Anthology update and the newest Punk Interview

Sorry for the lapse of interviews and news. This semester is even more intense than the last (did you know I'm in grad school?). But progress has been made on the anthology and we are very close to launch date. Jane, our uber-talented Medusa copy-editor just finished her final proof-read of the galley. A big thank you to Jane for once again dedicating so much time and talent to Medusa's Muse. I'll know the exact book launch date once I conference with the designer, so stay tuned for future book launch announcements.

 (image from the Heavy Load website)

And now, the next interview in our series, this time with anthology writer Paul Richards of the UK band, Heavy Load. From the Heavy Load website: "... Brighton's answer to The Ramones. A punk outfit subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, fantasy, expectation and desire that fuels any emerging band. But they’re also uniquely made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities. Over the last 10 years they have managed to survive through their combination of raucous energy, attitude and sheer volume but now they are about to hit the big time with a feature length documentary Heavy Load, being made about their journey from social care to stardom, and back again, and their mission to demonstrate that disability rocks. There are few genres left in music that have yet to be defined. Heavyload have unwittingly created a brand new one."

Paul Richards has worked for fourteen years for Southdown Housing Association, a not-for-profit organization providing housing and support to vulnerable adults in the County of Sussex, England. He is an obsessive music collector who plays guitar, piano and trumpet. Paul lives with his wife and four children in Brighton on the south coast of England.

How do you personally define punk? 

I see it about saying what you want and how you want. A spontaneous outpouring of expression that by it's nature will sometimes offend. It's about expressing how you see life and how you experience the world around you.

What is NOT punk?

Greenday, and supermodels wearing sequined Sex Pistols t-shirts.
  
What punk song/band changed your life, and how?

Career Opportunities - The Clash. The bass player in my first band was a massive Clash fan and this was the first song we learnt to play. I was sold from that moment.

What has punk taught you about yourself and your life?

Being in a punk band has reminded me of the joy of playing in a band, and that it's possible to record an album in an afternoon.

What surprised you about the punk scene?

Punk is still alive and kicking - and there's a growing underground of 'disabled' punk bands making incredible music.

If a person is interested in learning more about punk/DIY, what would you suggest they do?

Learn 3 chords (2 will do though), write some songs - quickly - and get gigging. Don't think DO! 

 

Interview with Punk Anthology Writer Jessica Williams

Jessica Williams is a twenty-six-year-old punk from Rock Springs, Wyoming. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism at the University of Nevada and currently works at Big Boss Productions. Read her essay, "Punk Rock Girl in a Redneck Town," in the anthology, Punk Rock Saved My Ass, available April, 2010.

How do you personally define punk?

Punk is an attitude. It isn’t about how you dress, or what you listen to, it is how you act and how you are perceived by the world.

What is NOT punk?

Punk is not about selling out. When I see these bands that claim to be punk rock, yet they are on the radio or MTV, and even my mom knows about them … they are not punk. Punk rock is about being anti-establishment, doing what you want, when you want, and not caring who you hurt in the process, even if it is yourself. It isn’t about doing things to make people like you, or even to make money off of it. Punk rock is NOT tight pants, and Misfits t-shirts. It is NOT Green Day, Avril Lavigne, Paramore or any of those pop “punk” bullshit “bands.” It isn’t a costume, it is a lifestyle, and a hardcore lifestyle at that.

What punk song/band changed your life, and how?

A lot of punk songs/bands have influenced my life in one way or another. Minor Threat showed me it was ok not to follow the crowd and to be myself, even in the punk scene; and Strung Out showed me it was ok to grow up, not be a loser and follow my dreams

What has punk taught you about yourself and your life?

Punk taught me to be myself. It has given me the strength to not give a fuck what others think and to do what I feel is right regardless of the backlash I might receive

What surprised you about the punk scene? 
I suppose when I first got into the scene, the surprising thing was that all the punkers I knew and grew to love just didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone, sometimes including themselves. It was carefree and fun, yet dark and mysterious all at the same time.

Punk Anthology Interview Number 4: Marc Pietrzykowski

Marc Pietrzykowski is a New York based poet and punk. His poems and essays have appeared in Burnside Review, Fine Madness, Diagram, Alaska Quarterly Review, and others, and his book of poems ...and the whole time I was quite happy, is available via Zeitgeist Press. You can read his poems The First Lesson, and Get on with it in the upcoming anthology, Punk Rock Saved My Ass, from Medusa's Muse Press. Read more of Marc's writing on his website.

How do you personally define punk?

I’d rather not define it, since avoiding dogma seems part of the spirit of the thing, as does saying a hearty “fuck you” to whatever the murderously numbing pablum mainstream culture is offering people at the time… and thus the D.I.Y. impulse. If the instinct we name “punk” in this era is to reject mainstream culture, then making your own culture follows right along. The trick is to not become just as dogmatic and mindless and rule-bound as mainstream culture, not start excluding people because they don’t have the right ideas, make the wrong kind of art. I look at history and see the punk spirit everywhere, and it seems like it helps people live only when it doesn’t decay into something like Maoism. 

What is NOT punk?

Any type of artistic expression whose genesis lies in the desire to satisfy the needs of a broad and generic audience. That sort of art is responsible for shaping audience expectations in a very destructive way. Audience is always important (don’t believe artists who say otherwise), but if that is the end of your art, you are not trying to challenge anyone’s ideas of what art can be. I think most people like, at least privately, to be challenged this way, but are trained to publically reject anything that challenges their ideas.

What punk song/band changed your life, and how?

Ah geez, too many to name; I remember hearing the Damned (“Love Song”) on a college radio station when I was 11 or 12. I was pretty much hooked. Or destroyed, depending on your point of view.

What has punk taught you about yourself and your life?

That being a fucking weirdo is not only ok, it is a virtue.

What surprised you about the punk scene?

I’m not sure what surprised me when I first discovered that there were other people who also liked this kind of music, and had this kind of spirit and attitude toward art and life, except perhaps that there were other people. And there had been throughout history: Harry Partch, Gerard de Nerval, Mary Shelley, Chuang-Tzu…

If a person is interested in learning more about punk/DIY, what would you suggest they do?

There are plenty of places to become more engaged in the culture, even if you live far from any significant mass of people; for example, the Center for Punk Arts. But the first step would be to throw your tv set out the window.