One of the first punk rock vocalists I ever heard was Keith Morris. My brother gave me Circle Jerks’ Group Sex on vinyl when I was a teen, it was one of the records that was my gateway into punk rock. Later on I’d pick up Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown EP and over the years amass quite a collection of Keith’s work with all of his bands – most recently I’ve added latest musical project Off! In the week just passed Off! Played two amazing shows in my hometown of Brisbane. Keith was kind enough to speak with me for my Conversations With Punx project. Here’s a little snippet (we talked for over an hour). The full conversation will feature in the next zine in the CWP series (which I’m putting together at the moment). This conversation means a lot to me, Keith is one of the loveliest people I’ve met in punk rock. I’m so stoked that at 56-years-old he’s creating even more than ever—it’s truly inspiring!

You’ve been working on a book and a film. Can you tell me about them?
KEITH MORRIS: I’ve been working on the movie for about five to six years. I probably started working on the book about two years ago.

Is it fiction or non-fiction?
KM: The book is: Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Off!, working for a record company, working at a restaurant, working for The Commodores – you know The Commodores?

Yes!
KM: Slippery When Wet, (She’s A) Brick House. The movie is my take on the Wizard of Oz.

Wow! That’s like my favourite movie ever!
KM: Well you know how the Wizard of Oz starts in black and white and when Dorothy and Toto get to Oz everything becomes beautiful and all of the colours are bright well my story is the Wizard of Oz upside down.

That will be amazing! I’ve heard that you’ve talked to Josh Homme from Queens of the Stoneage and Chris Goss [Masters of Reality] about working on the film score?
KM: And Daniel Lanios [who has worked with U2, Brian Eno, Neil Young and more]. Daniel said, ‘Keith when you’re ready to create these songs this is how it normally works – you’re pretty much playing other people’s music anyway because it’s all been played before so all you do is change what you need to change. If you’re writing these pieces to fit certain scenes in the movie, the music is going to move to what’s happening in the movie.’ If something is moving real slow then you’re just going to [makes sounds at a slow tempo] ‘wamp wamp wamp wamp wamp wamp wamp.’ When it starts to get energetic you’ll toss in a [picks up the tempo] ‘wa boom boom boom boom.’ It will be a guitar orchestra. I’m thinking maybe ten guitar players. You put ten different guitar players in a room and everyone wants to solo! You’ll have a couple of them whose egos are bigger than everybody else’s, it’s like ‘oh I have to play more notes.’

Do you find that when you create things whether it’s writing a book, lyrics, film or making music that you do it sometimes to help you make sense of your own life?
KM: That’s a good way of putting it. Most of the stuff that I write is mostly stuff that just bothers me, stuff that affects me; like I just need to purge myself of that, I need to blood let and just let it all out. A lot of it’s out of anger; a lot of it’s out of frustration; a lot of it’s just out of being depressed; a lot of times (like we were talking about) going down town to skid row; a lot of times we don’t have the opportunity to do that and we find ourselves in a situation where I feel like I’m in a hole. I feel like I’m in a ditch, how am I going to get out of here? Maybe the only way that you can lift yourself out of the hole or climb out of the ditch is just by screaming and yelling [laughs]—well that works for me! I don’t know if it would work for anybody else.

I also find when I do interviews with people that it helps me with things in my life.
KM: I have a lot of friends who are creative people and I believe that the majority of them don’t create out of anger or out of depression. I find a lot of their stuff to be more cheery and not so dark, not so heavy, but I like that. I like that ‘well let’s take this colour and through it against the wall. Let’s take some pink and toss it in there.’ Dimitri [Coats – guitarist for Off!/producer] and I, we think black and white. I eventually want to get to the point, well there’s some green, there’s a couple of dabs of some yellow. Why not add some red and some blue over here.

Off! live instore:

Keith Morris with F*cked Up live:

For more Off!

