was, here's my philosophy, be your own boss, think for yourself, and try to affect some sort of causes and change in this world. I thought the record label was the perfect way to put my money where my mouth is and it's been pretty good. I mean things aren't great for little labels right now, but we're hanging in there and doing OK. You can't go crazy spending on records because they're hard to sell these days.
JW: The record industry is definitely one that is suffering these days.
JOEY: Yeah, it's gone for a complete shit, right? But you know what, there has to be always some sort of conveyance to get this different type of music out. Now, whatever form it's going to be, whether it's in a CD or we're still making LPs or whether you're going to get it on the internet, you're going to download it. For sure they'll be some other applications or forms it will take as it goes on. You just have to be able to adapt, and if you don't then it's like anything else you'll just become extinct, right?
Some words with punk legend Joey Shithead
interview by Jason Walsh
The late 70s was an era when popular culture was immersed in the phenomenon created by "Saturday Night Fever" and the decadence of Studio 54. From the streets of Vancouver, a band emerged to challenge the ills of society and plights of the proletariat, and with their first 1978 EP, "Disco Sucks," they began this unrelenting, frontal assault that would amazingly last three decades.
With the release of their second LP, "Hardcore '81," Joey Shithead and the guys from D.O.A. brought a new term into the vernacular of the thriving underground music scene. "Hardcore" was now synonymous with the faster, more aggressive incarnation of punk rock and the newly appointed moniker spread throughout North America and the world. Their mantra of "talk minus action equals zero" coupled with blazing guitar riffs, reactionary lyrics, and deviant stage antics brought Dead on Arrival to the forefront of the hardcore scene and pioneers of the genre.
Fast-forward to 2009. Joey Shithead has continued to fly the flag for the underground movement, never wavering from the cause. D.O.A. just released their newest offering, "Northern Avenger," and will be touring the world in support. I had a chance to catch up with Joey following a brutal snowfall in the Northwest that blanketed British Columbia. We had a chance to talk about recording the new album with notable Metallica producer Bob Rock, his independent label," Sudden Death Records," the upcoming D.O.A. tour, and what drives him, thirty years later, to continue taking the stage.
JW: So what happened yesterday? You guys had a big blizzard up there?
JOEY: Yeah, we had like a foot of snow, which is like, hey we live in Canada but this is the one part of Canada where it's not very snowy. We usually get one or two big snowfalls a year; some years we don't get any snow.
JW: Do you still live in Vancouver?
JOEY: Yeah, in Vancouver, right. Like Vancouver, Victoria. The only two towns that really are not covered with snow like the rest of Canada for three or four months a year, right? So, yeah, this blizzard sucks and completely screwed up everything especially with Christmas and all that kind of stuff. What town are you in?
JW: I'm in Virginia but I spent the last week up in Michigan and we had snow every day, chilling with my kids and sledding every day, so for us it was perfect.
JOEY: Yeah, yeah (laughing)
JW: So you had a 30th anniversary mark. What's that like for you, having done this for three decades now?
JOEY: Well, that's a pretty general question. It's good, it's fine. We've just done a few special shows and stuff like that, and there's more coming up in the New Year, like this whole stretch out to the end of '09, 'cause there's a new album out and such, right. At some point in the future, you know it might be the 30th-and-a-half or burning up 31 (laughs) or that kind of thing, right. It doesn't really feel any different. I mean, obviously change is a gradual thing as it goes along as opposed to a sudden thing. I didn't just sit there and think, "god, we've been playing fucking punk rock for thirty years, right?" (laughs...) Although somebody else might have said that, "oh my god, they've been...hahaha."
JW: I mean, to you it's really just a number. It doesn't really change what you're doing?
JOEY: Put it this way. Sure, yeah, it's got special significance that we've been going thirty years, pretty well continuously. The only time we weren't playing was for about twenty months, between '90 and '91, in that period, right? So, I would suppose in a continuous sense, we'd be pretty close to being the longest running punk rock band in the world, now that the Ramones aren't around anymore. The only other ones I could think of that would be kind of close would maybe be the Dickies, but I don't think they stuck together the whole time, but they've been pretty active for most the time if you ask me, right? There might be somebody else but most of them, there was a ten or fifteen year hiatus where they didn't do anything, right, so. To me, D.O.A.'s kept going and keeps drawing people. You know, actually we're getting the younger crowds all the time, too, and I think that's because people see D.O.A. as being a progressive band as opposed to being a nostalgia act, right?
JW: Right.
JOEY: Because we come up with new ideas and new albums, and it's the same sound granted, because, hey, that's our style. Why change it? If you want to go for a different style, become a different band I always say, right? Don't change your style so drastically that you're unrecognizable, y'know. 'Cause that's always been the kiss of death when people go, "OK, this is just pure nostalgia." Then you're verging into that corny, vaudeville review, right, in a modern sense.
JW: What has kept you continuing to do this for all this time? Like you said, there hasn't been a big, long hiatus. You've been the centerline of this band. What keeps you motivated to keep doing this?
JOEY: Y'know when I started out, there was kind of three basic motivations when we got together. One, to have a lot of fun, cause a lot of trouble, and to go out and try and change the world. Those kind of motivations haven't changed. I mean, obviously I'm not twenty years old anymore, right? I'm over 50, I'm 52, right? To me, D.O.A. has always been a perfect soapbox for me, to say what I think about the world through actions and song and whatnot. That's, to me, what's really kept me going. You know, it feels good to get people excited, it's fun to play, and you get to say what you think. That's what keeps it going. That, and an awful lot of gaff tape. (and we both laugh...) The key ingredient besides beer. Beer and gaff tape: two things that are never very far away from D.O.A., right?
JW: That should be the next album?
JOEY: Hahaha, Beer and Gaff Tape. Yeah, it gets it pretty close, right?
JW: So, is it still fun for you?
JOEY: Oh yeah, no, I actually really enjoy it. We played a couple of big shows in the fall (2008) in Chicago at the Riotfest and the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, also in the fall. Those things were like a total riot. We're going to China, leaving in about two weeks, we're going there for a week. So to me, that will be a total eye-opener. If you can go and do things that are different or at least a little bit momentous or doing something for a cause, like a benefit type show that's got some meaning to it, then that's fun. I love doing that. To go now, on the other hand, and go on a trip where it would be six months of playing every single town between here there and everywhere, and passing by every strip mall, or club in a strip mall kind of thing, I wouldn't think that would be that fun. That's what bands should do when they're young and that's what D.O.A. did. We've done over 3000 shows accumulated over the thirty years, right? You know, we had road trips when we were young where the trip would be eight months long and you'd be home for four days out of the eight months. You know, we'd think nothing of going somewhere for three months, right, so that's how you do it, that's how you build up a reputation. That's a good thing to do for a band, right?
JW: This tour that you're heading over to China to do, is this supporting the new album or is this just something you want to do?
JOEY: No, I think when D.O.A. goes somewhere, yeah of course we like to promote the new album, I think it's a good album and stuff like that, but D.O.A. is really based on reputation, right? And that's why you get kids coming out that have never seen the band and that's why we can go to a place that we've never been to and draw a crowd, right, because it's the reputation of the band for like wild, unbridled mayhem coupled with blatant sloganeering and also coupled with obnoxious guitar riffs.
JW: Now talking about going and doing shows, you got people coming out who saw you back in the day and now they're bringing out their kids and maybe even in some cases, bringing out their grandkids to see you guys.
JOEY: Well I haven't seen the grandkids thing. The one thing I have noticed sometimes, we have a really well-known truck called "Reek Fleming" that we take on some of the trips. It's about twenty years old, people recognize it, and amazingly it still runs. Sometimes there will be a knock on the door and they'll go like, "hey, yeah I went to see you guys at the Smiling Buddha thirty years ago and I'm just dropping my kids off at the show." (laughs...) You know, that kind of thing. We used to get people saying, "yeah, I heard about you guys from my older brother and sister." Definitely, you're getting a bit of the kid thing from the parents, right? It's interesting, you know 'cause everybody, as they go through life, they have to change and usually people become somewhat responsible or in a lot of times they have families, whether they're responsible or not, right? I goes along, they don't go to shows like they used to. But sometimes they'll show up, and yeah, sometimes we'll get people that will come up and stay at the show, them and their kids. Usually the kid won't think it's too cool if the parents hang around. I mean that kind of fucks it up for them. They'd be smart enough to say, "OK, you go experience D.O.A. I'll pick you up in four hours.Try not to get arrested in the meantime."
JW: "I got knocked out by my Dad in the pit." That's just not something you want to talk about at the dinner table.
JOEY: Hahaha, yeah that would suck. That would be just a little too odd.
JW: Let's talk about the new record a little bit. First of all, produced by Bob Rock, and when I think of that, that's like the fifth member of Metallica. What was it like working with him?
JOEY: Bob's an old friend of mine, so it was pretty easy, like we didn't have to get to know him. He's a funny guy and pretty easy-going, which I guess you would have to be to work with something like Metallica, not to say Metallica are bad guys, but you know what I mean, it sounds like it was pretty intense at times. With us in the studio, it was a laugh. We'd do a track and from the studio over the talkback, I'd say to him, "so, how was that?" and then he'd quip back, "wow not bad, but when are you going to start trying?" Then I'd shoot back, "as soon as you start producing." Stuff like that. It was actually pretty much a howl, right? You know, funny guy and yeah, some people go, "wow, that's really cool you got Bob Rock" and other people get totally kind of weirded out by it almost, right? But I think, if a good producer is capable of getting like a great sound, which obviously Bob is. Like what a good producer would do in any case, he'll try to see what the strengths of the band is and work on those strengths, you know what I mean? That's what he did with D.O.A. on this album so that's why we came up with what I think is a real good album, right?
JW: And the album is called "Northern Avenger." I really dug it and I read on there what Bob was calling your guitar, or was that the name you had for it?
JOEY: No, actually that just sort of fell in at the same time. I came up with the album title last fall before we started recording. I had the title and I said "hey, by the way guys the title of the album is 'Northern Avenger,' right" and that totally suited D.O.A. because D.O.A.'s always been about trying to, uh, not avenge the score as in like, "I'm going to get ya next friday night, fucker!" Not that kind of thing, right? There's things that are wrong in this world, so you try and set them right, and we're from the North obviously, so hence "Northern Avenger." But I said, "OK. Hey guys," and I said that to Bob and Jamey (Koch) the co-producer, the name of the album is "Northern Avenger" and Bob looked at my guitar which he'd known and seen thirty years previously on one of our first singles which he helped on, "The Prisoner" single, our second single. Anyways, he went, "No, no, no. Your guitar is Northern Avenger, right?" It ended up that that's the nickname he gave my old guitar that I've had since 1976 or '74. Something like that.
JW: And that's what, an old Gibson SG?
JOEY: An old SG that the body's like half gone and it's been rebuilt and it's got a metal plate on the front. It's got gouge marks bigger than the ones on Willie Nelson's guitar. (laughs) It's pretty...it's pretty classic. It's easy to play, it sounds great, and yeah, it's been stolen three times and I've gotten it back every time, right?
JW: How'd you get it back every time?
JOEY: Well, the first time a guy stole it at a show and everybody ran around the hall and they guy had stashed it out in these bushes. They finally get the guitar and I got the guitar and these girls that were hanging out with the band, they went and beat the guy up, right, and chased him off. The second time, Zippy Pinhead, who's an old buddy of ours, caught a guy stealing it in an elevator at a show in Portland. The third time, our roadie was just packing up the van, we were in like in the north of Spain. This was the worst time easily. He turned around and someone had seen him packing the stuff and got it and ran off with it and so the guy had it for like six or eight months. Eventually, I got a letter in Spanish and I could read just enough of it to realize he was talking about my guitar and he wanted to give it back and he did. You know, it cost about $400 to get it back. The funniest thing was about five years later, we went back and played in the same area in Spain and the promoter came up and said he had the guy who stole the guitar but he couldn't speak English, so he had to translate his saying he was sorry to me and he had to translate my English back to the guy who stole the guitar. So, I had two choices, I could hop across the table and beat the living fuck out of him (laughs) or I could, uh, it was almost like a priest at a confessional, so I chose the priest at the confessional routine. I got the guitar back and I wished the guy good health and all that, right, so what the hell. So I guess at the time, he said, "wow, I've got a hell of a souvenir, look what I scored," but I'm sure his friends called him an asshole, right, because that's the way it goes.
JW: Right. So what do you got going on in the New Year? After you guys are over there in Asia, are you coming back and doing the States and Canada? What's the plan?
JOEY: Yeah, we got China in January, there's California, and the Northwest like in late January then California in February. You know, California, Arizona, Nevada type thing. Then, we're off to Europe in April for the whole month of April and after that we'll do some more American shows. Probably some in the summertime but more in the fall of '09, that we'd get out your way, the East Coast and the Midwest and all that kind of thing.
JW: You taking anybody with you of note on the road?
JOEY: We were just talking about that the other day. We haven't figured it out yet and it's a ways away, so no, not yet, but yes, we will.
JW: Talk about Sudden Death Records. What made you decide to do that and now it's kind of like a full-time thing for you?
JOEY: It was really just a way to get D.O.A. records out in the first place. Like we did about four or five singles back in the last 70s, early 80s. We kind of sat down one day and says," well, everybody hates us, nobody will ever sign us, and we'll never get a record out." So, we just took the DIY route and put out the Disco Sucks 7-inch EP and that kind of started Sudden Death. But I really didn't take it seriously and we got offered another record deal, Alternative Tentacles amongst others, did that and about ten years ago I started up Sudden death, in earnest. We have about 82 different releases now. Something like that, between EPs, singles, albums, imports that we get from Europe and stuff like that that we distribute. It's been going well. The main idea was, here's my philosophy, be your own boss, think for yourself, and try to affect some sort of causes and change in this world. I thought the record label was the perfect way to put my money where my mouth is and it's been pretty good. I mean things aren't great for little labels right now, but we're hanging in there and doing OK. You can't go crazy spending on records because they're hard to sell these days.
JW: The record industry is definitely one that is suffering these days.
JOEY: Yeah, it's gone for a complete shit, right? But you know what, there has to be always some sort of conveyance to get this different type of music out. Now, whatever form it's going to be, whether it's in a CD or we're still making LPs or whether you're going to get it on the internet, you're going to download it. For sure they'll be some other applications or forms it will take as it goes on. You just have to be able to adapt, and if you don't then it's like anything else you'll just become extinct, right?
Saturday, January 3, 2009
DEMAND IN DC
DEMAND IN DC
by Jason K. Walsh
January 20th will be one of the most historic days in the annals of American History, as the first African-American president will be sworn in as Commander in Chief. Following a campaign that found people around the nation glued to their televisions and record numbers turning out to the polls on Election Day, Barack Obama will take the oath of office on Inauguration Day as the 44th President of the United States. More than a million are expected to turnout in Washington DC ensuring the nation's capitol will be alive with activity. One such event celebrating the new regime in the United States Executive Branch is the "Demand in DC Art Show," in which live music, art, and film will join forces at the Black Cat to ring in the new leader.
"Demand in DC is a call to the people of this country to take back their government and their country," said Justin Sane of Anti-Flag. "If you don't take control of your government, someone will. Barack Obama is a step in the right direction for the U.S. but he is not progressive on all issues and he needs to feel the heat from those of us who have a vision we want to see America achieve."
Sane cites universal health care, gay marriage, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, campaign finance reform, green energy policies, and the closing of Guantanemo Bay as some of the new issues this new president needs to address, but puts the burden of "change" on the American people.
"It is as much a celebration of the end of the Bush role, as it is a call to all concerned citizens of this nation to do their part to steer or country in a new and brighter direction," he said. "This is a time of great opportunity for us in the United States. With the Bush White House there was never a chance at having progressive policy. Barack Obama may deliver on all or none of the above, but at least there is a possibility of these things taking shape. But for these things to take shape, each and every person who believes in these ideas must make their voice audible to President-Elect Obama and hold him accountable."
Anti-Flag is just one of the bands on the bill at the celebration, which will also feature works from local artists as well as independent film screenings. An auction will also be held dubbed "Quilts for a Cure," in which four quilts made up of over 200 band t-shirts will be awarded. The auction is in connection with DC sponsor, Shirts for a Cure, a local organization who raises money to help underprivileged women fighting breast cancer who cannot afford chemotherapy nor medication costs.
