4 minute read
ANTI FLAG
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INTERVIEW WITH BASSIST / VOCALIST CHRIS #2 BY NICHOLAS SENIOR A nti-Flag’s new album 20/20 a Democrat. Maybe that's our own “When I saw the Mike Brown verdict Vision comes out nearly three ego - we expect people to know [in Ferguson, Missouri],” he says, with years after President Trump’s that Anti-Flag's been around for 25 a deep sigh. “I was able to go immeinauguration, which is no accident. years, and that we've made records diately, in my mind and in my heart, Maybe more importantly for your under a Bill Clinton administration, back to looking at my mother when ears, 20/20 Vision is also Anti-Flag’s a George Bush administration, the [we were] in a court room, [during sharpest musical statement yet - a Barack Obama administration. We the trial] for my sister's murder, and full-spectrum punk assault with will continue, no matter who is the seeing no justice served for her, more than enough melody to keep president, to try to use our vocation because it was a poor and underthose diatribe ditties in your head to get people to care about more privileged community that she was for days. than just themselves.” a part of. Then I watched Michael Brown's mother on television, and For bassist and vocalist Chris #2, the “Do you believe the politics of disshe looked exactly like my mom. Antime to play coy with politics is over, traction, the idea that the enviti-Flag had a song called ‘Fuck Pobut the band had to be considered ronment and the planet is being lice Brutality’ in 1996, because when in how they went about their messqueezed like a fucking lemon, just had played punk shows, cops were sage. to sustain profits, is wrong? Raise mean to us. You extrapolate that to your hand, let's get a headcount. the reality of 2019 and ’20, and all “When we initially set out with makThen from there, we can find our the things that we're seeing, you're ing a record about Donald Trump,” commonality. We can put forth able to go like, ‘Oh, fuck. I can't just he says. “I knew that there would plans to try to leave the world better be angry at this because it affects be backlash from our community than we found it.” me. I need to think beyond that.’" about focusing on electoral politics, which isn't something we've ever An interesting point to be made The record feels like a punk cultural done as a band.” here is that the band’s best retouchstone - a moment in time that cord up until now - naturally - was will be remembered for years to “I mean, by saying that Donald American Spring, a record written come, or however long we have left. Trump is evil,” he continues. “By during the Obama administration. recognizing that you want a betFor Chris #2, that record was a key “If there was ever a time to have our ter world than kids in cages along turning point, for him personally Dead Kennedys-Reagan moment, borders, that doesn't mean you're and for the band. it's right now,” Chris #2 says. “I think that that's why Trump is on the cover. I'm hopeful that this polarization is going to lead to people searching for something better than what we have. That being said, we very well may be on the cusp of the apocalypse. Fascism is not a thing to be fucked with. Based on that, I wanted make sure we had a document that, when people found it much later, they’d say, ‘Okay, there were people standing in opposition, and here's some form of art that said just that.’"
That sense of humanity and humility permeates the record. 20/20 Vision isn’t a document pushing ideological purity, it’s a unifying call to fight.
“I like to believe that punk rock gives people energy, and gives people optimism,” Chris #2 says. “I want to give them a place to focus that. A lot of things in the album booklet are tools to say, ‘Well here's how you can get further involved. Here are people that are much smarter than I [am]. Please listen to them, or speak with them.’ That's where we gain our inspiration from.” �� �� ��
