PIST ZINE - ISSUE TWO by Matt Vernon

ALEX HECHT | THOMAS HANCOCK YO, PUT THAT BAG BACK ON

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ISSUE TWO

ALEX HECHT YO, PUT THAT BAG BACK ON THOMAS HANCOCK LACKLUSTRE RECORDS PHOTO BY ALEX HECHT

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ALEX HECHT Photographer, musician, craftsman and general creative from Idaho, USA.

AHECHTPHOTO.TUMBLR.COM interview by pist | photos by alex hecht

You seem to be a pretty hands on guy with your photography work, from the shooting to the developing and processing, how’d you get into it all?

First off, What do you do? and Where are you from? I’m from Boise, Idaho USA. I’m a photographer, musician, and part time carpenter.

Well my father owned a photo developing lab when I was younger and he was a professional photographer for years so I’ve always sort of felt like I was born into it. But my first formal introduction to the process of developing film and making prints came when I was in 8th grade and I took a photography class at school. All my photography teachers through the years hated me because I already knew so much. I didn’t get back into it until about a year ago when I learned how to process color film and since then the rest is history.

What’s your biggest creative inspiration? I don’t know what I would consider to be my biggest inspiration. I’ve just always been compelled to create things in a number of different mediums. I see things sometimes and think “I really wish other people could see what I see in this” and I try to share that vision with others.

What do you think about the rise of the use of film, opposed to digital as of late?

What subject do you like shooting the most? and why?

I think it’s a good thing. It means film will still exist for years to come. I think it’s kind of silly sometimes though when photographers who shoot mostly digital stuff take on shooting film as a “challenge” then spend so much time editing their images that they just end up looking like their digital stuff. I’m a big stickler for getting things right the first time. Things don’t always turn out the way I want them to and I’ve sort of learned to accept that and move on. I very rarely edit any of my photos.

Man, that’s a really hard question. I like shooting all kinds of things. Lately I’ve been working on a series titled “Friends of Mine” where I’ve been taking portraits of people I know in a very informal sort of environment and so I’ve been really enjoying portraits lately. What’s your go-to, every day camera? Ever since my Canon AE-1 went down I’ve been using a Mamiya/Sekor DSX 1000 SLR with a 35mm lens. I’m trying to get some money together for a new Canon because I really love the AE-1. It’s probably my all around favorite camera ever. I have a whole bunch of other cameras I use for different things too.

I went to Hawaii last year, and the only Australian beer I saw on the shelves was Fosters. No one in Australia actually drinks it, We basically export it to other countries as a joke because it tastes so foul, and its not even sold here. Are Americans doing the same to us with Blue Ribbon?

Tell us about your band, First Borns. Well we’ve been a band for about a year and a half now and we’re going into an actual recording studio to work on a new album/ep thing that we are quite excited about. If you were given $10,000 out of no where to use on a project, what would you do?

Man, that’s sort of hilarious. Nah, there are tonnes (did I spell that right?) of people here who drink Pabst Blue Ribbon. It’s sort of strange though, PBR went from being like a brand that was cheap and that no one cared about to being like the coolest shit ever in the world to some people. There are a lot of American beers I preferred to PBR before I stopped drinking. There is also a huge movement happening now of like local independent breweries popping up all over the place that are making all sorts of fancy ales and shit.

Man, I’d probably pay off some of my debt, help get the new First Borns album put out on vinyl, and buy some darkroom equipment and other camera gear. I’ve also got an idea for a pretty cool art installation I’d like to do someday. You can keep up with me on Facebook at http://www. facebook.com/ahechtphoto on tumblr at http:// ahechtphoto.tumblr.com I’m also on twitter and Instagram as @doctorfresh

YO, PUT THAT BAG BACK ON CAMILLO ZANNONI - VOCALS/GUITAR

STRAIGHT UP, HONEST, DIY SYDNEY BASED, MELODIC HARDCORE. (THIS INTERVIEW IS A FEW MONTHS OLD - GIVE ME SOME SLACK)

FACEBOOK.COM/YOPUTTHATBAGBACKON interview by pist | pHOTOS STOLEN OFF THE INTERNET LOL

So what is Yo, Put That Bag Back On, and how did it all start?

writing some songs. What followed was a series of hot as all hell summer days out in my garage in Bonnyrigg where we wrote and recorded the demotape. We also had a really big push from our best buddy Pete from Beatdisc Records because he was organizing this sweet hardcore fest called BlastBeats and we had to have stuff to play that wasn’t pop-punk and emo covers. I may as well mention the name right? We just couldn’t decide on anything. We didn’t want some generic hardcore band name like Advisor or Entrails so we settled on something we thought was hilarious; a punch-line told by a fox in a 14 second clip that’s taken from a kid’s show that’s probably meant for adults because of the bizarre and often violent humour. We like Yo Bag.