Chris Barker, also known as Chris #2, is Anti-Flag's bassist and co-lead vocalist. According to him, the election's outcome had no bearing on the commencement of the festival.
"We planned this to happen on Inauguration Day regardless of winner," Barker said. "However we are excited about the steps forward that America has made with this last election. But, 48 million people voted for the other guy. That's a lot of people who need beat over the head with good ideas."
Also performing that evening is United Nations, The A.K.A.s, and Ruiner from Baltimore, Maryland. Frontman Rob Sullivan of Ruiner said the band never had a second thought about participating.
"I couldn't have turned down the opportunity," he said. "Aside from when I was younger I loved Anti-Flag, and this was such a great idea. Bands, artists, and performers of all sorts coming together to represent a 'change' in the power system of our country and the role the people played in that."
Sullivan agreed with the guys from Anti-Flag that this will be an important day for Americans, in the hopes of pointing the nation in a better direction.
"Bush is out of office and that is something to be celebrated," he said. "But at the same time, we are given another chance. As a people, we voted in record amounts to allow ourselves a new voice for the rest of the world; a world, which for the most part, finds us to be arrogant cowboys with no agendas but our own. We picked the winner and having this show in our nation's capitol is the only proper place."
The A.K.A.'s formed in New York City about five years ago, in an attempt to play a style of music they believed in while relaying political messages in a way they thought other bands in the current industry environment were lacking. Vocalist Mike Ski has participated in other politically driven events which fused the music from the underground with art. Last year, Ski organized a series of art shows with the A.K.A.'s called "Everybody Make Some Noise: 25 Artists Celebrate the Art of the Protest Sign."
"I was personally really inspired by the event and found it to be a cool alternative to the common format of normal concerts and shows, and the way it engaged the crowd in a different way," he said. "It was from the spirit and vigor of this event that we took the title of our latest album."
"Everbody Make Some Noise" is the band's second full-length which dropped in 2008 on Metropolis Records. When their friends from Anti-Flag started planning the Inauguration Day festival, combining an art show with a live-music concert, Ski was immediately on board.
"They brought us in to help coordinate the art end, help with ideas, and rock the stage," he said. "It's an important event to take part in for us as we enjoy doing new and memorable events that push the envelope, raise awareness, and challenge the things that people are used to. It's a great opportunity to send an important message and reminder that people demand change and are catalysts for it. We're proud to be involved."
"Demand in DC" is an opportunity for people in the District to come together and share thoughts and ideas and lend their opinions about the social and political conditions affecting everyone in the country. Now about to enter a new era of American leadership, the nation is struggling on several fronts and many are looking to this new administration for hope. According to Sullivan of Ruiner, the journey back to prosperity will not be easy.
"The path before our nation is going to be a long, hard one," he said. "In my opinion, border line impossible in some areas. Between the economy, a war, and the perception
of foreign nations, it's a massive rebuilding process. Our country needs to recognize that regardless of who won the election, we need to figure out how to come together. Republican, Democrat, Independent or whatever, we can't keep blaming each other based on our differences. This election marked hopefully the start of a very loud voice in our country that we want something different."
by Jason K. Walsh
January 20th will be one of the most historic days in the annals of American History, as the first African-American president will be sworn in as Commander in Chief. Following a campaign that found people around the nation glued to their televisions and record numbers turning out to the polls on Election Day, Barack Obama will take the oath of office on Inauguration Day as the 44th President of the United States. More than a million are expected to turnout in Washington DC ensuring the nation's capitol will be alive with activity. One such event celebrating the new regime in the United States Executive Branch is the "Demand in DC Art Show," in which live music, art, and film will join forces at the Black Cat to ring in the new leader.
"Demand in DC is a call to the people of this country to take back their government and their country," said Justin Sane of Anti-Flag. "If you don't take control of your government, someone will. Barack Obama is a step in the right direction for the U.S. but he is not progressive on all issues and he needs to feel the heat from those of us who have a vision we want to see America achieve."
Sane cites universal health care, gay marriage, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, campaign finance reform, green energy policies, and the closing of Guantanemo Bay as some of the new issues this new president needs to address, but puts the burden of "change" on the American people.
"It is as much a celebration of the end of the Bush role, as it is a call to all concerned citizens of this nation to do their part to steer or country in a new and brighter direction," he said. "This is a time of great opportunity for us in the United States. With the Bush White House there was never a chance at having progressive policy. Barack Obama may deliver on all or none of the above, but at least there is a possibility of these things taking shape. But for these things to take shape, each and every person who believes in these ideas must make their voice audible to President-Elect Obama and hold him accountable."
Anti-Flag is just one of the bands on the bill at the celebration, which will also feature works from local artists as well as independent film screenings. An auction will also be held dubbed "Quilts for a Cure," in which four quilts made up of over 200 band t-shirts will be awarded. The auction is in connection with DC sponsor, Shirts for a Cure, a local organization who raises money to help underprivileged women fighting breast cancer who cannot afford chemotherapy nor medication costs.
Chris Barker, also known as Chris #2, is Anti-Flag's bassist and co-lead vocalist. According to him, the election's outcome had no bearing on the commencement of the festival.
"We planned this to happen on Inauguration Day regardless of winner," Barker said. "However we are excited about the steps forward that America has made with this last election. But, 48 million people voted for the other guy. That's a lot of people who need beat over the head with good ideas."
Also performing that evening is United Nations, The A.K.A.s, and Ruiner from Baltimore, Maryland. Frontman Rob Sullivan of Ruiner said the band never had a second thought about participating.
"I couldn't have turned down the opportunity," he said. "Aside from when I was younger I loved Anti-Flag, and this was such a great idea. Bands, artists, and performers of all sorts coming together to represent a 'change' in the power system of our country and the role the people played in that."
Sullivan agreed with the guys from Anti-Flag that this will be an important day for Americans, in the hopes of pointing the nation in a better direction.
"Bush is out of office and that is something to be celebrated," he said. "But at the same time, we are given another chance. As a people, we voted in record amounts to allow ourselves a new voice for the rest of the world; a world, which for the most part, finds us to be arrogant cowboys with no agendas but our own. We picked the winner and having this show in our nation's capitol is the only proper place."
The A.K.A.'s formed in New York City about five years ago, in an attempt to play a style of music they believed in while relaying political messages in a way they thought other bands in the current industry environment were lacking. Vocalist Mike Ski has participated in other politically driven events which fused the music from the underground with art. Last year, Ski organized a series of art shows with the A.K.A.'s called "Everybody Make Some Noise: 25 Artists Celebrate the Art of the Protest Sign."
"I was personally really inspired by the event and found it to be a cool alternative to the common format of normal concerts and shows, and the way it engaged the crowd in a different way," he said. "It was from the spirit and vigor of this event that we took the title of our latest album."
"Everbody Make Some Noise" is the band's second full-length which dropped in 2008 on Metropolis Records. When their friends from Anti-Flag started planning the Inauguration Day festival, combining an art show with a live-music concert, Ski was immediately on board.
"They brought us in to help coordinate the art end, help with ideas, and rock the stage," he said. "It's an important event to take part in for us as we enjoy doing new and memorable events that push the envelope, raise awareness, and challenge the things that people are used to. It's a great opportunity to send an important message and reminder that people demand change and are catalysts for it. We're proud to be involved."
"Demand in DC" is an opportunity for people in the District to come together and share thoughts and ideas and lend their opinions about the social and political conditions affecting everyone in the country. Now about to enter a new era of American leadership, the nation is struggling on several fronts and many are looking to this new administration for hope. According to Sullivan of Ruiner, the journey back to prosperity will not be easy.
"The path before our nation is going to be a long, hard one," he said. "In my opinion, border line impossible in some areas. Between the economy, a war, and the perception
of foreign nations, it's a massive rebuilding process. Our country needs to recognize that regardless of who won the election, we need to figure out how to come together. Republican, Democrat, Independent or whatever, we can't keep blaming each other based on our differences. This election marked hopefully the start of a very loud voice in our country that we want something different."