Peace & love,

On the weekend as part of Australia’s leading independent arts festival This Is Not Art - which “is a supercharged convergence of writers, performers, thinkers, independent and industry musicians, creative researchers, electronic artists, dilettantes, and DIY culture makers in a showcase featuring over 400 local, national and international artists” – The Golden Stapler Awards for zines and celebrating zine making were held (presented by Format and the National Young Writers’ Festival). And guess what? 

I won the Australian Zine Maker of the Year award as well as a second award for the Best Zine Produced in Australia (as a series this year) for Conversations with Punx: A Spiritual Dialogue!!

 I am beyond stoked! As regular readers of CWB know I’ve been making zines for 17 years, since I was 15 years-old. It truly is one of my favourite things to do in the whole world. I look forward to making many, many more. Thank you for everyone who helped make Conversations with Punx what it is, you know who you are! I’m glad I decided to follow my heart and make it a limited edition zine series before I turn it into a book. It was important to me to be able to be hands on with the process of releasing it. Each zine that I send out is personally copied, hand-bound, sometimes hand drawn on and made by me (with help from JR with the cover screenprinting). If you’re interested in getting one please go here. Questions? Contact me at: conversationswithbianca [at] gmail [dot] com.

 Thank you to everyone that has supported and encouraged this project. It truly is super appreciated. It has been, and continues to be, the most AMAZING journey! Conversations with Punx is dedicated to the True Hearts, True Believers & Truth Seekers.

 CREATE FOREVER!!

A thought for your day:

I don’t believe that music can have a healing effect. I think it can get your heart rate up and get you to snap out of a funk you’re in as it’s often an extreme stimulus. I think it can redirect and reprioritise your energies at a given moment. It takes a lot of calories to be depressed. I think a lot of people don’t realise that. When someone doesn’t want to get out of bed, a feeling I have all the time, they might not see that lying around in bed all bummed out takes a lot of energy as well. Lying also takes up a lot more energy. It’s why Dick Cheney looks so bad all the time.

 ~Henry Rollins (taken from Conversations with Punx #2 Courage) 

Do something awesome today!

 *Art by Dan Bolton

Related Posts:

 Ian MacKaye: The Power Of Now

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Leaving Punk Rock

I’m so excited! Finally! We’ve reached the halfway point in the Conversations with Punx limited edition zine series. The start of September also marked a whole year since this project was launched out into the world at the very first Paper Cuts Collective event in Brisbane, Australia. Conversations with Punx #6 ‘Faith’ is 80+ pages, with a light blue card cover, hand bound tied with purple raffia! As always the issue is limited edition—to order a copy please contact me at: conversationswithbianca [at] gmail [dot] com. Also, as I’ve mentioned recently I have been nominated for Australian Zine Maker of the Year and Conversations with Punx has been nominated for Best Zine Series of the Year too! I’ll love you forever if you take a moment to vote for me (Bianca Valentino) and CWP here at the Golden Stapler Awards.

 
Ray Cappo (Shelter / Youth of Today…)

This conversation meant a lot to me as Shelter are one of my favourite bands. It took a little while to track Ray down – he has mostly been out of the public spotlight and hasn’t done too many interviews in the past decade while he’s been fairly quiet in terms of music making. I’m going to be totally honest and let y’all know that I paid for this interview. It is the one and only interview in the 17 years of interviewing musicians that I have parted with $ for. I really wanted to speak to Ray as Shelter’s music had such a positive impact on my life and paying for the time spent chatting is the only way it was going to happen. Ray chats about how he got into spirituality and Krishna Consciousness, the struggles in his life, the Krishna-core movement in ’90s hardcore, of working on humility and more.

Ari Up (The Slits…)

I feel so blessed I was able to speak with my favourite punk rock frontwoman before she passed. She was one of the greatest true individuals I have ever known. It was so interesting hearing about the early days of punk rock in England, hip hop in New York and so much more. Ari even spent part of her life living in the rainforest with tribes people. Read an extract from the conversation here at Collapse Board.