Well just months before Yo Bag started all four of us were in a ska band together called The Pecan Sandies. It wasn’t anything serious; literally just a group of friends jamming every week, playing covers, writing ska covers, writing shitty ska songs, drinking beer and doing other unfavourable things. After that band played a show and ceased to be (I’m fairly certain I dressed up like Courtney Love and some random south American guy she probably banged’s bastard love child after a few really rough years of whoring and drug addiction, I can’t really recall much of that night to be honest; it was my old, old band Everest’s last ever show so I got obnoxiously drunk and sentimental) the four of us started jamming in garages. It was mostly Title Fight and Millencolin at that point but we eventually got our shit into gear and started

You’re dedication to house shows and staying punx is amazing, what differences are there when playing in someone’s backyard/kitchen/ basement/whatever compared to a legitimate venue?

delicious, delicious beverages (lager or otherwise). And it’s usually guaranteed, unless of course the cops come. But that’s cool because we have a short set and it can usually be shorter if we play faster and shut the fuck up in between songs and then it’s just party.

You know I often claim that the best fun one can have is sweating and spitting on one’s friends in their or someone else’s house (or record store), after having consumed close to one’s weight in beer and/or other lucrative substances. I think the biggest difference between playing in my friend’s basement in Dural and playing at some nightclub (for example) is that I always know that I’ll be welcome at my friend’s house in Dural, no matter how drunk I get or how badly I play. And those are the people I care most about, opinion-wise and otherwise. So not only do you get to party with your friends, you get to make new friends, play music, watch bands, eat delicious food and drink

You played a 50th birthday, usually something bands to try to stay as far away from as possible, but still managed to turn it into what looked like a sick show, how did that happen? and how was it playing to a bunch of old people? Haha yeah boofhead’s 50th... what a night! Our good friend Kieran threw his dad a party at a pub and he wanted bands. I’d like to say it started off innocently enough but as soon as we got there (about an hour before the show) we found Lochlan from Ghosts passed out on the floor near

awesome but really, probably not. That being said, we closed with Biscuit Power/New Noise (with guests). Then we got shut down because the birthday boy got into a punch-up with the dickhead security guard. I mean, who tries to cut off the guy whose birthday it is? At 11pm? When he’s been drinking there since midday anyway? They probably should have cut him off hours earlier if at all so why bother? Kind of lead to a bit of inevitable violence so we just shuffled off and packed our shit. Definitely the most memorable show to date, and it was a 50th in St Marys (who knew?)!

a pool of vomit (he had already been kicked out after demolishing three bottles of shit wine); and we were playing opposite a closed bar in front of TVs and TAB screens; and the manager had no idea there was to be a “rock show”. So Unbranded Animals just kind of plugged in and played the loudest set of Zombiecore I’ve heard to this day, much to the dismay of the ten odd 40+ punters who just seemed to want to bet and drink their miseries away in peace; instead they got loud and abrasive music about zombies taking over the world. Ghosts jumped on and played their usual glorious live show, full of giant men and that one random punk guy who was totally cool to smoke inside while Sutto was belting out that Van Houten cover. We just kind of floated along through our set, seeing as I was absolutely smashed off a bottle of crap vodka I’d snuck in; I’d aimed for about ten punk jumps, I think I did 70000 in eight songs which was probably

You’re releasing a 7” really soon. How’d that process go down and what should we expect? Well we wrote more songs and wanted to record them, an idea I’d bounced off my friend Brendan for months before we finally settled on a date.