Thursday, January 1, 2009
EERIE VON
EERIE VON
Musician, Artist, Photographer, and Fiend
interview by Jason Walsh
The birth of horror punk, with bands like The Misfits and Rosemary's Babies, emerged from one of the most unlikely places. No, not Hell, but Lodi, New Jersey. It was the late 70's when names like Glenn Danzig, Doyle, Steve Zing, and Jerry Only rose in the post-punk era to form a new brand of dark and ghoulish, aggressive music inspired by comic books, B-movies, and 50's rock 'n roll. Among those in this grim company was none other than Eerie Von.
Following his stint as a drummer in Rosemary's Babies, Eerie Von took to the bass and went on to form Samhain with Glenn Danzig, and later and more notably, Danzig. After a six-year stretch, drummer Chuck Biscuits left the band in 1994, and guitarist John Christ departed the following year. That same day Christ left, Eerie Von also stepped away from the group and Glenn has continued the Danzig project with all new members and an ever-changing lineup.
Eerie Von continued his passion for art and photography, which began at a very early age, while pursuing other musical projects as well. He has released five solo records and started Ghastly Records with former Rosemary's Babies bandmate Bob Montena: a label they began "for bands who have something new to offer to the world." I had the opportunity to discuss his craft, artistic endeavors, and what the future holds for one of the most recognizable icons from the fiendish underground movement.
JW: First, how are you doing? What are you looking towards coming into 2009? Any New Year's resolutions or revelations, or plans for the upcoming year?
EERIE VON: I don't usually do resolutions and I don't make plans. I have a new record coming out and I'd like to tour in support of it, do some more Horror/Comic cons, and continue to paint. Maybe do another movie, if I get the chance. I'm in with a huge cast of underground cult figures, in "It Came from Trafalgar," a 50's-style black-and-white Sci-Fi film, that should be out this year, I hope.
JW: I read that you were drawn to photography and painting at an early age. What led you to these two passions?
EERIE VON: Dad got a Nikon from Japan when I was eight and he showed me how to use it and taught me what he knew, just the basics, which I still rely on 'til this day. I didn't take it up full time until 13, when I had a friend who had a darkroom and learned how to process film and make prints there as well as in school. Then in High School, I shot everything for the yearbook from day one. I started drawing at probably five or six and painted all through high school. I don't know why I started doing it but I learned early that I could copy anything I wanted, but wasn't too great on my own. I was into sports and music, so I did portraits of baseball players, Elvis, and the Beatles. That's when I got good at it.
JW: Both photography and painting rely on composition and filling the space. Have you found that one tends to compliment the other and has your experience shooting helped to make you a better painter?
EERIE VON: You can't compose a photo as easily as a painting. You have to work with what you have most of the time, unless it's a studio set up or you have the money to put your subject in any situation you like, like Annie Leibowitz. I don't think my photographic eye has influenced my painting because I don't really have a set way of doing it. I kind of "wing it" every time.
JW: Asking the question with a seemingly obvious answer, why do you call your style Fiend Art?
EERIE VON: It's art for the Fiends out there. What I like and what they like. I usually figure if I would buy it, then it's cool. I would like to keep the best ones, sometimes I do, but I like it better when someone buys one and puts it on their wall.
JW: When did you start taking your art more seriously and concentrate on it more? You seem to have a pretty large body of work now.
EERIE VON: About ten years ago in Florida. At one point I was doing three to four a month. This year my output was only two-and-a-half a month. I don't take it too seriously. It's just something I do.
JW: Many of your works are available through your website and auctions. Tell me about that and also, have you done any art shows or events of that nature?
EERIE VON: I don't care for galleries and art shows. People put their stuff in galleries to sell it. I've sold almost every painting I've ever done. Hundreds. I have no need to make a big deal out of them or display them in such a way. I will do a gallery show if it means more people will get to see the paintings, but I'm not into the whole "artist" thing. It's too pretentious.
JW: Talk to me about the young kid from Lodi who discovered art and music at a young age.
EERIE VON: In the beginning, where I lived had nothing to do with discovering music. It was all my family's influence. Mom and Dad grew up in the 40's and 50's, so I heard their music. I grew up in the 60's and 70's, so I heard what was on the radio and on TV. My Aunts and Uncles and cousins influenced me as well. Not until 8th grade did I meet Doyle (Misfits) and then the whole Lodi thing, became an influence. There were a few punk rock guys in high school as well, so they turned me on to stuff. My sister played me a lot of punk stuff. She was a big influence.
Finding out from the Misfits that you could put out your own records was a big revelation. Once I found that out, I was determined to take that path.
JW: Initially you played drums and had a successful audition with the Misfits but declined. Why was that and why did you end up forming Rosemary's Babies after declining the spot with the Misfits?
EERIE VON: Rosemary's Babies was already a band, when the Misfits thing came up. I did start playing drums again, just in case they ever needed a new drummer. I was meant to be in that band, so it made sense. Personally it wasn't the right time for me to join, so I declined. I got the chance again later, but Glenn (Danzig) told me Doyle didn't like the way I was looking at his girlfriend, so it didn't work out again, and they got Robo.
JW: What was the Rosemary's Babies experience like?
EERIE VON: It was great learning how to write songs and perform in front of people, figuring out how to be part of a band and getting along with others. I also enjoyed getting to know others doing the same from around the country. Knowing there were kids who felt like I did was a big comfort during those unsteady high school years.
JW: When Glenn and you formed Samhain you began playing drums. What was the reason for their disbanding and why did you decide to start Samhain?
EERIE VON: Rosemary's Babies had run its course. We weren't going anywhere and Glenn was a serious musician. I wanted to play with the best people I could and Glenn was the best around so I decided to go with him. It's the only way you'll get better. I knew I could learn from him and I have.
JW: Early into the band's existence you switched from drums to bass, which would become your trademark in music for the next two decades. Why this switch? Had you had much experience playing bass and what about it kept you playing it?
EERIE VON: I had never played bass before. I wasn't a good drummer. I still suck. I have no ego when it comes to being in a band. If you can play it better, go ahead. So in order to make the band as good as possible, we agreed to have a real drummer come in. I'd just have to fake it on bass. I was also a terrible bass player, but I got a little better.
JW: After Samhain, you guys went on to a pretty successful run with Danzig. After Chuck dropped out in '94, you and John left the following year. Why? Had it seem to run its course for you?
EERIE VON: It was time to go. I would have preferred to stay with the original four guys and if we could have ironed out the problems within the band, I'm sure we'd still be together today. Once Chuck left, it was over for me. John hadn't been into it for years. It was no longer a vital, living, growing thing. It was dead.
JW: Do you still keep in touch with Chuck and John? What are they up to these days?
EERIE VON: Haven't heard from John in ten years. I'm still friends with Chuck and hear from him a few times a year.
JW: What about Glenn? Are you still in touch with him?
EERIE VON: No
JW: Following Danzig, you released some solo work and moved around a bit? Have you enjoyed experimenting with different types of music and living in different places? Have these experiences helped with your art and music?
EERIE VON: I've done five records since leaving Danzig. One in each place I lived. The environment and the circumstances surrounding my being there all contributed to the sound and feel of each record. When I did my second one, "The Blood and the Body," all I had was a microphone, an acoustic guitar, a fuzz box, and a Casio keyboard I bought at Toys 'R Us. That record sounds like it does because of the limitations I had to work under. I'm fine with that. That's what every record should be. Like a snapshot of who and where you were at that time.
JW: Eerie Von's Spider Cider "That's All There Is" was the last solo record you released in 2006. That was recorded while you were living in Indiana, right? What was that record about and what was your process with its inception?
EERIE VON: I was going through a divorce and was very depressed. It was like my mid-life crisis record. I cut my hair and suddenly, I felt 18 again, and with that feeling came the anger and youthful aggression I felt back then, so I just did what came naturally and that's why it's a punk rock record.
JW: You also did some work on a record you've dubbed "Kinda Country." Are you still working on that or have you finished it?
EERIE VON: My new record is kinda country, so that's why I called it that. Plain and simple. I've been writing songs for 25 years now and have gotten pretty good at it. I've paid attention and learned from all the greats who came before me and from contemporaries as well. So, if I wrote a Blues song, I'd put it away until I needed it. If I was doing a spooky record and a country song came out, I would file that away for a later date. I have lots of songs, in all different styles.
