If you’re not familiar with this project, that is so very dear to my heart and always a constant work in progress, go here to learn more. The issue features: Duane Peters & Corey Parks, Franklin Rhi, Ben Weasel, Russ Rankin, Brad Warner and Lord Ezec (snippets from the chats below). CWP #7 comes in a variety of (200gsm cardboard) covers including purple, blue and green, featuring heart cut-outs in its design and a decorative lace feature. I’ve also handwritten the introduction in every single zine! Subscriber zines will be mailed out first thing tomorrow morning. If you’re interested in getting a copy please email me: conversationswithbianca [at] gmail [dot] com.

Duane Peters & Corey Parks snippet:

DUANE PETERS: …Religion is all about fear. Spirituality is all about yourself and tapping into something else that’s bigger than you that’s maybe running the show. Maybe not just one thing but an element of things—you can tap into good shit or you can tap into negative shit.

The word ‘spirituality’ only makes me think ‘hippie’ because of the way I was bought up. In the early punk rock days it was against the law to be spiritual so you never did it. You ran off fear, ego and through battling this that and the other and not dying. You came to the conclusion—if your brain is still working by the time you get to the conclusion—that maybe something else is running the show. Maybe I can tap into some of that. Maybe it’ll help me lighten up. Maybe it’ll help me find something. Maybe it will help me get out of this fear running the show and ego.

COREY PARKS: I’m about nine years off from Duane. He’s a ‘Kennedy era’ kid and I’m more of a Baptist upbringing, the Rapture and a lot of hell, fire and damnation, the devil.

DP: My grandpa was a Baptist minister. There’s all this heavy religion on one side of my family and the other side are cool.

CP: I was born and raised in Southern California in the 70s. My parents were hippies and the only church my mum took us to was self-realisation fellowship, meditation class and the whole concept of there being a power greater than myself. It’s a little bit closer to what I’ve come to believe as an adult. It was a real positive thing. ‘Spirituality’ was a word that I always associated with God not religion that was always too scary and weird to me… like the Revelation, that was all such weird science fiction.

Ben Weasel snippet:

BEN WEASEL: …I had a little revelation when I came home from Baltimore and I knew a door was closing. I knew that it didn’t have anything to do with me in a sense. For years I sat around and had these ideas, almost these revenge fantasies about how I leave music and I’ll make a big announcement and I’ll walk off into the sunset and tell everyone to fuck off! That is like my happiest fantasy [laughs]. That’s not what this was though; a door was closing and one of the things I realised is that, even though this part of my life is pretty much over, it’s not necessarily completely over. I don’t have to close the door completely. I don’t have to go anywhere. I can continue to work with and ideally mentor young bands, which I enjoy doing, and if one day an opportunity comes up to play a set, I’ll go do that. If an opportunity comes up and I can tape some of my songs I have, then sure, assuming I have the time. It’s not a matter of leaving it behind, it’s about leaving behind my attachments to all that. You don’t have to leave music or the scene behind you just leave your attachments to it. Once you do that ironically, you’ll enjoy it more.

Ben photo by Marc Gartner.

Brad Warner snippet:

BRAD WARNER: When someone asked the guitarist from The Cramps – Poison Ivy – if she had some advice for girls wanting to play the guitar she said: Give up, don’t even try. That comes to mind. There are things in the so-called spiritual world and religion that are worthwhile. You shouldn’t just reject everything straightaway just because it seems religious. It’s more to the point of just staying true to you. A lot of the problem is that people just fall into the same patterns, like how the punk rock way of dressing became just a uniform in the same way that everybody else has to have Louis Vuitton bags or whatever the trend is. When everyone in the punk scene has to have a leather jacket, exactly the right leather jacket, it kind of loses its meaning at that point.

Brad photo by Svetlana Dekic.

Lord Ezec snippet:

LORD EZEC: …If you don’t believe in yourself, who the hell will? …I do everything at 110%.  I am like a pit-bull; I can’t do it half assed.  Got to go with all heart and balls!  There is always someone younger than you, smarter than you, better looking than you and more talented than you who is willing to sell their soul to take your place! You can’t let them take your ground.  You’ve got to fight for what is yours and guard it with dear life.  You’ve also got to understand that it is not only about you, your fans are the reason why you are where you are so you got to be cool to them.  Also remember where you came from.  That is why I always tell people I am from Queens!

