We Owe You Nothing: The Collected Interviews

by Daniel Sinker

"All of the interviews are probing and well thought out, the questions going deeper than most magazines would ever dare; and each has a succinct, informative introduction for readers who are unfamiliar with the subject. Required reading for all music fans."
--Library Journal

The first compilation of the riveting and provocative interviews of Punk Planet magazine. Never lapsing into hapless nostalgia, these conversations with figures as diverse as Jello Biafra, Kathleen Hanna, Noam Chomsky, Henry Rollins, Sleater-Kinney, Ian MacKaye, and many more provide a unique perspective into American punk rock and all that it has inspired (and confounded). Not limited to conversations with musicians, the book includes vital interviews with political organizers, punk entrepreneurs, designers, film-makers, writers, illustrators, and artists of many different media.

The Expanded Edition is updated with 6 more interviews and a new introduction, bringing the definitive book of conversations with the underground's greatest minds up to 2007. New interviews include talks with bands like The Gossip and Maritime, a conversation with punk legend Bob Mould, and more. Punk Planet has consistently explored the crossover of punk with activism, and reflects the currents of the underground while simultaneously challenging the bleak centerism of today's popular American culture.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Punk, History, Politics, Biography, Sociology

403 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 15, 2001

About the author

Dan Sinker is a journalist, journalism professor, and editor.

Reviews

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 1 out of 5]

While some of the interviews were interesting, the fact that they all start with the premise that punk is fucked up and unredeemable (hey, that's why many of those interviewed left it, right, cos it sucks!) put a sour taste in my mouth. Basically they almost all follow a pattern: who are you, what did you do, wasn't punk great once but now it sucks so what is this better thing you are doing now. Blah, blah, blah and shut the fuck up already.
That was always Punk Planet's problem, though--it was like the people responsible for it didn't even like punk rock. Good riddance to bad rubbish as they say.

[Constantin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welp I some THOUGHTS on this. I try to not have idols and not worship any celebrity no matter how much I like their work, but I'd be lying if I said that I haven't started reading this only to find out more about Ian MacKaye (founder of essential hardcore/punk band Minor Threat and Fugazi). Now it's not only him that's featured here. There is a whole kaleidoscope of radical musical and political persons, from Jello Biafra, Slater-Kinney Kathleen Hannah, Steve Albini, Sonic Youth, to (hilariously unexpected) Noam Chomsky. I also like that it doesn't only glorify punk culture but it shows it's short comings too, like the sexism, homophobia, and elitism that was an undeniable part of it.

If there's one major complaint that I have is that some questions the interviewers ask are UNBEARABLY BORING. Like "hOW dOeS iT fEeL To Be fAmoUs?" or "HoW dO YoU sEpaRaTE PeRsonAL LifE aNd WoRk?". Jesus fvck get better questions, these people are living monuments of music history, you're wasting their time.

I'll end this with my favourite quote from the Ian MacKaye interview:

"Basically, I've done everything not by the book [laughs]. All through my life I've done things in unorthodox way. When I was a kid, we formed a skateboard team because we liked to skateboard, not because we were particularly good or because we had sponsorship. We just did it. I started skateboarding in the mid '70s and a lot of people thought, "Oh, it's a sport." But it's not just a sport. Skateboarding was about redefinition. It was like putting on a pair of filtered glasses, every curb, every sidewalk, every street, every wall had a new definition. I saw the world differently than other people. Everything had completely changed because I was a skateboarder. It really helped me understand the idea of redefining what's been given to you."

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do I know much about "Punk"? No not really. I picked this book up because the cover and general design was interesting and I hoped to learn more about the genre and movement straight from the mouths of those involved. It starts out with a really inspiring interview with Ian MacKaye but my reading pace soon varied through the 346 pages. Some of the interviews were pretty boring. Some of them simply sounded like rants about those damn kids, get off my lawn etc. But a lot of the interviews really spoke to me as an artist and had me wanting to learn more. PLUS the book goes beyond interviews of just musicians and touches on relevant political subjects at the time like the Gulf War. It's always fun to be reading older books about politics and current events because you get to see how the predictions play out in present day. This would have gotten 5 stars from me if it wasn't for interviews that really bored me.

[Thomas Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

From my interview with the author (selection 311 at https://archive.org/details/OutsightRadioHoursInterviews2000-2010) from March, 2001 when I read the book:

...

Yeah like you have the initiators the pioneers of what we come to know as punk: Ian MacKaye and Jello leading into it. Towards end of the book there, we get in to the political connotations like Chomsky and Jon Strange. Was your reason nearly to approach a natural chronological beginning by putting them first, or did you think the more intellectual stuff towards the end might be intimidating to the reader if reading right off to the beginning of the book like that?