I just write them. Some I might do demos of, then I go on to the next one. When you have about twelve good ones and you decide they should be put together as a collection, you make a record.
JW: Talk to me about Ghastly Records label you started with your former Rosemary's Babies cohort. Has it been a rewarding experience running an independent label, which is a home for your solo work? You have also re-released some stuff from that first band as well.
EERIE VON: We had no label back in '83, so we had to start our own to put out our first record.
We revived the label to put out a 25th anniversary CD, but I have nothing to do with the day-to-day running of it really. Bob has put out my last two records because he had the means to. It's his thing.
JW: Lastly, a new year. Where does Eerie Von go from here, musically, artistically, and just as a person. What does the future hold for you?
EERIE VON: I have no idea. I'd like to go back on the road and stay there. Stopping long enough only to record. If I can figure out how to paint, on the run, I'll do that too. I've been waking up in the same bed for too long. I've gotta get out of here. Thanks to all the Fiends out there, for their loyal support and kind words of encouragement. I hope to see you all very soon.
www.eerievon.com
www.myspace.com/eerievonart
www.myspace.com/itcamefromtrafalgar
Musician, Artist, Photographer, and Fiend
interview by Jason Walsh
The birth of horror punk, with bands like The Misfits and Rosemary's Babies, emerged from one of the most unlikely places. No, not Hell, but Lodi, New Jersey. It was the late 70's when names like Glenn Danzig, Doyle, Steve Zing, and Jerry Only rose in the post-punk era to form a new brand of dark and ghoulish, aggressive music inspired by comic books, B-movies, and 50's rock 'n roll. Among those in this grim company was none other than Eerie Von.
Following his stint as a drummer in Rosemary's Babies, Eerie Von took to the bass and went on to form Samhain with Glenn Danzig, and later and more notably, Danzig. After a six-year stretch, drummer Chuck Biscuits left the band in 1994, and guitarist John Christ departed the following year. That same day Christ left, Eerie Von also stepped away from the group and Glenn has continued the Danzig project with all new members and an ever-changing lineup.
Eerie Von continued his passion for art and photography, which began at a very early age, while pursuing other musical projects as well. He has released five solo records and started Ghastly Records with former Rosemary's Babies bandmate Bob Montena: a label they began "for bands who have something new to offer to the world." I had the opportunity to discuss his craft, artistic endeavors, and what the future holds for one of the most recognizable icons from the fiendish underground movement.
JW: First, how are you doing? What are you looking towards coming into 2009? Any New Year's resolutions or revelations, or plans for the upcoming year?
EERIE VON: I don't usually do resolutions and I don't make plans. I have a new record coming out and I'd like to tour in support of it, do some more Horror/Comic cons, and continue to paint. Maybe do another movie, if I get the chance. I'm in with a huge cast of underground cult figures, in "It Came from Trafalgar," a 50's-style black-and-white Sci-Fi film, that should be out this year, I hope.
JW: I read that you were drawn to photography and painting at an early age. What led you to these two passions?
EERIE VON: Dad got a Nikon from Japan when I was eight and he showed me how to use it and taught me what he knew, just the basics, which I still rely on 'til this day. I didn't take it up full time until 13, when I had a friend who had a darkroom and learned how to process film and make prints there as well as in school. Then in High School, I shot everything for the yearbook from day one. I started drawing at probably five or six and painted all through high school. I don't know why I started doing it but I learned early that I could copy anything I wanted, but wasn't too great on my own. I was into sports and music, so I did portraits of baseball players, Elvis, and the Beatles. That's when I got good at it.
JW: Both photography and painting rely on composition and filling the space. Have you found that one tends to compliment the other and has your experience shooting helped to make you a better painter?
EERIE VON: You can't compose a photo as easily as a painting. You have to work with what you have most of the time, unless it's a studio set up or you have the money to put your subject in any situation you like, like Annie Leibowitz. I don't think my photographic eye has influenced my painting because I don't really have a set way of doing it. I kind of "wing it" every time.
JW: Asking the question with a seemingly obvious answer, why do you call your style Fiend Art?
EERIE VON: It's art for the Fiends out there. What I like and what they like. I usually figure if I would buy it, then it's cool. I would like to keep the best ones, sometimes I do, but I like it better when someone buys one and puts it on their wall.
JW: When did you start taking your art more seriously and concentrate on it more? You seem to have a pretty large body of work now.
EERIE VON: About ten years ago in Florida. At one point I was doing three to four a month. This year my output was only two-and-a-half a month. I don't take it too seriously. It's just something I do.
JW: Many of your works are available through your website and auctions. Tell me about that and also, have you done any art shows or events of that nature?
EERIE VON: I don't care for galleries and art shows. People put their stuff in galleries to sell it. I've sold almost every painting I've ever done. Hundreds. I have no need to make a big deal out of them or display them in such a way. I will do a gallery show if it means more people will get to see the paintings, but I'm not into the whole "artist" thing. It's too pretentious.
JW: Talk to me about the young kid from Lodi who discovered art and music at a young age.
EERIE VON: In the beginning, where I lived had nothing to do with discovering music. It was all my family's influence. Mom and Dad grew up in the 40's and 50's, so I heard their music. I grew up in the 60's and 70's, so I heard what was on the radio and on TV. My Aunts and Uncles and cousins influenced me as well. Not until 8th grade did I meet Doyle (Misfits) and then the whole Lodi thing, became an influence. There were a few punk rock guys in high school as well, so they turned me on to stuff. My sister played me a lot of punk stuff. She was a big influence.
Finding out from the Misfits that you could put out your own records was a big revelation. Once I found that out, I was determined to take that path.
JW: Initially you played drums and had a successful audition with the Misfits but declined. Why was that and why did you end up forming Rosemary's Babies after declining the spot with the Misfits?
EERIE VON: Rosemary's Babies was already a band, when the Misfits thing came up. I did start playing drums again, just in case they ever needed a new drummer. I was meant to be in that band, so it made sense. Personally it wasn't the right time for me to join, so I declined. I got the chance again later, but Glenn (Danzig) told me Doyle didn't like the way I was looking at his girlfriend, so it didn't work out again, and they got Robo.
JW: What was the Rosemary's Babies experience like?
EERIE VON: It was great learning how to write songs and perform in front of people, figuring out how to be part of a band and getting along with others. I also enjoyed getting to know others doing the same from around the country. Knowing there were kids who felt like I did was a big comfort during those unsteady high school years.
JW: When Glenn and you formed Samhain you began playing drums. What was the reason for their disbanding and why did you decide to start Samhain?
EERIE VON: Rosemary's Babies had run its course. We weren't going anywhere and Glenn was a serious musician. I wanted to play with the best people I could and Glenn was the best around so I decided to go with him. It's the only way you'll get better. I knew I could learn from him and I have.
JW: Early into the band's existence you switched from drums to bass, which would become your trademark in music for the next two decades. Why this switch? Had you had much experience playing bass and what about it kept you playing it?
EERIE VON: I had never played bass before. I wasn't a good drummer. I still suck. I have no ego when it comes to being in a band. If you can play it better, go ahead. So in order to make the band as good as possible, we agreed to have a real drummer come in. I'd just have to fake it on bass. I was also a terrible bass player, but I got a little better.
JW: After Samhain, you guys went on to a pretty successful run with Danzig. After Chuck dropped out in '94, you and John left the following year. Why? Had it seem to run its course for you?
EERIE VON: It was time to go. I would have preferred to stay with the original four guys and if we could have ironed out the problems within the band, I'm sure we'd still be together today. Once Chuck left, it was over for me. John hadn't been into it for years. It was no longer a vital, living, growing thing. It was dead.
JW: Do you still keep in touch with Chuck and John? What are they up to these days?
EERIE VON: Haven't heard from John in ten years. I'm still friends with Chuck and hear from him a few times a year.
JW: What about Glenn? Are you still in touch with him?
EERIE VON: No
JW: Following Danzig, you released some solo work and moved around a bit? Have you enjoyed experimenting with different types of music and living in different places? Have these experiences helped with your art and music?