Ezec photo by Estevan Oriol.

Franklin Rhi snippet:

FRANKLIN RHI: When I was leading a straight edge kind of lifestyle, I did it because I got into the Krishna movement and the Hare Krishna philosophy. I never got into it because ‘Ray (Cappo) of Today’ told me not to have a beer. Getting into those kinds of bands added to my revolutionary spirit at the time, it made me look at things a lot deeper.

The first band I joined was 108. That band had a lot of spirit. You felt that on stage. Everyone in the band was a devotee. The more people you have that follow the exact same thing makes things a lot stronger on stage. Visually people feel it. Vic [DiCara] was living in the temple, Rob [Fish] was living in the temple, and I was living in the temple. Same thing with Shelter. People can see straight up if you’re following what you are preaching. I don’t really want to spill dirt on any body’s lap but, some of the things I saw in those bands also drove me away from the whole spirituality thing.

Russ Rankin snippet:

RUSS RANKIN: …I can think about being a better person all day long. I can think about being a better citizen. I can think about making then world a better place but, unless I’m taking action it’s just thoughts. When I take action my thinking follows. The first few simple steps of hitting my knees and saying these words, saying these prayers – even though I didn’t believe there was anything out there listening to them – the fact that I was taking action caused my thinking to change.

A big thank you to everyone I had a chat with for this issue, love you guys lots! Thanks for inspiring my life with your creations. Thank you to the photographers who let me use their beautiful work. Thanks to my dear friend Franklin Rhi for being all kinds of awesome! Much love to my subscribers for being patient, supporting this project and being interested in it… you all mean the world to me. Thanks Jhonny for the constant inspiration and for being the best person ever! And lastly, thanks to Vincent for the quality control help ;)

Gratitude, Love & Light,

Do you create art every day?

Certainly, I finished a painting this morning. I was working on a song very late last night and I mixed it this morning. I create something every day because it is a reaction. I don’t make art to be popular or seen, I make it because my hands have to, otherwise I’ll extinguish my own life. We’ve all had strange experiences in our lives; to deal with different things, many times, people make art and make music as a catharsis, as a therapy—that’s what I do. I have to do things with my hands or with my voice or with my brain so that I don’t get extremely depressed or extremely angry at the world.

I read in an interview with you once that you love old burnt out buildings and things like that and that you feel really at peace in places like that.

It’s my favourite place, a space that no one wants anymore. Architecture I love, I think architecture is so beautiful, especially abandoned architecture is really, really special to me because, at one point it is valued so highly. So much of America, maybe not so much in Australia, we’ve abandoned so much of our country. If you look at New Orleans or Detroit, they don’t give a shit about anything they built like more than 50 years ago. Those spaces we often reclaim as artists, we do a painting on the wall or bring in a little chair or something. I feel most at peace in those spaces, yes that is correct.

I once thought of doing a photography book or zine that would have pictures of old buildings with plants growing out of cracks, kind of taking back the structure.

Yes! Nature taking them back. That’s one of my favourite things.

Exactly! Before we were also talking about the feeling you get from drumming and you were saying that you believe that there are people that are put on this Earth that have ‘the gift’…

I think more than that, I think it’s a race. Where a lot of people want to talk about their race and pride in their race, I have very little pride left for America. I do know that I am a member of a strong race of drummers and that I have done this before in my life. I had a shaman tell me once that I walked out of Africa over fifteen hundred years ago and that I hadn’t chose to come back to the Earth until now. Ancient things make a great deal of sense to me and new things are very confusing to me, that I know to be true because, drumming is a snap to me, I can do it with my eyes closed. I’ve been doing it since I was 4 years old, even before that. I think it’s a race of people put here in order to lead people out of darkness, to use dance and to use rhythm as a healing tool.

