New Morality Zine

Iwas introduced to Nick Acosta via his zine / label New Morality and we chit chat in social media every now and then. He was kind enough to distribute the 2nd issue of Soulcraft in the States, too. New Morality is one of the most hard-working hardcore labels right now and Nick’s dedication to the scene is undeniable. Fanzines and independent labels are vital for the hardcore scene to prosper and thrive, and I am very happy that the year 2020 turned to be the year of the the zines’ regeneration for sure. We initially had a plan to do a live chat in Instagram with Nick but it fell down due to the time difference and busy schedules, so I threw him a bunch of questions that he was easy to reply to! Check the interview out and support the zine / DIY label culture!

Pictures provided by Nick himself.

www.newmoralityzine.com www.instagram.com/newmoralityzine

So first things first! Who’s the creative mind behind New Morality Zine?! Have you ever played in any band besides doing the zine & label? Please introduce yourself to the Soulcraft readers!

Hey! My name is Nick. I am the creative mind behind New Morality Zine. This is my first real big push of doing a hardcore based fanzine or label. While in college I was in a short lived straight edge band in Seattle called Living In Ruins but nothing since then! Although this zine was born out of not being able to get a band off the ground when I moved to Chicago.

It feels very special to me to interview a person that is also involved in the hardcore fanzine scene. That 2020 / quarantine hardcore zine revival gave me goosebumbs of happiness! What were your favorite hardcore publications in the year that we recently said goodbye to?

Same! It was really cool to see some more zines pop up. I’m also a person who HATES the “one and done” type nature that can come with zines, so I am hoping more people continue what they started. The best zine to have come out during quarantine, and in the last several years honestly, is a zine called “Off the Surface” from my friend Paul. Paul’s ability to hone in his questions and leverage his personal relationships with the interviewees is the best since Anti-Matter. Those are the types of zines I tend to enjoy more - ones that go deep or are thought provoking. I always enjoy a well written interview, but I think they can become somewhat repetitive in nature and with the internet a lot of what we seek to know about a band is already out there.

Moreover, in 2020, zines took the leading role to fill the gap that the absence of shows left. How important is the zine culture for you? When and why did you decide to start New Morality and what is the name referring to?

Zine culture is pretty important in my opinion. One of the things that I always find fascinating about hardcore is the storytelling aspect. Hardcore is rich with stories whether it be about legendary line-ups, the making of a record, or the wild people that participate in the culture, that I think it’s cool to hear and see those perspectives passed down. I also really enjoy history, so I kind of look at hardcore through the same lens. I decided to start the zine out of the desire to find a way to engage with the scene.

I had only recently moved to Chicago, tried to start a band that didn’t end up happening and so this was the next logical step in my mind. I am a pretty busy and introverted person, so doing something on my own with my own timeline worked for me. The name and backbone of the zine came from a BURN song titled “New Morality”. The lyrics that Gavin wrote for that song always struck a chord for me and mirrored a lot of my sentiments about society and the obvious stratification within. I wanted the zine to be something that had a diversity of perspective and included content that extended beyond maybe your typical band interviews.

Which zines influenced New Morality and the way of your writing? Cut ‘n’ paste over modern illustration or the contrary? Small run, few pages zines or magazine-alike publications? What are your preferences?

My personal preferences as a zine creator is cut and paste. Not only do I not really know formatting online, but the creation of the zine is as much for me as it is for the reader. I like the catharsis of sitting, transcribing, cutting, re-cutting, fucking up layouts, pasting, etc. That time to sit with my thoughts and ideas is something I value. And it takes a lot of time, which is one of the reasons I haven’t worked on a full issue of the zine since I’ve started the label aspect of it. As far as zines that influenced the direction of the zine I drew heavily from Rumpshaker, Anti-Matter and At Both Ends.

From one point and on NMZ turned into a super hard-working label with almost 30 releases in 2 years or so. What was the crucial thought that made you turn the zine into a label? Which one of your releases sold the most and makes you super proud of? Do you regret releasing any specific band (no need to mention the name ofc)?

I appreciate the “hard-working” compliment, I hope that shows throughout the work I’ve been able to do with bands. So I appreciate that. Yah, we’re 30 something releases in and I never thought it would end up being where we are 2 years and change in. In my head I thought releasing a record was a logical extension of what I was doing with the zine. If in the content of the zine I wanted people to hear about and know about bands that I thought were awesome, how could I do that in a more direct way - well, release music. I also really looked to the zines of the past that have also made that move. But with NMZ, I want the “zine” part to still be very much incorporated with what we do. I think with a zine you can still push and support music that is not your own release. I like that freedom to continue the conversation. I didn’t want the label aspect to make NMZ just become a shopping mall for music. Which is another reason I really try to work with bands who have a lot to bring to the table and are open to doing some different things with releases or are in line with some of my personal beliefs. And I’ve been very fortunate. I think it’d be very unfair of me to pick out a release that makes me most proud, and in reality a lot of the physical products we’ve been able to make have sold relatively well. Each band I’ve gotten to work with spoke to me in terms of how I was feeling, or what I was into the moment we decided to work together. And a lot of the releases have made me super proud when I get to see how stoked the music makes other people, or which release ends up hitting with groups of people another release we had done previously didn’t. I want to work with bands who I believe are incredible and will continue to do awesome things and grow. Which has been the case with some of the bands who have moved on from NMZ to do stuff (Rule Them All and Buggin going on to work with Flatspot, Soul Blind working with Trip Machine, Life’s Question with Trip Machine and now Triple B), and them getting the chance to hit a different set of ears

and work with different people. And in some of those cases there is a slight bit of regret where maybe I didn’t push myself to see what they wanted to do in the future or what I could have worked with them on to continue, but at the end of the day I’m glad they kept going and doing music. And for the bands that I started working with early on (which is something I want to keep as an NMZ pillar) and get to continue to work with I have made some great relationships that extend beyond it just being a “band and label” transaction, because that is not what I’m about. I’ve been able to make some legit best friends with a lot of the people whose music I love and get to push.