Frank Portman (The Mr. T Experience / author: King Dork…)

I had a blast talking to Frank, he was drinking wine as we spoke. I got in contact with him after I spoke with Ben from Screeching Weasel; Ben suggested Frank would make a great interview subject. We spoke on Christianity, Atheism, New Age ‘stuff’, music as therapy and of spirituality and religion in the punk community. Super interesting!

Mike Herrera (MxPx / Tumbledown…)

When I spoke with Mike he was in the middle of building his own recording studio at home. He was so excited and pumped about it. Mike spoke about growing up as a Christian punk rocker, of being scrutinized by punks and religious people, on creativity, love and of spiritual challenges.

Sena Hussain (Secret Trial Five)

My conversation with Sena was interesting to say the least! Sena is in an all-girl Muslim punk band and is also an openly queer Drag King.  Read an extract from this conversation here on Collapse Board.

Rob Fusco (Most Precious Blood / One King Down)

Rob’s a wonderful friend, the conversation with him featured in this issue was done the first time I ever met him when his band Most Precious Blood came to my hometown Brisbane. It’s one of my favourite chats for the project, to find out why you’ll just have to read it! ;)

Tim Barry (Avail)

I found Tim to be an amazing guy, the way he lives, the way he thinks about music and life is all so inspiring! He believes that the key to life is being peaceful.

Create forever!!
Love & light,

A thought for your day:

The present is the most difficult time for most people; it’s the only one actually engaging you. The future isn’t engaging because it doesn’t exist yet and the past isn’t engaging because you can’t do anything about it. The present is the only time when we can actually do anything. We can regret things, miss things or admire things about the past—there are all those sorts of feelings and emotions—we can delay decisions and wage bets on what we think is the future but the present is actually the only time when action has real place.

I think people—I include myself as people—tend to spend an awful lot of time not knowing how to go forward with the present. We defer to the past or the future. People tend to think if you’re not thinking about the future, you’re not being responsible, I don’t agree with that at all.

 I have this theory of the future being around the corner. If you think of a road, the road is always curved. The future is always that point just around the corner, you can’t quite see it. You will certainly get there but you can’t see it. You have no idea what’s on the road? You’ll never know until you get around the corner and by the time you get around the corner there’ll be more around the corner ahead. I don’t really think that we can prepare. What we can do is make sure we are healthy and in as good as shape possible now and flexible enough to be able to contend with whatever we are faced with—that we’re balanced. If you’re putting too much attention on the possibility of the future you’re probably likely to drive right the hell off the road in front of you. Its best just to keep the eyes on the road.

~Ian MacKaye (taken from Conversations with Punx #1 ‘Truth’)

*Art by Tom Burrey of Rock of Ages Tattoo Parlour has pride of place on my abode walls.

Have a thoughtful day lovelies!

This issue is really special to me. The conversations in this zine are by far some of my all-time personal favourites. Each of the people I spoke to has had influence on my life, via their music, art or the friendship we have cultivated. Reading back through them made me tear up more than a handful of times; the conversations are so beautiful, honest and show other sides of the individuals I chatted with that people may not have seen before by fans. Reading the conversations also took me back to the time I did the interviews (the project celebrates 7 years since I started it this year) and what I was going through in my own life at the time and highlighted how far I have come in my own personal growth and spiritual exploration. The conversations are with the following wonderful souls:

Roger Miret (Agnostic Front / Roger Miret & the Disasters): 

Roger chats about love, his time in prison, growing up, coming from Cuba to America as a kid, the early days of NYC hardcore, fatherhood, of moving to Arizona, Buddhism and spirituality. I also really like the image of Roger (by Helena BXL) that accompanies the conversation. It’s one of the only photos I’ve ever seen of Roger smiling. I handpicked it purposely after scouring the net for photos. Every other photo I found had him looking all ‘tough guy’ like or kind of serious but I wanted a photo that reflected the conversation which shows a softer, happy, loving Roger Miret. After my chat with Roger I had an even deeper respect for him.