(Taken from an in-depth interview in a forthcoming issue of Conversations With Punx)

Ian Vanek is one half of NYC-based art project Japanther. I love Japanther! They’re always involved in, and create, such awesomeness; collaborating with such a diverse range of musicians and artists such as Crass’ Penny Rimbaud, Spank Rock, Dan Graham and more!

Japnther in 3D:

For more Ian Vanek. All art featured by Ian! :)

Create forever!

Before I discovered prayer I used to have crazy panic attacks—I would think I was dying. I would go crazy. I thought I was having a heart attack. It’s the worst! I couldn’t even leave my house.

I would look at airplanes and have an anxiety attack. I knew I’d have to be in a plane at times in my life. I always thought, how would I escape this claustrophobic feeling? I had doctors telling me I should take Xanax and Prozac. I started to seek this other lifestyle: prayer and meditation.

I had a life changing moment the first time I flew to Australia. Goldfinger had been together for around four years. I had been suffering anxiety attacks. I knew I had to do an eighteen hour flight. I was like, how am I going to do it? Halfway through the flight -I had this little meditation CD -I had this sense that everything was going to be OK that I was going to be taken care of. It was a really life changing thing for me because I had to do so many flights after that to play shows. Ever since then I’ve been rid of anxiety attacks. It was a spiritual awakening to a certain extent. It wasn’t a big white light or anything but just a sense of comfort and ease.

I’ve done a lot of other work on myself too. I started running every day to get the physical stuff going. I stopped caffeine and sugar. I started meditating. Even after all that work though, it comes back to that moment on the airplane where I realised that everything will be OK. I still get an anxious feeling sometimes, but it has never been a full blown panic attack since then.

…When I pray, whatever it is that I’m praying to, the universe, whatever—to imagine a human God to me is ridiculous—I just look up to the stars and think, “What the hell is going on here?” When I pray I guess that’s what I’m praying to—the Universe, nature.

(Taken from a forthcoming issue of Conversations with Punx)

John is the frontman for band, Goldfinger. He is also a passionate vegan, father, animal & human rights activist, A&R rep and producer—working with bands such as The Used, Panic! At The Disco, Good Charlotte, The Veronicas and more!

Make each day count!

*Photo: courtesy of John’s Facebook.

Recently I was cleaning up my desktop and came across this interview I did for an independent publication from my hometown, QPunx magazine. I’m not sure if it ever ended up being printed? I’m not sure if they’re still going anymore even? I haven’t seen an issue in a long while. Anyhow, I thought I’d share it with you! I even dug out some old photos from my archives to go with it. If you have any questions you’d like to ask me in relation to all that I do feel free to drop me a line: conversationswithbianca [at] gmail [dot] com. I’ve been putting together a series of posts featuring questions people have been emailing me asking. Want to know about zines? What to know about interviewing? Write me. I love connecting with you all.

Tell us a little about yourself on a personal level?

I value my family and friends dearly. I enjoy intelligent thought-provoking, thoughtful conversation. Writing and creating is like breathing to me—if I don’t do it, I will die. Singing makes me happy. Both love and creativity are sacred to me. I wish my artistic technical ability matched my ideas! I tend to always see the positive side of people. I really, really love interviewing people. It helps make sense of my life, the world and my place in it. This year I decided I wanted to live life a little braver and have been facing fears and challenges in my life head-on. My friends make me way cooler! I have the raddest friends on the planet; they’re the smartest, funniest, most loving, super talented people. I draw the greatest inspiration for those closest to me.

And on a professional one?

I am self-taught in all that I do. I come from a very entrepreneurial family—members have owned motorcycle, bicycle & skateboard shops, hair salons, restaurants, car yards etc. My parents inspire me greatly. My dad drove race cars in the 60s and my mum flew tiger-moth aeroplanes! I draw a lot of strength and inspiration from my grandfather Jose also. He was a playwright, actor, speech writer for parliament and fluent (and self-taught) in many languages.

Being a pro-active member of the punk community (making zines, putting on shows, having run a mail order) has taught me a lot. All of my business skills have been learned via my work in the punk world. Making a zine on the scale I did 15th Precinct, I had to fill many roles which also taught me many skills. Interviewing bands and artists over the years has taught me amazing communication and people skills. I feel that those I have interviewed over the course of my fifteen year writing career have been my greatest teachers.

I am constantly researching for my work. My mind is always on and open. I find inspiration in most things. I’m constantly working on my craft. It’s been really hard at times for me to learn and grow my writing in such a public way.

I started making zines around 1994. My first zine was called Social Stupidity, which was followed by my most well-known zine 15th Precinct. All my zines have been inspired by the punk community. I basically started making zines to share my love of all the wonderful local bands I would go see. First and foremost, I will always be the biggest fan!

I have made a handful of one-off zines to cheer up my friends when they’re sad. Recently I have made a couple of zines with a more personal focus Conversations With Bianca and At The Edge Of The World (if people want a copy they can contact me through my blog). I’m in the process of making a zine that uses punk lyrics as positive affirmations for daily life. We all know how pumped the lyrics: rise above / we’re gonna rise above gets us. I have also written for Brisbane street press Rave for fourteen years as well as various other national and international publications in print and online. I have recently formed a zine collective the Paper Cuts Collective with two fellow zinesters. We hope to create networking opportunities for zine lovers and makers and celebrate the awesome-mess of zines in general. Zines are really important, independent press is one of the most powerful tools we have to be heard, to express ourselves and share information and experiences.

What drew you to punk?

I first came to punk rock via way of my big brother Barrie’s record collection. My sister Julie also gave me a Sex Pistols tape. Growing up I idolised my older siblings and thought they were the coolest people ever so naturally I gravitated towards what they were into and it’s what I was around daily. Until my bro gave me the records I was listening to (and still do) Janet Jackson, Salt n Pepa and the like. I also have my brother and sister Juanita to thank for my love of hip hop.

The energy was a big attraction for me as well as the lyrics in both punk rock (and hip hop). I’m a huge fan of lyrics! I really enjoy the work of Matt from The Bronx, Efrem from Death By Stereo, Cinder block from Tilt, Brody from Spinnerette/The Distllers, Jesse from Operation Ivy/Common Rider, Jason from Strung Out, Rob & Vic from 108, Exene from X, Ray Cappo from Shelter and many more. Punk has been a platform for me to explore myself and in which I feel I have a voice. Punk has empowered me to believe that I can do anything that I want to in life.

Tell us the inspiration behind your work and what makes it so worthwhile to you?

As I mentioned before it’s my friends and loved ones closest that inspire both me and my work. Also I think a desire to want to know more and utilising my ability to question why. I’ve heard a lot of punkers say over the years that punk inspired them to question everything—the system, authority etc. I’ve always been the million and one question kid (just ask my family) from the get-go. Maybe that’s a reason I was drawn to punk?

In regards to the Conversations With Punx project it was inspired out of many things. One of those was a deep depression that I had found myself in. I was in a really weird place at the time. I knew there had to be something more than what I was experiencing so I went on a search for something more, something better; my truth. I choose to explore that through what I knew, and that was the punk world.

What makes it worthwhile to me is the fact that it’s helped me so much in my life; it’s helped and inspired those that I have spoken to for it. Imagine sitting across the table from someone you grew up listening to and that had inspired your life telling you that you’ve inspired theirs—it’s unbelievably surreal. The project’s taking on a life and energy all its own. I hope people get something positive out of reading it.

Tell us where this journey (best way to describe it I think) began?

The Conversations With Punx… journey started as a feeling, an urgency that I had to do this. Often I found myself asking questions directly related to me or someone in my life and what we have been going through. I remember talking to Duane Peters about his ten years of drug addiction at the same time a friend of mine was going through similar troubles. I knew my friend really loved Duane and paid a lot of attention to what he has to say so maybe in some way I figured I could help my friend by talking to Duane about his battle with addiction and giving it to my friend to read. Pretty much all my work centres on helping others in some roundabout way.

What was the highlight for you doing the books?

