We’re always happy to meet people who are passionate about music, so we were thrilled to sit down with Express Yourself zine creator Fidel Romero to talk about the state of the Vegas scene and what we can expect from his zine’s first issue.
Can you tell us a little bit about how your zine got started and what it’s about?
My zine is called Express Yourself Zine and I started working on it a couple of months ago. I don’t do this by myself. One of my good friends Danny Murphy is also a part of this, but he couldn’t be here. He plays in a band called Joshua Judges Ruth and they’re recording right now.
With the zine, I don’t want to focus just on hardcore or just on punk rock. I want to bring it all together. There could be a kid that wants to read it but doesn’t know anything about hardcore. So I’m interviewing bands they might know like Last Call and Maker, so they can start finding out about hardcore or punk rock and what the community is about.
And I’m not only interviewing people in bands. I’m interviewing my friends and random people. For the next zine, I got in contact with one of my old high school teachers and I’m going to interview him because he talked to me about punk rock and showed me all of these bands I didn’t know about.
Who have you interviewed so far for the zine?
One of my favorite interviews was with this guy Joe Hardcore. He books shows out in Philadelphia and does This is Hardcore Fest every year. I also interviewed one of the newer bands off of No Sleep Records called Mixtapes.
There was a long gap where no one was really putting out physical paper zines, but it seems like a number of people are trying to bring that back. Why do you think that is?
I think there are a lot of bands out right now that seem to be more about the music than just about making money or being cool. They leave a message. Do it for the music. Do stuff that is going to help out and bring more kids to shows. So I think that’s the reason. Kids are getting more involved and feeling more welcomed into the community. Anyone can write a zine about whatever but it has to be something that you like doing or something that you’d want to do with your friends.
I’m involved in the punk rock and hardcore scenes and I go to shows. The scene right now is picking up little by little. There are more kids at every show. There are new faces. More bands are starting to come here and play. We didn’t have that in the past couple of years. It was hard to get a band out here, and if we did, it was at a bar. Now, every show we’re booking is at East Side Joe’s or Yayo [all-ages venues] and any kind of kid can come out if they want to. I want to do that so that I can show kids that it’s OK to be a part of something. You don’t have to be scared or feel like if you listen to hardcore you can only go to those shows, or if you listen to pop punk you can only go to those shows. Everyone can be included.
Why do you think there was that big lull where shows were mostly 21+ and the scenes seemed really segregated?
I think for a while, venues were getting destroyed or people weren’t following the rules and fights were going on all the time. I think that’s one of the main reasons. People can say that those kids that were starting all the fights have gotten older and stopped going to shows, but I just think that everyone is more about the music now and more about making new friends and doing this because they like going to shows. I also think it’s because more bands have been reaching out to try and book shows here.
Before, if there was a hardcore band that wanted to play here, promoters already knew what was going to happen if they booked that show. They were risking the venue, they were risking fights. I think now, the kids that go to shows have more control over all of it. My friend Chad Lombardo has a promotion called Out of This World, and he’s been booking all of the hardcore shows here in town and he books them himself. He just books straight with the band.
Talking about the different venues that come and go so quickly… when I see a new all-ages venue open, I’m excited. But without fail, I’ll hear complaints about where it’s located, or how it’s set up.
I think people that are complaining don’t really know what booking shows is like. They don’t know the kind of money that venues here ask for. We tried to book shows at The Sanctuary and they asked us for so much money up front. We’re lucky to put on a show and get $500 out of it, and that’s around the kind of money they were asking for up front. So it’s hard to book a show there. And if you do book a show, you’re booking one with eight bands that don’t really know what they’re doing and it’s a weird show.
As far as location is concerned, we book shows at East Side Joe’s, and it’s just as far as any other venue. It’s not really a big deal. He’ll charge us like $60 to book a show there. I play in a band called Snakebite and there have been times where even if we’re playing, we pay for the show just because we know that it could be a bust, and won’t make enough money. Even if we have to take out money from our pockets, it doesn’t matter.
So it’s a little hard to understand the kids that are complaining about shows. People complain that there aren’t any hardcore and punk shows here, but they just don’t know. We have at least two good hardcore shows in town a month. There are at least three or four good pop punk shows. It seems like all the bands that have started playing here have let out the word that people in Vegas want to see shows. It’s definitely growing, and I think whoever is complaining needs to stop being crybabies.
What do you think about a lot of promoters and venues moving toward the pay-to-play model?
