More Interviews...

I've been doing an email interview with a German music website/magazine and it's one of the more involved interviews I've done. I'll post some of the questions and answers here first, then eventually move them to the website archive. Oh and here's a nice little set of photobooth shots of the Bags (minus Craig Lee - we haven't come across his photo yet) that we just dug up from the basement. The pictures of Terry and Rob appear to be from the set we did for the back cover of the original Dangerhouse 7", which is going to be re-released very soon on Artifix Records. I'm not sure when the shots of Pat and me were taken. Lest anyone think I'm ignoring Craig, I will dedicate an entire blog entry to him in the near future, along with some old pictures of him I just had developed from slides.

Q-The L.A. scene was often (accused)by others for being, compared to New York or the U.K. (scenes), built up by kids out of middle class families, who had nothing to worry about and for whom punk (was)just a phase that they (were) going through. In how far would you say is this true and do you think that punk has to be specifically connected to some kind of class, origin, style or
behaviour ?
A-I think that’s total bullshit. There are different economic levels in any major city. I grew up in a poor, working class, crime-riddled part of Los Angeles called East L.A. Growing up with economic comfort was definitely not my experience. In any case, I don’t believe you have to be poor to be punk. There are plenty of narrow-minded conformists at every economic level to rebel against. The other side of the coin is that growing up punk in Los Angeles afforded me the opportunity to meet and work alongside kids from all different walks of life. Certainly, my Bags’ bandmate Craig Lee was from a more privileged background than me. He would write lyrics using words that I did not even know how to pronounce because his education was superior to mine. He never held it against me or made me feel inferior. If anything, I recall the early L.A. punk scene as being egalitarian. Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, Gays, Lesbians and Straights all lived, loved and worked together to create their own community. We were united in our opposition to the mainstream culture.