BOOK NOOK
promoted P.M.A or "positive mental attitude" in their electrifying music, transforming a scene that was about violence and vulgarity into one that was about the opposite. Before Minor Threat, before the Beastie Boys, before Rage Against the Machine, and before a multitude of well-known bands that you love and care about, there were the untouchable Bad Brains who ignited a fire that continues to blaze in 2020 through the immeasurable number of artists influenced by their music. Bad Brains dramatically terraformed the sonic landscape into a place where you could find hope and happiness amidst the grit and grime of punk rock and hardcore.
I'VE GOT THE P.M.A!
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ANTHOLOGY OF EMO VOLUME 2 INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR TOM MULLEN BY JOHN SILVA
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he plan was always to do multiple “I get frustrated, and I get angry, and I get volumes,â€? says Tom Mullen, the cre- sad. And emo is none of those things to ator of the Washed Up Emo blog and me. It’s positive; it’s happy. My calling in podcast, and the author of the Antholo- this world is, when people hear the word gy of Emo books. “It’s just, work, life, ev- [emo], they don’t laugh; they don’t snickerything got in the way. So, I wanted to er; they don’t make a joke,â€? he says. do the second volume a year after [the first]. I just got caught up in some other Among the interviews in Volume 2 is the things that happen in life. But, the plan final interview that Jon Bunch gave was to do multiple volumes.â€? before he passed away in 2016. Bunch, who played in seminal emo bands such Anthology of Emo Volume 1, which as Further Seems Forever and Sense was published in 2017, sold out in Field, was an important and beloved less than a year. So, of course, emo member of the scene. This interview fans have been clamoring for a will help preserve his legacy, and that's second volume of the series, which, what Mullen is most proud of in publishlike the first, is a collection of tran- ing Volume 2. scribed interviews from Mullen’s Washed Up Emo podcast. Mullen “Jon’s family said, ‘Jon would have loved hopes that with these books, he this, and I can’t wait to give this to his can help educate people about the son.’ So, I’m just like, I’m set. I want his genre in a way that brings more re- son to be like, ‘My dad’s in a book!’ spect and appreciation to it. That’s important.â€?đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł
18 NEW NOISE
The seeds of this collaboration were planted in 2019, when members of HE Creative met H.R. at Rebellion Punk Music Festival where he was performing. A year later, H.R. reached out to the U.K. group about this project, which is the first in a new series that turns well-known punk songs, in this case, “Attitude,� into vibrant, illustrated books for children.
While they haven’t released anything “We loved the idea of a book spreadsince 2012’s Into the Future, legend- ing the message H.R. has been ary Bad Brains vocalist Paul “H.R.� spreading for the last 40 years—posiHudson is finally giving the world tivity,� says He Creative. “Which, right some more, much-needed P.M.A with know, is something everyone needs.� a new children’s book titled I’ve Got The P.M.A!—a partnership with HE This idealistic and worthy doctrine inCreative, a U.K.-based group of il- fuses all of H.R.’s music, which can be lustrators and graphic designers who traced back to memorable Sundays at have released a number of unique, places of prayer, growing up wherever punk-rock-inspired books. the Navy stationed his father.
Appearing as an endearing, younger “As a child I was shy but very driven version of himself, H.R. says that he has to music because my father used to wanted to create a children’s book for take me to church, and it was there, The one thing that the human race a long time, a book that would help where I was influenced to do good could use right now is a healthy dose open young minds to the P.M.A mes- gospel music,â€? he explains. “Later on, of positivity, a hopeful mindset to sage and philosophy. I took those influences and formed a deal with an unpredictable, and at rock band called the Bad Brains.â€? times dire situation. Since tossing the “I wanted to do the book to spread đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł punk scene on its head in the late '70s, P.M.A to younger generations,â€? H.R. Washington D.C.’s Bad Brains have explains about this collaboration, for
INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR H.R. BY GEN HANDLEY
e’re not through yet, and so far, 2020 has been an emotional one, with an invisible, viral enemy sweeping the globe and painful-but-necessary, civil unrest burning in the U.S. and out to the rest of the world.
which he wrote the catchy words, and HE Creative created the vibrant illustrations. “The boy of today is the man of tomorrow, making it important for me to write a children’s book because we see the child of today being the child of tomorrow. It is important for me to send joy and blessings, and by putting out this book for the youth, we are doing that together.�
