Discorder Magazine
Mar-Apr, 2022
words by Sean Roufosse // illustrations by James Spetifore // photos by Phoebe Telfar
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ust after 1pm Pacific Time, the Zoom splash screen dissolved to reveal the blonde tips of Alexander Miranda’s hair. Miranda is the front person and founder of Underpass, a band straddled between new wave and punk, birthed in the clouds and rain of the Pacific Northwest and baked in the sun of San Diego.
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iranda has since returned to Vancouver, bringing with him a refined sound and two musically unique albums. I sat down with the artist to speak with him about punk, politics and music in the technological age. So what exactly is punk? As with many genres, this can be a challenging question to answer. Punk has many offshoots and reboots, each with different tempos, moods, and styles. For many, the genre is associated very closely with the sound of hardcore punk. Contemporary femcore or queercore punk bands such as Moscow’s Pussy Riot, Seattle’s Mommy Long Legs and Toronto’s DILLY DALLY are some prime examples of this sound; they all use radical forms of expression and protest to address radical political and social problems. Then there is the slower, deeper, and more longing side of punk: the side that borders on new wave and even independent rock. Think about The Smiths, Joy Division, or newer bands such as Washington DC’s Sneaks. All of this considered (in the North American context) within the punk scene there can be a juxtaposition between a subculture rooted in anti-authority, yet tacitly connected to a performative punk style and decorum. According to Miranda the answer to what punk is can be convoluted. But, despite Maranda’s admitted variation in his albums, they never stray
“Underpass”
too far from the realm of punk, though he himself experiences a level of disconnect from some of the cultural aspects of the community. Miranda says some of his first experiences with punk were overtly exclusionary. Through his youth he was called a poser by those within the community at school yet teased by other kids on the reservation where he grew up for his decisions around clothing and hairstyles. Attending shows early in his life in Lake Elsinore California, Miranda found that show-goers tended to focus too much on this aesthetic performance of punk and not enough on the roots, “Yeah, people get hung up on looking cool and being accepted but ultimately it's about doing things your own way.” This forced the musician to create his own unique sound and trust his musical instincts, regardless of whether he identified as punk, new wave, or something else entirely. The result is a sound that is familiar yet uniquely Underpass. Though he admits genres in music are unavoidable, his confidence and desire to overcome these boundaries makes Underpass a force to be reckoned with in the re-emerging punk scene. Miranda’s work doesn’t fit neatly into a single genre, and the musician has had to create his own unique sound and trust his musical instincts.
