Rock and Roll has a low bar for entry making it historically a pretty egalitarian art form. Punk rock has these features but even more so and by design. So when my friends couldn’t find a drummer for their new band, the fact that I wasn’t a drummer didn’t deter me at all. I bought a $50 drum set and that was that.

I like things that are coarse and unpleasant. I like black coffee and straight rye and mid-century sedans with rattling glass and wind howling through rust holes. I like garage rock. I like it harsh and distorted and very lo-fi. 

Our music doesn’t have to be complicated or need to be brilliant or groundbreaking art. It doesn’t need to have mass-appeal and it doesn’t have to be pleasant. I like it loud and distorted and sometimes a little grating so that you can feel it in your fillings and wonder if it’s causing permanent damage.

When it comes to writing songs, I don’t think that just because they’re simple rock songs it means that they can’t have thought out and meaningful lyrics. Actually, because nobody is really expecting it, I think I can get away with saying a lot of things in our songs that might be a little controversial if they were presented in a different format. Normal garage rock lyrics are “my baby’s untrue, I’m so blue” so I can sneak Anarchist political theory or climate change in without anyone really noticing.

My drum set is a device of my own construction. Most mass-produced products don’t fit my needs or preferences, so I regularly modify normal stuff or make my own things from scratch. My drums have been drastically reconfigured to suit my playing style and the specific sort of sound I want to create. I stand up while I play, both because it’s more comfortable for me and because I like the view from up there. It turns out that there is absolutely no one to stop me from doing whatever I feel like to my kit. I paid the $50 for them and I get to cut them up and glue them back together however I want.