EERIE VON: I've done five records since leaving Danzig. One in each place I lived. The environment and the circumstances surrounding my being there all contributed to the sound and feel of each record. When I did my second one, "The Blood and the Body," all I had was a microphone, an acoustic guitar, a fuzz box, and a Casio keyboard I bought at Toys 'R Us. That record sounds like it does because of the limitations I had to work under. I'm fine with that. That's what every record should be. Like a snapshot of who and where you were at that time.
JW: Eerie Von's Spider Cider "That's All There Is" was the last solo record you released in 2006. That was recorded while you were living in Indiana, right? What was that record about and what was your process with its inception?
EERIE VON: I was going through a divorce and was very depressed. It was like my mid-life crisis record. I cut my hair and suddenly, I felt 18 again, and with that feeling came the anger and youthful aggression I felt back then, so I just did what came naturally and that's why it's a punk rock record.
JW: You also did some work on a record you've dubbed "Kinda Country." Are you still working on that or have you finished it?
EERIE VON: My new record is kinda country, so that's why I called it that. Plain and simple. I've been writing songs for 25 years now and have gotten pretty good at it. I've paid attention and learned from all the greats who came before me and from contemporaries as well. So, if I wrote a Blues song, I'd put it away until I needed it. If I was doing a spooky record and a country song came out, I would file that away for a later date. I have lots of songs, in all different styles.
I just write them. Some I might do demos of, then I go on to the next one. When you have about twelve good ones and you decide they should be put together as a collection, you make a record.
JW: Talk to me about Ghastly Records label you started with your former Rosemary's Babies cohort. Has it been a rewarding experience running an independent label, which is a home for your solo work? You have also re-released some stuff from that first band as well.
EERIE VON: We had no label back in '83, so we had to start our own to put out our first record.
We revived the label to put out a 25th anniversary CD, but I have nothing to do with the day-to-day running of it really. Bob has put out my last two records because he had the means to. It's his thing.
JW: Lastly, a new year. Where does Eerie Von go from here, musically, artistically, and just as a person. What does the future hold for you?
EERIE VON: I have no idea. I'd like to go back on the road and stay there. Stopping long enough only to record. If I can figure out how to paint, on the run, I'll do that too. I've been waking up in the same bed for too long. I've gotta get out of here. Thanks to all the Fiends out there, for their loyal support and kind words of encouragement. I hope to see you all very soon.
www.eerievon.com
www.myspace.com/eerievonart
www.myspace.com/itcamefromtrafalgar
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Interview with Jess Goldey
Jess Goldey: My Turn to Win
interview by Jason Walsh
Though the hardcore scene has always been predominantly populated by guys, guitarist Jess Goldey of My Turn to Win has never let the fact that she is a woman slow her down. As a founding member of the Philadelphia based hardcore outfit, she has continued to prove herself as an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, and one of the driving forces that keeps the band always moving forward. Started in 2004 with frontman Dave Rosney, in what the band calls the "summer of positivity," My Turn to Win has released several demos, E.P.s, appeared on a couple compilations, and most recently released their first full-length, "Weight of the World" on Awake/Strong Records, while continuing to tear down venues along the East Coast.
The 23-year-old grew up in the Philadelphia area and is currently an Elementary Education major at Temple University. With the new year around the corner, My Turn to Win looks to do a U.S. tour as well as writing new material for a possible new release down the road. I had a chance to talk to Goldey about how she found hardcore, the origins of the band, and what it's like to be a woman guitarist in one of the most aggressive styles of music.
JW: What is it that drew you to hardcore? Where did you first discover that this was something for you?
JESS: I always liked Y100. That's what I listened to on the radio. Music wasn't really that big of a deal when I was little, but when I was in high school my friend who liked similar music that I did, like alternative stuff, would always wear H20 shirts to school. I was in like 8th grade and I was like "what style is this band H20?" It's like around when "Abstinence" was just coming out. I went home and I downloaded "One Life, One Chance" on my computer, on my 56K modem, and I was hooked from there. I went out and I bought the CD at the Wall or something, and I was just hooked. They've been my favorite band ever since and from that I started loving that kind of music and it just progressed into a whole chain reaction of things. I just loved it, loved everything about it. I played hockey too and this one kid I played with, he told me he used to fill in for Kid Dynamite, so I got into Kid Dynamite from him. He just kept giving me stuff, like Less Than Jake CDs and Suicide Machines and things like that. I know he really liked Madball, and I just started listening to a lot of similar stuff and it just progressed from there. As I got older, like in high school, I started going to shows with people I was friends with and it just blew up from there.
JW: What was it about hardcore music that spoke to you? It's a lot different than some of your standard different styles of music. It is a very aggressive style and what was it about that style that really spoke to you?
JESS: I just love that the songs are really real. I can relate to them, and especially with H20, everything is so positive but at the same time it's aggressive. It's so heartfelt that you don't listen to the music, you feel it. I've compared it to people who don't understand who aren't in this scene, trying to make the analogy, like when you're in your car and you're driving and you turn on the radio because you want something to listen to and you don't really think too much about that. You just turn it on and listen to it. But when I listen to something, I feel it. It's something that I feel and I get chills time and time again. It's just this awesome feeling that I haven't found anywhere else. It's awesome and addictive and everything that anybody could ever want in a music style, in a genre, or y'know, in a lifestyle. It's just amazing.
JW: What made you decide to pick up a guitar and start learning how to play?
JESS: It's kind of funny. When I was in high school, I guess I was a senior, my schedule got fucked up somehow and I had to go into my guidance counselor. They were like, "Oh, we're going to put you in this guitar class," and I was like "O.K.?" I really didn't have any ambition to play guitar, I never really thought about it before, and they put me in this class and honestly, we didn't do anything in there. They gave us these really shitty acoustic guitars and were like "well, here, we're going to teach you how to play," but they didn't really. It was just like the first year they had the class and it was just basically me teaching myself. I thought past it and I would teach them to myself and I grew addicted to this instrument. I was like, "I love this!" For my 16th or 17th birthday, I asked my Mom and Dad for a guitar and they gave me one and I just continued to teach myself. I never really thought of like being in an actual band. At that point I was like, "Aww...this would be awesome if that could happen." I never really expected it to and especially to the degree that it's gotten to. I never imagined to do something like that.
JW: So what kind of guitar did Mom and Dad get you?
JESS: It was a Fender American Strat. A teal color. Beautiful.
JW: Do you still have it?
JESS: I do still have it. I refuse to get rid of it even though I am totally broke. I have a strong attachment to sentimental things and it was my first guitar and we shared so many memories as corny as it sounds (laughs). I don't want to give it away, sell it for something, for money. It's not worth it. It still plays great. My best friend Dave, who sings in the band, he gave me Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickups to put in it and it made it sound amazing. I still love it, I still play it, and I'm never going to get rid of it.
JW: Well, you can't. That would be ridiculous. One, it came from your parents and two, you laid a lot of blood into it. It's your first guitar.
JESS: Yeah!!! I tell people, "I'm broke, I have no money," and they're like "sell something," and I'm like "I don't really have anything to sell that's worth a decent amount of money except for my guitar." They're like, "why don't you sell it? You don't even play it at shows anymore," and I'm like "Hell, no! Get out of here! That means too much to me."
JW: What are you playing now?
JESS: Right now I have an ESP LTD. It's a Les Paul style guitar. It's got a black matte finish with gold trim and gold hardware. It's got EMG pickups and sounds really ballsy. It plays great. I love it so much.
JW: So, how did you hook up with the band? How did that come about for you?
JESS: Well, I started hanging out with Dave in 2004. He used to live at this house that did shows. There was a saying, like "Dave's Night," which was like every Wednesday I think, when people would just go over there and play games. I went one night and met him and we just totally clicked and hit it off and we started hanging out. He was talking about how he wanted to do this band and call it My Turn to Win, named after a Turning Point song. It was originally just him sitting in his boxers or something with an acoustic guitar. I don't even think Dave can play the guitar. It was just him messing around with an acoustic guitar by himself writing songs about positivity and safe sex and stuff like that, like super silly. I guess he wanted to make it a serious thing and I was like, "oh, I can play guitar somewhat," and at that time I was like, "I can't really play guitar all that well, but I'd be really interested." So, I guess through message boards and things, we found our other guitar player and bass player. Our first drummer, Chad, we just knew him, so he was in it, and it just went from there. We've been through a ton of lineup changes, I'm not even sure how many, in the four and a half years we've been a band. Dave and me are the original members from the start and he's my best friend in the whole wide world even though he gets on my nerves and I get on his, but that goes with any relationship, if you know somebody and you're that close with them.