Lisa Kekaula & Bob Vennum (the BellRays): 

I had conversations with wife and husband team, Lisa and Bob separately for the project. I spoke to Lisa in my hometown when the BellRays came to Brisbane. I was in awe of her the entire time; she has an amazing, commanding presence and is such a thoughtful, nice lady. It was a special conversation for me because it’s not every day you meet a female in the punk community that is of ethnic heritage, strong, confident and a true individual (at least not where I’m from). The conversation took place on a street curb in an alleyway behind Brisbane live music venue the Zoo in Fortitude Valley just on dusk. The frontwoman spoke about punk’s similarity to jazz, her Hawaiian and African-American heritage, of being present in the moment, on finding her soul mate and of course spirituality. My interview with Lisa’s husband Bob (the BellRays guitarist) happened while they were on tour in Europe. Bob talks on having purpose, the creative process, of seeing the Ramones open for Black Sabbath, his ideas on punk rock and the ‘support the scene’ mentality and more.

Mark Civitarese (The Unseen / Ashers / A Global Threat / Self-Destruct): 

I’ve known Mark Unseen for the last decade. I first corresponded with him and interviewed him for my old zine. My conversation with Mark happened the day before I had to get my wisdom teeth out. Mark and I spoke about spirits, being spooked, his thoughts on religion, people’s auras, psychics, dreams, Ouija boards, visions, his lyrics, performing live and of life changing moments. He also talks about some of his friends in other punk bands and their experience with spirits/ghosts.  

SpiderXdeath (Deathcage):

Spider has a really interesting story… within the first few minutes of our dialogue he opens up telling me: “For about eight years I was this absolute crystal meth cocaine addict” and from there in a no-holds barred account he takes me on a journey of his struggle to get clean, of the realities of being an addict and his new found belief in the law of ‘karma’. I’ve been Spider’s friend now for several years (since the initial conversation) and to see him get his life together and make an honest living has been wonderful to watch. He talks about how he first came to punk, his interest in Judaism, of his music, art and more.

Nick 13 (Tiger Army):

In this conversation the Tiger Army frontman chats to me about music and spirituality having a connection, of having faith in yourself, meditation, paganism and creativity.

Jesse Michaels (Operation Ivy / Common Rider / Classics of Love): 

Jesse speaks about Buddhism, meditation, song lyrics, art, of living in a Zen Centre, getting through dark periods in his life, ‘spiritual’ punk bands that have influenced him, feelings on performance, life beyond music and more.

To compliment some of my favourite conversations of the project, I decided to do something really special with the covers of Conversations with Punx #5/12 ‘Creativity’… I have personally hand drawn each cover with (my favourite art medium) coloured pencils (glitter is my second favourite medium to work with). Each cover is totally unique. The images on the front are drawn the way I have always drawn, it comes from my heart, is not preplanned—I just put pencil to paper and don’t think about what I’m doing, I allow it to form in its own time. It’s me being at my most creative, just being, and connecting to ‘pure potentiality’. It’s 80 pages.  This issue is very limited so if you want to order a copy please contact me at: conversationswithbianca [at] gmail [dot] com

I hope you guys enjoy this issue. I enjoyed making it!

I wanted to leave you with a very cool blog post I found recently from one of my favourite authors Paulo Coelho (author of The Alchemist) on creativity:

The Creative Process

By Paulo Coelho

All creative processes, be they in literature, engineering, computing – and even in love – always respect the same rules: the cycle of nature. Here is a list of the stages along this process:

a] ploughing the field: the moment the soil is turned, oxygen penetrates places it was unable to previously. The field gets a fresh look, the earth which was on top is now below, and that which was underneath has come to the surface. This process of interior revolution is very important – because, just as the field’s new look will see sunlight for the first time, and be dazzled by it, a new assessment of our values will allow us to see life innocently, without ingenuity. Thus we will be prepared for the miracle of inspiration. A good creator must know how to continually turn over his values, and never be content with that which he believes he understands.

