I VE GOT THE P.M.A

BOOK NOOK

do the second volume a year after [the scribed interviews from Mullen’s who played in seminal emo bands such 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. a new children’s book titled I’ve Got Appearing as an endearing, younger version of himself, H.R. says that he has wanted to create a children’s book for a long time, a book that would help open young minds to the P.M.A message and philosophy. “I wanted to do the book to spread P.M.A to younger generations,” H.R. explains about this collaboration, for 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.”

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, il-

I'VE GOT THE P.M.A!

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR H.R. BY GEN HANDLEY We’re not through yet, and so far, 2020 has been an emoThe one thing that the human race could use right now is a healthy dose tional one, with an invisible, viral of positivity, a hopeful mindset to enemy sweeping the globe and deal with an unpredictable, and at painful-but-necessary, civil unrest times dire situation. Since tossing the burning in the U.S. and out to the punk scene on its head in the late '70s, rest of the world. Washington D.C.’s Bad Brains have 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.” 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.

lustrated books for children. “As a child I was shy but very driven to music because my father used to take me to church, and it was there, where I was influenced to do good gospel music,” he explains. “Later on, I took those influences and formed a �� �� ��

ANTHOLOGY OF EMO VOLUME 2

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR TOM MULLEN BY JOHN SILVA “ T he plan was always to do multiple volumes,” says Tom Mullen, the creator of the Washed Up Emo blog and “I get frustrated, and I get angry, and I get sad. And emo is none of those things to 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,” he says. 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.” before he passed away in 2016. Bunch,

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. rock band called the Bad Brains.”

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.”�� �� ��