There were so, so many. For real! I am thankful and blessed for the whole journey and where it will continue to take me. The highlight would be the connections made and friendships forged. Hearing all of the stories from everyone was mind blowing. I was really thankful that I got to spend some extended periods of time with some of the interviewees. Also, another highlight was getting to spend a lot of time with my niece, Leasha who I did the layout design with. She’s one of my best friends. All the people that have reached out and connected with me because of the project has also meant so much to me. It may sound a little corny but it’s just a project that keeps on giving and keeps on unfolding. I’m excited to see what happens next.

Is there anyone you wish you could have had in the books not there?

No not really, the people that were meant to be in the book are. There were a few people I approached that declined to have a conversation on the subject. Spirituality is a very personal thing and not everyone wants to talk about their beliefs which I respect. One guy had me pay him for an interview! I’ve spoken to Mike Muir about spirituality and I wish I could have included that but he choose not to be a part of it. As a rule he chooses not to be a part of ‘punk’ related projects/books/docos. There were a few instances too where artists managers were super rude to me, not returning calls as promised, hanging up on me etc. One artist’s manager declined for the artist and then at a later date I interviewed the artist and asked them myself and they hadn’t heard about my request at all (and were pretty pissed they weren’t told). There are a lot of bogus managers and self-important PR people out there… luckily there are many, many more lovely ones too. Thank goodness.

Are there any bands from Queensland you absolutely love (past or present)?

Yes, many! I adore (in no particular order): Blister, Hobo Obituaries (plus Jhonny’s solo stuff is AMAZING and Hobo DJs), the Death Set (originally form the Gold Coast), Pangaea, Dick Nasty, Knaw, Operator Please, Against, Felinedown, Mad Occupants, Reichelt, Mouthguard, the Greys (and Mark Duckworth solo work), Bantha Fodder, A Secret Death, Blowhard. Fur from the Gold Coast is one of my all-time favourite bands. I loved and was affiliated with the Gold Coast punk community for a long while so bands like Vicious and the Freuds will always have a place in my heart. I know I have forgotten a whole lot, sorry guys!

If you could ask the one question what would it be?

What does love mean to you?

Where to from here?

More creativity, more zines, more blogging, more writing, more interviewing, more music, more art, more magic all the time! I’ve got my Hip Hop Insight project underway. I’ve already spoken to twelve people in the hip hop world for that. It’s similar to Conversations With Punx but I’m talking to hip hoppers. Plus I’m working on music projects and several other exciting things that I can’t reveal just yet. I eventually want to become involved in a lot more ‘cause’ related work. My pal Heidi Minx has a really great D-I-Y approach to helping the world with her Built On Respect project–she inspires me greatly. I love surrounding myself with good people doing positive, constructive, creative things. My biggest inspiration is my Jhonny, he is an artist and musician. He has taught me so much about creativity and inspires me to be better and do better every single day. In all my travels I’ve never met another person like him, he is very dear to me. I’d really love to start my own print magazine again…  you never know, anything is possible!

CREATE FOREVER!

In celebration of love, here are some thoughts on the subject from punk rockers I’ve chatted to over the years (mostly) taken from my

Conversations With Punx project.

“Maintaining a healthy self-image and really loving yourself is something that’s really important to me. People let life get to them too much and they get beaten down by it. They become cynical and jaded. It’s really important for me not to become like that. When I look back and say I want to love myself, it’s not because I’m running from my past, it’s because I’m learning to accept who I am with flaws. It is really hard to do sometimes in life if you weren’t raised that way. I wasn’t raised to speak up about anything or express anything that was upsetting. It was a quiet inner life. Feeling that my life is big and that I love it, is a big accomplishment.” Exene Cervenka, X

“Happiness is freedom. To be free in this life is very hard. You get moments of happiness. When you feel a triumph, that’s happiness and when you have the purity that’s around a little child and that mother-child unconditional love, that’s happiness.” Ari Up, The Slits

“Music symbolizes happiness. It’s not happiness inherently. When something moves you it is a simile and it says: this is what joy is like, this is what love is like and all these great things—where you’re moved to the point where you can barely contain yourself and you just want to hug yourself.” Ben Weasel, Screeching Weasel/The Riverdales

