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

Faith. Conversations with Punx #6 was finished this week. This was the cover art in progress. It was so nice to cut & paste, I find it quite meditative.

Tea. It’s one of my favourite things in the whole wide world. Currently there’s around 12 different teas in the cupboard! It’s what fuels my days—jasmine green or rose green are my drink of choice. I love my teacup and teapot collection.

Reminders. My big sis Julie gave me this sign as a housewarming gift. Seeing it everyday reminds me not to sweat the small stuff and that if I fall down in any part of my life, things will be ok, I just have to take a breather and get back up and keep going forward.

Rubaiyat Records rules! This seven inch arrived in a package that the lovely folks from Rubaiyat (a little indie label from Europe) sent me when I wrote them wanting to buy a record they put out several years ago by Designer Imposter. This particular seven inch’s art is AMAZING! Each copy is unique handmade, stenciled and limited edition. I wish more artists/labels took time to do art like this.

Bizoo. Staples co-founder of the Paper Cuts (zine) Collective sent me this, it’s a collection of work/features from his former zine/street press he once did. It’s an interesting read. Staples’ zine was around at the same time my old zine 15^th Precinct was happening. Reviewing my zine in Bizoo, Staples kindly called it “the Australian punk rock bible” …it also mentions ‘beef’ we had way back when but you know what? I have no recollection of this! I’m super curious to know what that’s in reference to because I’ve racked my brain and checked back over our correspondence and things seemed all good to me.

Father’s Day. Though I didn’t get to spend the day with my dad I was thinking about him often throughout the day. I have a photo of him in his racecar on my office wall (pictured). He’s a great man. He’s helped my mother raise five kids—they’ve been married 55 years this year! That to me is an achievement! He also selflessly looks after my ma who has advanced Alzhiemers. He’s one of the best people I know. The photo of the man in the hat is my grandfather (my dad’s dad) Jose who was a writer.

Paints! The homestead is always full of art supplies and ready for creation at a moments notice! ha ha! It’s so lovely to live in an environment that nurtures the creative spirit.

Om. This is one part of a four part art piece that was made by my friends Greg Attonito and Shanti Wintergate for my Conversations with Punx project launch I put on last year at Bleeding Heart Gallery. The work is one of my most treasured art pieces, the om is made from a map and the border is all handwritten with wonderful positive thoughts.

Fresh flowers. I love bringing nature inside. I adore keeping fresh flowers on the kitchen table and at my writing desk. These roses were so beautiful I simply couldn’t walk pass them. Why not give someone that’s awesome in your life flowers this week? You don’t have to spend $ buying any, just pick some from a garden! I guarantee it’ll make whoever you give them to smile. The two little pups in the photo are my salt & pepper shakers, a gift from JR! Too cute!

I hope your week is magical!

Create forever!

A thought for your day:

When you come up with it [punk rock], it almost becomes a safety blanket. It becomes your identity. It’s what helped point you in the right direction. For me it was easy to move on because of, once again, my rebellious nature. All of a sudden punk rock became the father figure that was like, “No, you can’t listen to Vietnamese music because it’s not punk rock.” Punk rock means that you’re your own person, a complete individual, you think for yourself, but you’ve got to do it in these guidelines. You can’t do this, you can’t do that, and you can’t be seen at a Grateful Dead show [laughs], you can’t hang with the hippies.

I started getting just as angry as I did in my adolescence that first took me to punk rock. I still have that anger inside me and I still hated the idea of someone defining what individuality was to me. All of a sudden punk rock became the establishment. There’s always been ways of breaking free of that. I would find circles of other people that felt the same way. Then after a while those people would have their limitations and it keeps happening because that’s the way our spirits work. It’s how the world works, nature works. Everything is in cycles of revolution and we have to destroy the old in order to make way for the new. It’s as simple as the way our automobiles run—you burn that gas till its empty; that way you can fill it up again and you can move further.

~Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (taken from Conversations with Punx #1 ‘Truth’)

*Art by Kaileena Farah

Be brave & go where the energy is! Don’t sell yourself short by holding onto your security blanket! There’s so much more out there to explore!

Try something new… & have a beautiful day!

 PS – Please don’t forget to vote for me and Conversations with Punx in the Australian Zine Awards! Go here to cast your vote! THANK YOU to all that have supported me and my project and voted already! Love you guys.

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!

Strawberries! Growing your own fruit and veggies is so incredibly rewarding. Nothing beats being able to walk out to the garden to pick some produce to make salads and delicious home cooked dishes. I’m currently growing strawberries, bananas, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, carrots, shallots, chili, parsley, basil, chives and more.  

Vincent is one of my best friends. She’s a fourteen-year-old mini fox terrier that loves hanging out and lapping up the sun when I’m out gardening. She even pitches in and tries to help me pull out weeds sometimes. I love animals, all they ever want to do is play and be loved.

JR’s art. I love my home so much! Lots of art all over the walls made by JR adds loads of character and interest to the white walls. Homemade art is the best! This photomontage is one of my favourite pieces.