JW: And that's part of being in a band.
JESS: Oh, definitely.
JW: You get a bunch of people together that may have like interests but there's always going to be issues.
JESS: Oh, no doubt. Being in a band is like being in a relationship, but with four other people and sometimes it's going to be difficult. But, whatever, you get through those times just like with any other friendship, relationship, family problem, y'know whatever. Relationships have problems and you work on them and you get over it. Big deal. At the end of the day, you aren't always kissing and making up.
JW: How's this stretch been being in this band? You said you've been doing this for four and a half years. Is it a lot of fun? Does it keep you motivated? What is the reason why you continue to do this?
JESS: There's a lot of reasons why. I guess I can't really pinpoint one. I mean it's fun for the most part. Right now, we have had a solid lineup for a year and a half. We recently went through a drummer change, but there's not even any bad blood between any of our ex-members or anything. It's just that they had to work and couldn't fit it into their schedule or other differences. It wasn't because we hated them or they were angry with us, it just couldn't work for them. I guess really everything does happen for a reason because right now I think we're all pretty much content with the lineup and everybody gets along really well. We're like a happy little family but sometimes we all hate each other, but that's normal. You know we have our quarrels and it's stressful sometimes. It really is all worth it just because playing shows and seeing kids I've never seen before in my life yelling in Dave's face lyrics that he wrote to songs that we all wrote together is awesome. It's an unbeatable feeling, something I never thought would ever, ever dream of happening. I don't even know how to describe it, the feeling I get from playing, being up there sweating, and giving as much as I can. At the end of the set, I feel so dead physically but never more alive. We do this because it's fun and it's what we want to do, and when it stops being fun, and the bad times outweigh the good, then that's when it's not going to happen anymore.
JW: In a style that's dominated by a lot of testosterone, what's it like being a woman playing guitar in a hardcore band?
JESS: I'm not going to lie. There's a lot of attention there, whether it's me or any other female in a hardcore band. A girl can't deny the fact that this world is "dominated" by dudes and you can't ignore that. You kind of just have to accept it and learn to live with it, but at the same time know that you're just as good as any of the dudes. I think it's important to just know that is always going to be there, at least now unless something changes. So, getting mad at something like that, because that's just the way it is, I don't know, I think that's just wasted energy. I think there's a lot of other things you can put you're energy into. The scene's dominated by dudes, like more guys play hockey than girls, something like that, you know what I mean. That's just a fact. That's just how it is, but how it affects me is, well, I don't know? I just want to be considered as an equal and I think that I am. I don't have the attitude like, "oh, I'm better than this dude or I'm better than this guy because I can do this and this and this and he can't." I just want to be like everybody else. I don't have the attitude of "oh, I'm better than him because I'm a girl and I can pull my own weight." Does that make sense?
JW: Yeah it does. Do you feel when you're playing with other bands that acceptance as a peer, and not treated differently because you are a woman? Do you feel that level of acceptance with others in the hardcore community?
JESS: For me personally, I feel accepted, that I've earned my place. I acknowledge that there are guys out there who look down upon girls being in what "dudes" activities are supposed to be. I don't have a better word for that. But I know there are guys out there that are like that, so I just keep that in mind but I don't let that bother me. I know that I hold my own just fine, playing in a band or whatever else. I don't care if a guy or girl wants to judge me for whatever. That's their own problem. If they like me then that's great, if not, I don't feel like I should waste my energy trying to change their opinion. I feel like I can definitely prove to people who think that girls shouldn't do this type of thing, I think I definitely prove them wrong. I've had a lot of girls come up to me and be like, "I want to do that. I want to be just like you." It's such a huge compliment and it's so flattering because I feel like I'm setting a good example. I'm always watching how I am acting, like what I say, especially to young girls who are saying these things and complimenting me. I hope that if I'm influencing them, that I'm saying and doing the right things in a positive way. There is such a thing as good attention and bad attention. There are girls out there that just go to shows who just stand in the back and hold their boyfriend's coats and things and just follow them around like a little puppy dog and they don't really care about the music even though they say they do. You know, like here today, gone tomorrow type of thing. There's so many girls like that, or dudes, doing it for the wrong reasons. Overall, I just want to make a good impression for these girls who say these things to me and I want to give them somebody to look up to and they'll be like, "y'know, I can do this. I can do whatever I want to do and not feel like I should be looked down upon by guys or anybody." Everybody should be able to do what they want to do. If they want to do it, there should be no reason why they can't, as long you are a strong person and follow what you want to do in your heart, there's no reason you should be shut down because people look down upon that sort of thing.
JW: Exactly, and good for you of being an advocate of that. That's the thing, I think all of us have been drawn to this music and this movement because it spoke to us and another thing, it is a sense of unity and coming together and family.
JESS: Exactly. We're all here for the same reasons, whether it's a guy or girl. It doesn't matter. We should all be considered as people here. There's not one gender that's better than the other. If you had your eyes shut and you couldn't tell who was up there on stage, it could be all girls, it could be all guys, you wouldn't know. Purple, gray, brown, black, green. It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like. Everybody should be considered equal and that's that.
interview by Jason Walsh
Though the hardcore scene has always been predominantly populated by guys, guitarist Jess Goldey of My Turn to Win has never let the fact that she is a woman slow her down. As a founding member of the Philadelphia based hardcore outfit, she has continued to prove herself as an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, and one of the driving forces that keeps the band always moving forward. Started in 2004 with frontman Dave Rosney, in what the band calls the "summer of positivity," My Turn to Win has released several demos, E.P.s, appeared on a couple compilations, and most recently released their first full-length, "Weight of the World" on Awake/Strong Records, while continuing to tear down venues along the East Coast.
The 23-year-old grew up in the Philadelphia area and is currently an Elementary Education major at Temple University. With the new year around the corner, My Turn to Win looks to do a U.S. tour as well as writing new material for a possible new release down the road. I had a chance to talk to Goldey about how she found hardcore, the origins of the band, and what it's like to be a woman guitarist in one of the most aggressive styles of music.
JW: What is it that drew you to hardcore? Where did you first discover that this was something for you?
JESS: I always liked Y100. That's what I listened to on the radio. Music wasn't really that big of a deal when I was little, but when I was in high school my friend who liked similar music that I did, like alternative stuff, would always wear H20 shirts to school. I was in like 8th grade and I was like "what style is this band H20?" It's like around when "Abstinence" was just coming out. I went home and I downloaded "One Life, One Chance" on my computer, on my 56K modem, and I was hooked from there. I went out and I bought the CD at the Wall or something, and I was just hooked. They've been my favorite band ever since and from that I started loving that kind of music and it just progressed into a whole chain reaction of things. I just loved it, loved everything about it. I played hockey too and this one kid I played with, he told me he used to fill in for Kid Dynamite, so I got into Kid Dynamite from him. He just kept giving me stuff, like Less Than Jake CDs and Suicide Machines and things like that. I know he really liked Madball, and I just started listening to a lot of similar stuff and it just progressed from there. As I got older, like in high school, I started going to shows with people I was friends with and it just blew up from there.
JW: What was it about hardcore music that spoke to you? It's a lot different than some of your standard different styles of music. It is a very aggressive style and what was it about that style that really spoke to you?
JESS: I just love that the songs are really real. I can relate to them, and especially with H20, everything is so positive but at the same time it's aggressive. It's so heartfelt that you don't listen to the music, you feel it. I've compared it to people who don't understand who aren't in this scene, trying to make the analogy, like when you're in your car and you're driving and you turn on the radio because you want something to listen to and you don't really think too much about that. You just turn it on and listen to it. But when I listen to something, I feel it. It's something that I feel and I get chills time and time again. It's just this awesome feeling that I haven't found anywhere else. It's awesome and addictive and everything that anybody could ever want in a music style, in a genre, or y'know, in a lifestyle. It's just amazing.
JW: What made you decide to pick up a guitar and start learning how to play?