b] sowing: all work is the fruit of contact with life. A creative man cannot lock himself in an ivory tower; he must be in contact with his fellow men, and share his human condition. He never knows, at the outset, which things will be important to him in the future, so the more intense his life is, the more possibilities he will create for an original language. Le Corbusier said that: “as long as man tried to fly by imitating birds, he couldn’t succeed.” The same applies to the artist: although he translates emotions, the language he is translating is not fully understood by him, and if he tries to imitate or control his inspiration, he will never obtain that which he desires. He must allow his life to sow the fertile soil of his unconscious.

c] growth: there is a time in which the work writes itself, freely, at the bottom of the author’s soul – before it dares show itself. In the case of literature, for example, the book influences the writer, and vice versa. It is this moment which the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade refers to, when he states that we should never try to recover lost verses, for they never deserved to see the light of day. I know people who, during a growth period, spend their whole time furiously taking notes on everything which comes into their head, without respecting that which is being written in the unconscious. The result is that the notes, which are the fruit of memory, end up disturbing the fruit of inspiration. The creator must respect the time of gestation, although he knows – just like the farmer – that he is only partially in control of his field; it is subject to drought and floods. But if he knows how to wait, the stronger plants, which can resist bad weather, will come to light with great force.

d] the harvest: the moment when man manifests on a conscious plane that which he sowed and allowed to grow. If he harvests early, the fruit is green, if he harvests late, the fruit is rotten. Every artist recognizes the arrival of this moment; although some aspects may not have matured fully, some ideas not be crystal clear, they reorganize themselves as the work is produced. Without fear and with great discipline, he understands that he must work from dawn to dusk, until the work is finished.

And what to do with the results of the harvest? Again, we look to Mother Nature: she shares everything with everyone. An artist who wishes to keep his work to himself, is not being fair with that which he received from the present moment, nor with the inheritance and teachings of his forefathers. If we leave the grain stored in the granary, it will go bad, even though it was harvested at the right time. When the harvest is over, the time comes to share, without fear or shame, your own soul.

That is the artist’s mission, however painful or glorious.

Published on July 24, 2008 on Paulo Coelho’s blog

CREATE FOREVER!

Love,

This issue is 75 pages, (currently) bound with shiny fuschia cord with a baby pink/silver star bow (this may change as I’m almost out) and has a blue cobweb paper pre-title page. It features conversations with: John Joseph from the Cro-Mags/Bloodclot; Noah Levine the author of Dharma Punx & Against the Stream; Mike Park owner of Asian Man Records; Robert Ehrenbrand from Boysetsfire (who I’m stoked are back together doing a few shows in Europe); Dr Know guitarist for Bad Brains; Louis Posen owner of Sub City/Hopeless Records; and Jonah Matranga solo artist and the man behind Onelinedrawing/Far/Gratitude/New End Original.

Here’s what it looks like:

Photography in this issue is by the following wonderful folks: Oliver Wilke (Germany) – www.oliverwilke.com; Hiro Tanaka (Japan) – www.flickr.com/photos/29615125@N03/; Kate Hiltz (US); Silvere Teutsch (France) – www.photostudio108.com; Jonah Matranga (US) – www.jonahmatranga.com

To order a copy contact me directly at: conversationswithbianca [at] gmail [dot] com. Remember they are limited edition. As of yesterday I sent out the last copies of Conversations with Punx #2/12 ‘Courage’. I only have a handful of CWP #1/12 ‘Truth’ and about 17 copies of CWP #3 ‘Love’. So make sure you get in early to avoid disappointment! :)

In other CWP news the Australian National Library (Australia’s largest reference library) recently got in contact and is purchasing the entire Conversations with Punx limited edition zine series for their collection! They ‘recognise them as an important part of contemporary culture both for their content and design’!

Also within the coming weeks copies of CWP will feature in Dharma Punx author, Noah Levine’s Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society lending library located on Melrose in Los Angeles! After working in libraries for so many years it’s such an honour that my work, along with the thoughts, ideas, words of some of my favourite punkers that have inspired me in life, as well as the art of photographer friends from around the world will be preserved in such an amazing collection for years to come. I’m super stoked, excited and proud.