“Spirituality and love go hand in hand. It’s the same thing to me. Love is the foundation of all life. If we didn’t have that attraction and feeling, I don’t think there’d be anything.” Craig Fairbaugh, Mercy Killers

“Love god, love people, live in the moment and leave nothing behind.” Dan Jones, Ante Up/God So Loved The World

“Love. That’s something I forever and forever crave for. I am so a junkie for that. Music too. I get a natural high sometimes just hanging out, being around people and people smiling and having fun.” Efrem Schultz, Death By Stereo

“I don’t require my children to prove that they love me. I believe they do and it doesn’t really matter to the rest of the world whether they do or not. I am very motivated to do things that continue to nurture their love for me and I don’t expect anything from them—it is unconditional love. This is one example of something that doesn’t require science. It is faith and it applies to family and friends and interpersonal relationships in general. You could study it and theorize about it scientifically, but I think that is a fruitless pursuit of science because loving relationships come in such a variety that it is almost impossible to measure meaningfully.” Greg Graffin, Bad Religion

“Trust yourself. Whatever you’re doing, whatever you want to do, there comes a time when you have to ask yourself, why am I doing this? When you get to that point you have to do it for yourself, money, ambition and aspirations aside. You have to do it for the love of doing it. It’s where I am right now and I’m going to do my best.” Jason Cruz, Strung Out

“I believe that human love is a whole hell of a lot more important to spiritual development than I gave it credit for while I was living a monk-oriented lifestyle. Without human love, including romantic and erotic love – I notice that a lot of seekers tend to become obsessed with thoughts and words and ideas and become dried up a bit, wrinkled and twisted a bit.” Vic DiCara, 108

“Until you learn to love God you’re not going to be truly able to love other people. The ultimate reality is you learn to love God then you see God inside everybody else’s heart. Once you realise that we’re all coming from the same place you can truly have compassion for other people and try to help them.” Porcell, Shelter/Youth of Today

“It [love] is real important. It’s one of those things kind of like religion in a way: it fuels you when you don’t have it and it fuels you when you do have it. It’s a really cool thing. I’ve always just been built that way. I’ve always enjoyed having that connection with someone. It’s important to me as a person and the type of person that I am. I really enjoy having someone to pour all of my energies and emotion into. It’s awesome to have the respect from someone else and to have the respect in someone else.” Matt Caughthran, The Bronx

“I always wanted to have that feeling back of being a wide eyed kid looking at the trees, the sky or my mother. It sounds simple but it’s not. Part of the whole quest is to find a place within you that is comfortable and acknowledge that everything is connected. Whatever you feel that brings you closer to that place of pure love or consciousness, that’s what it’s about.” Robert Ehrenbrand, Boysetsfire

“I’m not going to get into all the hippie dippy shit but I love the animals and nature. My house – where I’ve moved from – if you walk out the door and turn right you go towards all the bars where all the bands play. Everyone jokes, “Tim always turns left towards the river. When everyone else goes out to go to shows he’s got a twelve pack of beer and is headed to the river.” [Laughs] That’s where I fall asleep.” Tim Barry, Avail

“It [love] is really important. When it’s there you can take it for granted easily but you really, really notice when it’s not there, once you’ve had love and it’s not there. When you’ve experienced something so deep and special and then the thought of it being gone kills you, I think that… it’s easier if you haven’t really felt that for somebody. For me, I have that. I’m married and I’m very happy and I couldn’t imagine not being with her. Before I met her I had no idea.” Mike Herrera, MxPx/Tumbledown

“I’m equally inspired by love and boredom and I’ve been a dramatic person all my life.” Brontez Purnell, The Younger Lovers

“Oh love is everything, it’s the motivating force. To me it means embracing fearlessness. The most important part of it, is knowing that it’s not about really being scared of what you might lose or what you’re almost on the verge of having; it’s this fearless acceptance of this is where I am and I’m really enjoying this moment or I’m not enjoying this moment but I’m here.” Lisa Kekaula, The Bellrays

Dedicated to the best person I’ve ever known:

I hope your day is filled with LOVE!

*Art: Jhonny Russell

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!