Interview cassette tapes. I started to go through all my interview tapes from the last 17 years which is no small task! I have shoe boxes full of tapes & discs from all the chats I’ve had with punk rockers & hip hoppers. One day I hope to digitalize them all and make them available for you to listen to. (Pictured: Cyco Miko; No Doubt; Bouncing Souls; Hepcat; Toe to Toe; Voodoo Glow Skulls; Unwritten Law; Snuff; Pennywise)

Interview mini-discs. I’ve been finding it harder and harder to find blank mini-discs to record on, all of my usual stores have stopped stocking them. I’m on the lookout for some new technology to record my interviews, if you have any ideas please let me know! (Pictured: Marky Ramone; The BellRays; Conor Oberst; Danzig; The Scare; I am Ghost; Kill The Music; Dropkick Murphys; Good Charlotte; Pennywise; The Living End; Raised Fist; Avail; The Falcon; Royal Crown Revue; The Distillers; AFI; Less Than Jake; Mike Muir/Suicidal Tendencies; The Unseen; The Bronx; Henrey Rollins; Strung Out).

Mini-cassette tapes. These are so cute & tiny! (Pictured: The Transplants; The Offspring; Duane Peters; Tsunami Bomb; Sick Of It All; The Slackers; Ted Leo; Tilt; AFI).

The Nunnery. This is the view out the window of the guesthouse I stayed in while in Melbourne. My room looked down onto a quaint little courtyard. The Nunnery has such a rich history. The building was first built in the 1800s for a prominent Melbourne physician; he’s son was a pioneer of x-ray technology in Australia—x-ray equipment was installed on the premises in the early 1900s. Later it was taken over by religious group the Daughters of Charity and was occupied by nuns carrying out pastoral/parish work in nearby churches. For a time it also housed borders – young women from the country who came to the city to work and study. The nuns living there also fed the homeless and took in refugee women from Vietnam and Cambodia. Finally in the late 1900s it was purchased by a family that turned it into a backpackers and B&B style accommodation. Visually it was a lovely place to stay and conveniently located between the arty area of Fitzroy and the city but, honestly I wouldn’t go back there due to the rude staff on the front desk that acted as if providing (the most minimal) service was an inconvenience to them. Overall: pretty building, good location, unwelcoming bad service.

Jhonny Russell & the Mystery School @ The Penny Black. This was one of the funnest shows I’ve been to in ages. Three very different bands on the bill, JR&tMS (lo-fi-electro-rock-pop), Bits of Shit (punk rock) and Ally Oop featuring Noize Bunny and Ice Pick (hip hop). I’m forever being told that different genre bands don’t work on the same bill, this show proved that very wrong! I was thoroughly entertained by each set. JR & I also finally got to meet our pal Trav from great Australian band Wet Young Dolphin who made it out for the show. The Penny Black was such a great venue too (love the red curtain!)

The best macarons in Australia. I walked forever to find La Belle Miette ‘a small patisserie for small patisserie’ but it was well worth it. Hidden away on Hardware Lane in Melbourne’s CBD I found the best macarons I have ever eaten! I indulged in some of the most amazing flavours (pictured) lemon, cherry blossom & sake, olive oil & vanilla, rose and violet & blueberry—I also had a 72% cocoa single origin chocolate one that I ate before I took the photo! :)

Conversations with Punx #5 ‘Creativity’ limited edition zine. Finally zine #5 orders have been filled. They have hand drawn covers and are bound with rainbow yarn. If today goes as planned Conversations with Punx #6 ‘Faith’ will be finished ready for printing tomorrow. And in case you’ve missed my earlier post I have been nominated for Australian Zine Maker of the Year for CWP. Please take a moment to vote for me here: The Golden Stapler Awards.

Altar. To me, this is one of the most important places in my home. This is the first thing that gets set up in any new place I move into and the last thing that gets packed when moving on to the next place. It’s the spot where I do my daily meditations (though I haven’t been meditating as much as I would like lately). It’s a place where I keep my ‘specials’. I got the little doll on one of my trips to Mexico, having it there reminds me of my heritage. The Kuan Yin statue was purchased at my favourite eatery Tian Ran, I’ve been going there for almost a decade – they have the best Asian vegetarian. The mini teapot was a purchase from Prague. The tiny jar of pink fairy dust is a present from my best friend Dannielle. And, the photo is of my mother and father.

 I hope you’ve had an enjoyable week so far.

All the best,

Dearest lovelies!

Exciting news!! I am a finalist for the first annual Golden Stapler (zine) Awards bought to you by Format Collective & the National Young Writers’ Festival here in Australia.

I am in the running for: Australian Zine Maker of the Year and Best Zine Produced in Australia, as a series, over the last 12 months for my baby, Conversations with Punx: A Spiritual Dialogue.

Having made zines for the past 17 years it’s super lovely to be a finalist! It would mean the world to me if you head over to: The Golden Stapler Awards (http://goldenstapler.tumblr.com/) to vote. There’s four categories (I’m in two and three), the way voting is set up you have to vote in all four categories for your vote to count but don’t worry it only takes a couple of seconds (promise!) and all the zines are great. You can also vote multiple times if you feel so inclined! :) The winners will be announced at an award ceremony that will take place in Newcastle on October the 1st, as part of the National Young Writers Festival, which is also part of This Is Not Art festival.

Let’s make this happen! VOTE ONE Bianca Valentino & Conversations with Punx! Yay! Thank you in advance for voting.

Super-love & hugs,

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!