I really don’t agree with that. On a local show we played a few months ago, we were asked to sell 50 presale tickets at $10 each. We didn’t sell one ticket. We know that kids these days don’t buy presales. If kids are going to come to a show, they’re going to come. When I go to a show, I won’t go and try to find that band and buy a presale from them. I’ll just show up and have a good time.
And I’ve heard from promoters that if a band doesn’t sell a certain amount of tickets they won’t let them play that night or they won’t contact them again. A band should be allowed to play. Without the bands, the promoters aren’t really anything. So it’s a bummer when you hear about a band that wasn’t able to play because they couldn’t sell any presales to kids.
What got you into the scene when you were younger? Was it a certain band?
Growing up, I was into the generic stuff like Nirvana. I grew up skateboarding with my neighborhood friends and they were into hip hop and what was cool on MTV. Then I found out about H2O, which is one of my top favorite bands now. From there, I found out about stuff like Rancid and started listening to the Cro-Mags and New York hardcore. And I found out about straight age and veganism. I was pretty young. I was like 12 when I considered myself being straight edge and found out about all these bands.
Are you still straight edge?
Yes.
Are you vegan?
No, I’m not. I’ve been thinking a lot about going vegan, or going vegetarian first just because that’s a healthy lifestyle also. I’m getting older, so you start thinking about that more. I definitely want to give it a shot but it’s kind of hard to start. My best friend Josh Adams is vegan and I see him doing just fine. I know I’ll do it someday.
Talking about straight edge, how do you react to the fact that the media has sometimes played up straight edge’s association with violence?
I don’t go around telling people that I’m straight edge or wearing t-shirts that say “fuck you if you’re not straight edge.” But I feel like some kids have that mentality that if you’re not straight edge, you’re not cool. I became straight edge for myself. I think that’s why I don’t really talk about it. It’s more of a personal thing. I don’t have to preach it to anyone. Some of my best friends aren’t straight edge and that’s fine with me. There is a limit to how much you can be around people that are doing drugs, but if my friend wants to drink around me it’s not a big deal. It doesn’t change who you are. This is just the way I want to live.
I think it got the violent reputation with all of the crews. It almost was seen like a gang. It got out of line back then. Being violent and being straight edge goes hand in hand for some kids. Or being the tough guy with the Xs on your hands. That’s not what it’s about. I met this guy Erich Foster, he’s a tattoo artist from Buffalo, NY and he was really one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met. He talked to me about what straight edge is and how it was when he was growing up. He grew up going to Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits shows, and straight edge was like a brotherhood. They were accepting. They weren’t denying kids because they weren’t straight edge. All these bands were straight edge bands and kids were just trying to preach about what it is. They weren’t trying to start violent crews or anything like that.
I think kids now who are doing it to be cool don’t really know what it is to be straight edge. They think it’s OK to sleep around and do all the bullshit that they do, especially a lot of the younger crowd. It’s cool if you want to be straight edge. That’s awesome. But I feel like in order to do it, you have to know the roots of it, what it really is and where it really started.
I think the straight edge band community is growing now. There are a lot of hardcore bands that are straight edge coming out and spreading the word just like the old days. I feel like all of Youth of Today’s little brothers are coming out and it’s awesome. I think kids just need to be exposed to it. Kids need to be exposed to what’s right and what it is. It’s cool but you’re not doing it to be cool. You should want to do it for yourself.
Where can people pick up a copy of the Express Yourself Zine?
I’ll probably set up a Big Cartel. I’m giving it out for free, but if anyone from out of state wants to buy it, I’ll send it for like $1 or whatever. I’ll definitely be dropping some off at Zia, libraries, stuff like that for anyone that is interested. We don’t currently have a Facebook or a Twitter but we’ll start doing that soon. All we want to do right now is put it out and have people read it and be interested. We’re already working on the second issue right now.
What kind of release schedule are you looking at?
I’m going to try and do one every couple of months. We all have things we have to do. Danny, the other side of the zine, is always busy. He has a job and plays in two bands. So my goal is to have one every two or three months. Even if it’s not big or it doesn’t have a bunch of interviews, I still want to release something. I’m thinking about also starting a blog and writing on there about maybe doing video. So that will be stuff that I’ll do more constantly and will be easier than going out and releasing something. Because we’re also putting in our own money.
If any bands want to get in touch with you about interviews or anything like that, how can they reach you?
They can email me at express.yourself.zine@gmail.com. If anyone wants to get together and work on something, I’d be more than happy to.
Interview by Emily Matview with Tom Monahan & Patrick Caddick
Transcribed by Ashleigh Matview
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