Thank you for all the support, encouraging emails/correspondence, of sharing your stories with me and reaching out. Every day I feel like one of the luckiest people in the whole world!

Create Forever!

Conversations with Punx: A Spiritual Dialogue Zine #3 ‘Love’ …handbound with silver cord on marbled paper + hand drawn gold heart ♥ is available to order by contacting me directly at: conversationswithbianca [at] gmail [dot] com.

79 pages… in-depth interviews with members of the punk & hardcore music community talking about spirituality and creativity. This issue features Craig Fairbaugh (Mercy Killers/the Forgotten/+44…); Efrem Schultz (Death By Stereo); Exene Cervenka (X); Matt Caughthran (The Bronx); and Vic DiCara (108, Shelter, Inside Out…)

Here’s what #3 looks like:

Also, please take the time to check out more work by the wonderful photographers whose art is featured in this issue:

 Stephen Booth – www.sbphoto.com.au; Annaliese Moyer – www.stagerightphoto.com; Tyler Nutter – www.nutterphotog.com; Zach Lewis – www.zachlewisphoto.com; and  Rubén Navarro – www.flickr.com/buckyrocks.

Extracts from the project can be read at CollapseBoard.com.

With love,

Bianca

xo

I hope you all have been well! Just in time for the holidays, CWP Zine #2/12 [Courage] is now available!! 

Cover art (design, handpainted screen + screenprinted) by Jhonny. 

The featured conversations on punk, spirituality & creativity in Zine Two of the limited edition 12 zine series include:

Larry Livermore (Lookout Records, the Potatomen, the Lookouts)

Henry Rollins (Black Flag, the Rollins Band)

Dan Jones (God So Loved The World, Seraph’s Coal…)

Jason Cruz (Strung Out, Blackheart & the Pistoleros)

Porcell (Shelter, Youth of Today, Judge, Young Republicans, Violent Children)

Heidi Minx (Built On Respect, Punk Rock Domestics, Franky & Minx)

Photography by: Stephen Booth, Nat Thompson, Natalie Lorenz, Kim Wheeler, Eric Vogel & Benjamin Nichols.

Zine Two’s foreword is written by my dear friend Greg Attonito, frontman for the Bouncing Souls. They’re on tour here in Australia right now with the most excellent Hot Water Music. Get along to one of their shows if you have the chance, I promise it’ll be neat! :)

I mailed out all current subscribers’ a copy of CWP Zine Two [Courage] yesterday! As it’s a busy time of year for the worldwide postal service—with the holiday season upon us and the extra gift/card mail and all—please allow for a slight delay.

Apologies, that I am a little behind in getting the zines out. I will be working hard through the holidays though to catch up and start the New Year as up-to-date as possible.

Announcements about Conversations With Punx Zine Three will be made soon. Thank you for all of the love, support & encouragement!!

Be excellent to each other…

Michael Iafrate of Rock & Theology blog recently chatted to me about Converstaions With Punx. Iafrate is currently working on essays, and a short book, on punk rock and religion. He was thrilled to discover my project, along with my pal Brian Peterson’s book Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound, which explore spirituality in the punk & hardcore subculture (Iafrate interviewed Brian here).

[Interview extract]

ROCK & THEOLOGY: From your website bio, you have a lot of experience as a zine writer. Can you say something about the role of zines in punk rock culture, for those readers who might not be familiar with them?

 Zines gave (and still do give) the punk community a voice. Zines document what’s going on from an insider’s point of view and from a fans perspective. It gives you a chance to express your thoughts and feelings. It’s an art form to me. I love zines because absolutely anyone can make one and the possibilities for it are only limited by your imagination. Making a zine can also help connect you with like-minded people all over the world, reciprocal networks stem from that—as does amazing friendships in many instances. I love the communities that zines and those that are involved with them create. Zines provide an alternative to mainstream media. I have read some of the most powerful and moving stories ever in zines.

For the complete interview please check out: Rock & Theology

Create forever!