Even though 90s NYHC, crossover – thrash metal instilled hardcore and in general brutal hardcore is in fashion nowadays, you choose to distinguish the label and release more melodic, post-hardcore and even indie stuff. Do you care of having a specific identity for the label or you are just keen to release whatever you like?

Shoot! The label question is tough because there are a lot of them that put out some really cool different stuff. I’ll name a couple labels and releases I’ve really enjoyed: Other People Records / Modern Color “From the Leaves of Your Garden”, Head2Wall / Moonkisser “Summer’s Fleeting Majesty”, Delayed Gratification / En Love “Love Will Drown the Nest”, Convulse Records / Militarie Gun “My Life is Over”, Tiger Records / Leaving Time “Leaving Time”, DAZE / KOYO “Short Beach Sessions”. I’m sure I am forgetting some and then there are the heavy hitters who continue to do awesome stuff.

I am not sure if a label could pay the bills. I don’t think any of the smaller labels would be able to by any means. There’s a lot of hidden cost in running a label. Things I’ve fucked up a good amount of times. There’s no way I’d be able to make NMZ a full time job. Would be a dream though, to be honest.

It worked out where the first two releases were very strong output of melodic hardcore and it was just the way the cards fell, but in relation to the zine I didn’t try to limit the bands I talked with (everyone from Vogel from Terror, Jonah from Far, Pete from CMO, Renee Heartfelt, Alvino from Of Feather and Bone, etc). I just use the zine and the label as an extension of music that I like (and falls within the hardcore and hardcore adjacent realm). And that has seem most releases be melodic hardcore, post-hardcore, and indie influence punk. I have always had respect for labels like Jade Tree, Dog House, Equal Vision, etc.

What are your favourite hardcore labels right now? Do you think that a hardcore label can pay somebody’s bills in this era of hardcore? Do you intent to turn NMZ into a Talking about full time jobs, I read the last issue of Reaction fanzine from Budapest and I learned that you are a teacher! On the last issue of Soulcraft I had an interview with Mike from All Out War and it turned out he’s a teacher, too. How difficult is for a hardcore ‘kid’ to be a teacher and educate young people? How did you decide to become a teacher? Do the hardcore values adapt to your profession?

YA! I’ve been in the classroom for 12 years now. I did read that! I actually knew that about Mike. I had a conversation once with Clint from Organized Crime records and he let me know that and about a good bunch of others that are teachers. We are out there, haha! There are a couple I talk to on a regular basis (shout out Scobie and Musilli). Hmmmm, I guess one thing

that can often be difficult about being a teacher and a hardcore kid is that I am very passionate and hardcore has equipped me with the desire to always speak my mind. That can get me in trouble often amongst my teacher peers, but with students I often have to be mindful that I am teaching students to think critically and develop their own views, not just dictate mine. In more recently years I have had to strike a balance in doing so to make sure that I can call out actions that are unjust (racism, discrimination, etc) while at the same time offering students insight into the reasoning why and having them grapple with those questions that require ethics, academic rigor and emotion. It’s a hard thing. I became a teacher because I learned early on from punk and hardcore to question everything. One of those things I began to question early on was America’s failing education system. So going into college I knew I wanted to be a teacher and teach injustices, but it wasn’t until further learning and working in Seattle Public Schools that I witnessed first-hand how the scales were not balanced when it came to resources, teacher training, school environment, etc in communities of colors. Since then, I’ve tried to do my best to learn and grow as an educator and find ways to bring equity to my classroom space and school. It’s a constant and I really credit my hardcore values for driving me to do that.

Will hardcore ever be the same after the pandemic ends? How do you see hardcore in 2021? What are your future plans concerning releasing new music?

Really hard to say. I would love to have a crystal ball to see. My prediction is that hardcore will actually start to thrive in the more local / DIY areas of the scene. I could see small bands really starting to take charge of underground shows, venues, etc. But only time will tell. It is kinda cheesy, but my hope is that we come back acknowledging the communal aspect of hardcore that we missed and maximizing it - more shows with more people, more shared art, zines, etc. at shows. I actually also just read a funny tweet that said Fauci (the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984) said shows could return in the fall but no more than 3 band bills. I actually would love to see that be a thing haha! As far as future plans regarding releasing music, depending on the band, we plan to move forward with releasing music. NMZ took advantage of 2020 to work with a lot of new bands deserving to be heard and the year afforded these bands some extra space they might not have had with the constant influx of music and touring like before. The obvious hope is that these bands can one day get in front of people and reach an audience that is out of the reach of social media for NMZ or the band, and that they continue to be able to have more creative output.

Do you follow the European scene at all? What are your favourite non-US hardcore bands right now? Have you ever been to Greece? What’s the first thing that occurs your mind when you hear the word Greece?

I don’t follow the European scene a ton. I’d like to be more invested in it though, to be honest. My favorite non-US hardcore band right now might be Big Cheese. Something about that last LP, “Punishment Park”, really did it for me. I also liked that band Avow. Not sure if / how active they are but that demo was cool. Definitely showed some promise. What other recommendations do you have? I’ve never been to Greece but would like to go. This might be fucked up but when I hear / think of Greece I think of struggle economy and baklava. Am I totally off on those two things?!

That’s all! Thanks so much! Keep being creative and giving so much to the scene!

Yo, thank you! I appreciate this opportunity. I love the work you have done with the zine and its quality is so rad to see and have out there. Shout out.