DS: I think there is definitely a thought as far as that goes. You don't I didn't really want to hit someone with something really dense or very theory-based politically right off the bat. But I thought it was much important actually as far as arrangement goes. If people like MacKaye or Kathleen Hanna, there's more of that. Those people have been so instrumental in creating the language that we use to talk about punk, and each in their own different way. It’s very important in order to approach the rest of the book that this sort of ground work be laid from the start. So, I was sort of my thinking of putting those people first.

...

[Jaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of interviews, some more interesting to me than others... but that's only to be expected in a collection of magazine articles; you're unlikely to be pulled in by every interview in every issue. There are engaging long-form discussions with Kathleen Hanna, Jello Biafra, Ian MacKaye and Steve Albini, and a hilarious oral history of Black Flag which shows just how dysfunctional they were (Greg Ginn is the Mark E Smith of hardcore).

Unfortunately, too much ephemera is included for this book to have stood the test of time - it seems unlikely that 20 years after the fact that anyone will be interested in the goings on of obscure hardcore bands who maybe sold 2000 records in their lifetime. I gather there is an updated version of this book, though, so maybe these interviews have been excised from that?

[Elliot Chalom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of interviews. They managed to get the big names in punk to speak to them – Ian MacKaye, Jello Biafra, Thurston Moore, Kathleen Hanna, Bob Mould, Steve Albini, the members of Black Flag and Sleater-Kinney – but also covered the art-punk world, the smaller names, even the failed performers. The interviewers’ biases often show through, but I think that’s OK in a book like this one. My only critique is that it is dated, since the topics that folks cared about a decade or two ago either aren’t all relevant today or have changed in ways that affect the conversation [the "war in Iraq" is the Persian Gulf War, and there's an interview about the "radical" idea of selling music digitally] , but the book still far exceeded my expectations and surpassed similar anthologies.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chicken soup for the DIY soul, I found this book more inspiring and enlightening than I imagined it would be. I recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid to live their life according to their own agendas, not someone else's.

I'm hyped to read the revised edition as many of these interviews were done right on the cusp of technological and political changes.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dripping with ego, angst, idealism and power chords. I picked this up for the interviews with the Gossip, Sleater Kinney and Kathleen Hanna. Great reads but the standout was probably the collection of interviews with Black Flag members...so bitchy.

[Karla Baldeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review on Spanish.
Una colección de entrevista hechas a los editores de la magazine Punk Planet hasta el 2007 (al menos en la versión actualizada) hacen sobresalir la enorme repercusión política de ciertas bandas y movimientos activistas sobre cuestiones trascendentales en EE. UU.
Es por ello que la entrevista a Noam Chomsky, entre otros inesperados invitados, me pareció tan relevante y entrelazada con el movimiento ideológico de esta época en particular. Un gustazo quitarme la impresión de frivolidad que usualmente vinculaba con este lapso de tiempo a los jóvenes de mi generación en ese país. La música de protesta que inspiró a toda una generación era una clara resonancia a su disconformidad.
Lo único que bajó un poco mi calificación fue que la leí después de leer Please, Kill Me de Legs McNeil y no pude dejar de comparar ambos libros. Este me pareció un poco más denso que el primero.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed some inspiration to write a punk-themed story, so this was an easy choice.

Lots of great interviews here - the only thing I would somewhat fault this collection on is that while the interviews do sound like conversations, they are basically "Q&A" - style interviews - so you're not going to get too much in terms of a "story" - each interview has a great, insightful introduction to the person, but after that, it's strictly a "Q&A"-style profile.

On the plus side, the collection is intelligently organized. It begins with the "usual suspects" for a punk magazine (Black Flag, Ian MacKaye, Bob Mould), then it goes into the trailblazers, then artists, then it ends with a series of interviews about people who have become disillusioned with the punk scene.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ler sobre Punk sempre me anima e com esse livro não foi diferente. A entrevista do Ian MacKay foi incrível e a paixão dele pela música é inegável, me fez escutar meus álbuns favoritos do Fugazi tudo de novo com uma sensação nova no peito. O Sleater-Kinney, banda que marcou meu gosto musical na adolescência é outra que demonstra uma paixão que é gostosa de se ler aos olhos de um fã. Apesar de algumas entrevistas meio chatas (sempre né) esse se tornou um dos meus livros favoritos em relação ao movimento, e a entrevista com o Noam Chomsky é uma das que eu não esperava mas que também me agradou demaisss.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someday I’m sure I’ll feel I’ve read enough interviews with Ian MacKaye, Steve Albini, etc. etc. But that day is not today. And while the first section felt a little like a completist task, I grew to appreciate later portions of the book including less common interviews with visual artists, filmmakers, activists, etc. Some of those were the most interesting and original perspectives of all, and filled out the punk-as-philosophy/culture piece that’s often as valuable as the music.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I would have appreciated reading this book more about a decade ago. However, due to changes that have occurred in my life since then, some of the interviews no longer resonate with me as much, especially the ones with musicians. On the other hand, I found the political, activist, and artist interviews to be more intriguing. Nevertheless, as a record of the era, this book is an excellent compilation of content that can still motivate and encourage others.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this. It covers interviews with a wide range of people within the music industry, from publishers to artists, but also activists and people trying to shake up the scene, and even people who decided to leave the punk world altogether. It was really cool to read about this little piece of culture, and what made it especially interesting is how much of what they were talking about then still applies today. All together an excellent and in some ways very enlightening read.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of influential punk interviews. I didn't read all the interviews, picked the ones I was most interested in.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent retrospective of interviews about music, culture, politics, and America from a vintage punk rock publication.