Clay and Brendan over at Brain Recording Studios were really chill and they totally facilitated our intense hatred for click tracks by letting us record the whole thing live. Vocals were a nightmare after a weekend of shows (ours and Defeater’s) but I managed without sounding like too much of a fairy godmother I suppose, so that’s cool. I’d like to take this opportunity to rant a little about Brendan though. I know you wanted the best sound for the record, and I know I could “nail it”, but I swear, that guy made me sing lines a thousand times and still scoffed. I mean, I love the guy, but I’ve never really wanted to punch someone in the throat as much as I did for those 5 hours that I sang into that microphone. Great job though, we got it eventually and he got sweet takes so I suppose I can’t really fault the guy. Still, next time its first take and save or it gets the hose again.

Honestly, it all ended up just kind of falling into place over a couple of weeks and we ended up in the studio. We recorded it in two days, then got it mastered by Alan Douches in New York (who did other really cool records by really cool bands like Lifetime, Comeback Kid, Kid Dynamite and Hot Water Music to name a few). Since then though, they’ve kind of just been sitting on my hard-drive. We’ve given the songs to heaps of friends and other people who have asked but we’re yet to organise a proper release. Hopefully the 7” will be available early next year but we’re all noobs at getting vinyl pressed so we’re procrastinating; either way we’ve made a run of 100 CDs as a previnyl release and it should be online soon-ish too. Recording was pretty interesting; it was the first time any of us had ever really experienced such a professional recording process having usually just done the old garage and two mic trick. We had really good dudes that we worked with though,

The band has a massive DIY ethic, how had this affected the band, and why is it so important?

DIY ethic; hard work and commitment as well as creativity, is the most important thing in hardcore. It’s what defines us as a counter-culture and I think it’s important that those values be maintained by every band in some way. I just also happen to be a pedantic motherfucker and I like doing things a certain way.

Being DIY is very strongly linked, at least in our case, with an extreme lack of interested parties and funds, as well as the fact that stuff people make at home is often cooler than shit that gets processed in plants. We did around 37 tapes all up for our first run of demos and ten of those were hand drawn by different people and 27 were paper-bag shaped covers that we cut-out and glued together. We spray painted all the tapes too and the cool thing is a lot of our friends are pretty creative so every one of them looked really unique and awesome. I just wish I’d kept one! I thought that’d be cooler than getting 100 generic CDs pressed by Mediamovers or something you know? Plus, this band has been born and bred in the hardcore scene and as far as I’m concerned, the

“Support Hardcore” is a comment floating around yours and other bands’ Facebook posts, have you got any comments on why this is so important, and just any comments on the current state of Hardcore, in Sydney in particular? Support Hardcore seems synonymous with Support Art. Also, see above. There is a lot of good in the Sydney scene, and a lot of bullshit. I won’t talk about the bullshit because it’s futile (it’s just the way the world

not some joke (which happens a lot because of the name). I’m especially excited because we get to play our music to people who have definitely never heard us before and who may have a limited level of exposure to the type of shit we play and stand for so that should be interesting at least. Anti-flag are definitely an early influence for me personally having been one of the first punk bands I got into when I was 15 so it’s a big deal to get to play with those dudes. Plus they’re very active in the ongoing fight against oppression in various forms and anyone who sticks up for equality and justice is a-ok in my books. I’ll push aside the over the top rockstar bullshit and sometimes overdone political rants in light of the fact that they’re trekking it to Sydney for a two show day at the Bald Faced Stag of all places. (it was meant to be at the Sando?! How crazy would that have been!)

works; sometimes, you just gotta know the right guy), but the good is that there are always new bands releasing music and playing shows and interacting with one another, and there are relationships that have formed and been based around the hardcore scene and that’s just magic. Congrats on getting a support slot for Anti Flag, last time I saw them things got very messy and a security guard had me pinned up against the speakers for getting a bit too rowdy, so I’m siked to see them play such a small venue, are you guys excited for the show? I suppose it’s hard to help yourself when Number 2 is screaming at you to fuck the cops and kill the president haha. Thanks! We’re pretty excited! It’s our first international support and it feels good that someone has recognized us as an actual band and

YOU CAN CATCH YO, PUT THAT BAG BACK ON

IN SYDNEY WITH TITLE FIGHT ON SUN MARCH 10. THEIR LATEST CD IS AVAILABLE FOR

FREE DOWNLOAD AT YOPUTTHATBAGBACKON.BANDCAMP.COM

THOMAS HANCOCK DEATHS-PHOTOS.TUMBLR.COM

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