Project Description
Interview with
JORDAN SAMOLESKY
from
PROPAGANDHI
.
.
“… dark thrash/punk band with complexly poetic and politically radical lyrics, sprinkled with a dose of humour when you least expect it.” – punknews.org
“There is an undercurrent of rage, sorrow and despair in Propagandhi’s music, but it’s clear their motivation is from a place of idealism and a capital-R..Rock” – Slugmag
.
.
Propagandhi is a Canadian punk band that has been around since the 1980s and are in Australia to celebrate their latest album, Victory Lap. Karen Lowe spoke to drummer Jordan Samolesky about the tour, politics and mosh pits.
.
You guys are about to tour Australia. Are you looking forward to the tour? And what are your favourite memories of Australia?
Wow. I’ll tell you, the one memory that I didn’t like was the first time we tried to tour there in 1994 I think it was. We got stuck at an immigration office for a good chunk of a week which meant a bunch of our first week of shows got cancelled because we got ratted out for disobeying the immigration rules at the time. Anyway it’s all legit now so we shouldn’t have to be deal with that now.
With that, we got to know a lot of the locals as we were crashing on couches in Sydney. We made some contacts back then and we’re still friendly with a lot of people we met on that trip.
We’ve had people travel to Canada and spent Easter Dinner with our parents and we are good friends with the guy who brought us over there and we’re pretty excited about playing with his band in Adelaide.
Being on tour can be tough on mental health and general well-being. How do you guys go with touring and do you have any strategies to keep each other’s spirits up?
As we’re getting older and whilst on the road, we have an incredible crew of people with us that are checking out a lot of options for us in advance. We make sure we take care of that angle first and for me, now, I know that I need a snack and a nap post-soundcheck. A little snack and a nap. That’s what keeps me going. If I don’t get that little break during the day… I just find a lot of sleeping and being in a different environment every night – it’s not easy. You spend 40 weeks of sleeping in your own bed and then go to some crummy hotel usually. In Canada and the US, we’re usually staying in budget places so that’s definitely a challenge. Staying rested and making sure you do your stretches before you play.
.
.
You guys have toured a lot of different places. Has there ever been a time where you’ve felt your safety was at risk? And where have you played that you would have never believed possible before you started out?
I seem to think.. interior central California circa early mid-90s was definitely sketchy. We did not like that at all. Bakersfield; Sacramento – that kind of area; Florida was kind of crazy for awhile. It’s changed a little bit since then but anyway.
In terms of places, we never thought we’d go; I never thought we would get to South America but we were there in 2007 and actually, Slovenia. We are wrapping up our European tour there and this is the third time we are playing this festival (Punk Rock Holiday) in this small town. It’s a really nice event. Really kind of low-key – not one of those major festivals with every band under the sun. It’s really well put together and in such a beautiful location in a really beautiful part of the planet.
A lot of the messages in your songs are statements on the state of politics and day to day living. Do you think that one day, these messages will truly sink in to those that it is most relevant to? Or do you think that things won’t change until all of the previous generation still in charge today are finally gone?
I think now, a lot of our perspective is observational. We’ve been around for a long time and all these things over the years that I thought would drive people so crazy, that they would consider the ins and outs of the economy, the systems that we thought so absurd, I thought they would be de-legitimised by now and it’s come to this culture where the people de-legitimising the system now are coming from this far right perspective and seeing that gain so much momentum and this full blame game of blaming the victims of the excess of this insane system on themselves and scapegoating people after creating such terrible conditions for the globe itself; dropping bombs on all of these countries around the world and the middle east and ensuring a new generation of enemies and then blaming those enemies for the problem that we’ve caused them.
It’s just insane and I just hope that some sort of larger consciousness comes around. I can’t say that we’re… I don’t want to get around any responsibility and just offload that on to the next generation. That’s horrifying. I think we need to wake up the older people and people should have a sense of obligation to try to rectify so many huge issues going on right now. Especially in regards to climate change. That’s something that we’re all going to face – every one of us. People that are on auto-destruct just have such short-sighted visions in terms of oil and gas and that kind of stuff. That’s the thing that frustrates me the most and sucks the wind out of my sails.
Whilst it is slowly starting to change, girls seem to be under-represented in punk audiences. Why do you think this is? And what would you say to the girls that love their punk music but are too afraid to get into the mosh?
I think a lot of music over the years has been a ‘boy’s club’ and one of the things that is appealing – especially in earlier punk, the bands rebelled against conventional ideas and gender and all that kind of stuff and that was one of the things that set it apart from other kinds of music. That was unthinkable to have that back in the 70s and over the years I think a lot of rock music, you know, punk rock has just co-opted to be part of main stream product.
We played at this one festival in Canada. It wasn’t just punk rock. It was metal and hip hop and a whole bunch of stuff and I remember counting out around 100 bands and all the members and it was basically something like 450 band members and only four women were involved in the entire festival. It’s bad as a percentage and most of these are sponsored by corporations – big corporations that are run by men and reflect the larger capitalist system which is run by men and it’s not really surprising to me but I think it should be ‘what about this being open to all kinds of people?’ and that’s why I respect when women are in bands to try to be part of that. Unfortunately, it is what it is. There are more men involved than women.
We usually try to play with more diverse bands on the road and we are looking forward to some of the shows in Australia and New Zealand. We are playing with some pretty cool local bands.
Are there any bands that you just didn’t get until you saw them live?
There were a few bands that I saw later in my life that I liked a lot and their performance just confirmed what I had been missing over the years and that included the first time I saw Soulfly about six or seven years ago and I’ve managed to see them a few times since.
Another band that comes to mind is this hip hop band The Coup. They played Winnipeg a number of years ago with a full band and they just blew me away. They were a band that I’d kinda respected and listened to a bit but when I saw them play live that day, that blew it open for me. It was awesome. Actually, Boots Riley, the lead singer of that band will be speaking in Winnipeg when we are in Australia so we are going to have to miss. I believe it will be a really good talk.
.
Sunday 12th May – The Gov, Adelaide
Tuesday 14th May – Triffid, Brisbane
Friday 17th May – Max Watts, Melbourne – SOLD OUT
Saturday 18th May – Metro Theatre, Sydney
Sunday 19th May – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
PRESENTED BY SBM PRESENTS
TICKETS
.
Follow PROPAGANDHI
Website Facebook Twitter Instagram
.
.