JESS: It's kind of funny. When I was in high school, I guess I was a senior, my schedule got fucked up somehow and I had to go into my guidance counselor. They were like, "Oh, we're going to put you in this guitar class," and I was like "O.K.?" I really didn't have any ambition to play guitar, I never really thought about it before, and they put me in this class and honestly, we didn't do anything in there. They gave us these really shitty acoustic guitars and were like "well, here, we're going to teach you how to play," but they didn't really. It was just like the first year they had the class and it was just basically me teaching myself. I thought past it and I would teach them to myself and I grew addicted to this instrument. I was like, "I love this!" For my 16th or 17th birthday, I asked my Mom and Dad for a guitar and they gave me one and I just continued to teach myself. I never really thought of like being in an actual band. At that point I was like, "Aww...this would be awesome if that could happen." I never really expected it to and especially to the degree that it's gotten to. I never imagined to do something like that.
JW: So what kind of guitar did Mom and Dad get you?
JESS: It was a Fender American Strat. A teal color. Beautiful.
JW: Do you still have it?
JESS: I do still have it. I refuse to get rid of it even though I am totally broke. I have a strong attachment to sentimental things and it was my first guitar and we shared so many memories as corny as it sounds (laughs). I don't want to give it away, sell it for something, for money. It's not worth it. It still plays great. My best friend Dave, who sings in the band, he gave me Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickups to put in it and it made it sound amazing. I still love it, I still play it, and I'm never going to get rid of it.
JW: Well, you can't. That would be ridiculous. One, it came from your parents and two, you laid a lot of blood into it. It's your first guitar.
JESS: Yeah!!! I tell people, "I'm broke, I have no money," and they're like "sell something," and I'm like "I don't really have anything to sell that's worth a decent amount of money except for my guitar." They're like, "why don't you sell it? You don't even play it at shows anymore," and I'm like "Hell, no! Get out of here! That means too much to me."
JW: What are you playing now?
JESS: Right now I have an ESP LTD. It's a Les Paul style guitar. It's got a black matte finish with gold trim and gold hardware. It's got EMG pickups and sounds really ballsy. It plays great. I love it so much.
JW: So, how did you hook up with the band? How did that come about for you?
JESS: Well, I started hanging out with Dave in 2004. He used to live at this house that did shows. There was a saying, like "Dave's Night," which was like every Wednesday I think, when people would just go over there and play games. I went one night and met him and we just totally clicked and hit it off and we started hanging out. He was talking about how he wanted to do this band and call it My Turn to Win, named after a Turning Point song. It was originally just him sitting in his boxers or something with an acoustic guitar. I don't even think Dave can play the guitar. It was just him messing around with an acoustic guitar by himself writing songs about positivity and safe sex and stuff like that, like super silly. I guess he wanted to make it a serious thing and I was like, "oh, I can play guitar somewhat," and at that time I was like, "I can't really play guitar all that well, but I'd be really interested." So, I guess through message boards and things, we found our other guitar player and bass player. Our first drummer, Chad, we just knew him, so he was in it, and it just went from there. We've been through a ton of lineup changes, I'm not even sure how many, in the four and a half years we've been a band. Dave and me are the original members from the start and he's my best friend in the whole wide world even though he gets on my nerves and I get on his, but that goes with any relationship, if you know somebody and you're that close with them.
JW: And that's part of being in a band.
JESS: Oh, definitely.
JW: You get a bunch of people together that may have like interests but there's always going to be issues.
JESS: Oh, no doubt. Being in a band is like being in a relationship, but with four other people and sometimes it's going to be difficult. But, whatever, you get through those times just like with any other friendship, relationship, family problem, y'know whatever. Relationships have problems and you work on them and you get over it. Big deal. At the end of the day, you aren't always kissing and making up.
JW: How's this stretch been being in this band? You said you've been doing this for four and a half years. Is it a lot of fun? Does it keep you motivated? What is the reason why you continue to do this?
JESS: There's a lot of reasons why. I guess I can't really pinpoint one. I mean it's fun for the most part. Right now, we have had a solid lineup for a year and a half. We recently went through a drummer change, but there's not even any bad blood between any of our ex-members or anything. It's just that they had to work and couldn't fit it into their schedule or other differences. It wasn't because we hated them or they were angry with us, it just couldn't work for them. I guess really everything does happen for a reason because right now I think we're all pretty much content with the lineup and everybody gets along really well. We're like a happy little family but sometimes we all hate each other, but that's normal. You know we have our quarrels and it's stressful sometimes. It really is all worth it just because playing shows and seeing kids I've never seen before in my life yelling in Dave's face lyrics that he wrote to songs that we all wrote together is awesome. It's an unbeatable feeling, something I never thought would ever, ever dream of happening. I don't even know how to describe it, the feeling I get from playing, being up there sweating, and giving as much as I can. At the end of the set, I feel so dead physically but never more alive. We do this because it's fun and it's what we want to do, and when it stops being fun, and the bad times outweigh the good, then that's when it's not going to happen anymore.
JW: In a style that's dominated by a lot of testosterone, what's it like being a woman playing guitar in a hardcore band?
JESS: I'm not going to lie. There's a lot of attention there, whether it's me or any other female in a hardcore band. A girl can't deny the fact that this world is "dominated" by dudes and you can't ignore that. You kind of just have to accept it and learn to live with it, but at the same time know that you're just as good as any of the dudes. I think it's important to just know that is always going to be there, at least now unless something changes. So, getting mad at something like that, because that's just the way it is, I don't know, I think that's just wasted energy. I think there's a lot of other things you can put you're energy into. The scene's dominated by dudes, like more guys play hockey than girls, something like that, you know what I mean. That's just a fact. That's just how it is, but how it affects me is, well, I don't know? I just want to be considered as an equal and I think that I am. I don't have the attitude like, "oh, I'm better than this dude or I'm better than this guy because I can do this and this and this and he can't." I just want to be like everybody else. I don't have the attitude of "oh, I'm better than him because I'm a girl and I can pull my own weight." Does that make sense?
JW: Yeah it does. Do you feel when you're playing with other bands that acceptance as a peer, and not treated differently because you are a woman? Do you feel that level of acceptance with others in the hardcore community?
JESS: For me personally, I feel accepted, that I've earned my place. I acknowledge that there are guys out there who look down upon girls being in what "dudes" activities are supposed to be. I don't have a better word for that. But I know there are guys out there that are like that, so I just keep that in mind but I don't let that bother me. I know that I hold my own just fine, playing in a band or whatever else. I don't care if a guy or girl wants to judge me for whatever. That's their own problem. If they like me then that's great, if not, I don't feel like I should waste my energy trying to change their opinion. I feel like I can definitely prove to people who think that girls shouldn't do this type of thing, I think I definitely prove them wrong. I've had a lot of girls come up to me and be like, "I want to do that. I want to be just like you." It's such a huge compliment and it's so flattering because I feel like I'm setting a good example. I'm always watching how I am acting, like what I say, especially to young girls who are saying these things and complimenting me. I hope that if I'm influencing them, that I'm saying and doing the right things in a positive way. There is such a thing as good attention and bad attention. There are girls out there that just go to shows who just stand in the back and hold their boyfriend's coats and things and just follow them around like a little puppy dog and they don't really care about the music even though they say they do. You know, like here today, gone tomorrow type of thing. There's so many girls like that, or dudes, doing it for the wrong reasons. Overall, I just want to make a good impression for these girls who say these things to me and I want to give them somebody to look up to and they'll be like, "y'know, I can do this. I can do whatever I want to do and not feel like I should be looked down upon by guys or anybody." Everybody should be able to do what they want to do. If they want to do it, there should be no reason why they can't, as long you are a strong person and follow what you want to do in your heart, there's no reason you should be shut down because people look down upon that sort of thing.
JW: Exactly, and good for you of being an advocate of that. That's the thing, I think all of us have been drawn to this music and this movement because it spoke to us and another thing, it is a sense of unity and coming together and family.
JESS: Exactly. We're all here for the same reasons, whether it's a guy or girl. It doesn't matter. We should all be considered as people here. There's not one gender that's better than the other. If you had your eyes shut and you couldn't tell who was up there on stage, it could be all girls, it could be all guys, you wouldn't know. Purple, gray, brown, black, green. It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like. Everybody should be considered equal and that's that.
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