[Gacoca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is totally great.

[Anna Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Punk Planet holds a special place in my heart. I still have all of my copies.

[violeta · Rating 2 out of 5]

wanted to read this book for. along while…don’t think it was that good though….better questions???

too much like long form article, get deeper

[Alexander Kosoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

We Owe You Nothing is a collection of select interviews from Punk Planet magazine from the late ’90s and early noughties. Most of the interviewees are musicians from punk bands, but also people from the ’biz side––people running record labels or distribution networks––as well as individuals and groups involved in politics that mattered to often left-leaning punks, like Noam Chomsky or representatives from Ruckus Society or Voices in the Wilderness. The end result is mostly about punk music and culture, but includes important discussions surrounding ethics and morality, society, and life.

I often enjoy reading interviews, but there’s something particularly special about a collection like We Owe You Nothing, where the interviewer knows enough about the interviewee’s work to move beyond a superficial introduction, and the interviewee feels comfortable enough, as a result, to be candid with his answers. Right from the first interview, I knew I was in for a treat reading this book: When Ian MacKaye from Fugazi relates his father’s perspective on the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood, I could feel the sincerity. This wasn’t rehearsed marketing; this was real. Sharing in such a thing helps readers to witness even a glimpse of someone else’s experience, and it helps to better understand the human condition. While I didn’t find all the interviews to be equally interesting, most, if not all, managed to maintain this level of honesty.

From this depiction, I got an overall sense that the people working on Punk Planet found themselves within an aging movement struggling in many ways to maintain the original, simpler essence that drew many people to it. This on its own doesn’t suggest that it was necessarily dead or dying, or even that there was a lack of value in the then-current output, but more that there was significant splintering within the movement and also threats from the mainstream to steal the punk soul and mangle it in the process. This seemed to bring a general distrust and a lack of cohesiveness with it, which served to at least damage what made the underground such a vibrant community a decade before. However, We Owe You Nothing brings to mind discussions of the failure and decline of countercultural movements of years past. (Jack Kerouac’s lament that American society was more and more rejecting the simple life he fought for in The Dharma Bums and Hunter Thompson’s analysis of the failure of the psychedelic movement in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas are the big things I’m reminded of, specifically.) This makes me consider that We Owe You Nothing may, in fact, be a historical record documenting the decline of punk culture, though likely not the music.

But, even if I’m wrong about the last point, punk’s similarities to cultural upheavals from bygone eras likely more strongly demonstrates that, if a single movement loses direction and ultimately dies out, the spirit endures––though it likely morphs into something that doesn’t superficially resemble its previous incarnation. There are still people out there who believe that people are more important than money, countries, or corporations; that you shouldn’t have to conform to live a meaningful life; and that some things are worth fighting for, even if public opinion is against you and even if it comes with personal risk. The trick then becomes finding where it goes, what it becomes next.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My teenage heroes, some of them teenaged at the time. Uniquely in punk, PP showed the muddiness of the ideology in things; the genuinely thoughtful people here interviewed share a tendency to blur party lines.

There are radicals talking radically in the usual manner (Chomsky, Biafra) but also practitioners of social good (the Central Ohio Abortion Access Fund and the remarkable Voices in the Wilderness), iconoclasts of iconoclasm (Hanna, Mackaye) and even a few apolitical ethical-egoist libertines (Albini, Frank Kozik) who are common in punk, but rare in its commentary.

Sinker’s super-earnest intro text inserts all the right misgivings about Chumbawumba’s entryism or Kozik’s blithe first-generation patriotism; he somehow retains his beautiful faith in ‘Punk’ (as empowering civil-disobedient grass-roots social justice) in the face of vast variation in actual punks.

My own attempt at the social meaning of punk gave up on seeing it as one thing (or even as generally good things) entirely. What are we to judge a social phenomenon by? Its majority expression? Its noblest exemplars? Its effects? (Which in punk’s case, let’s not flatter ourselves, were aesthetic rather than straightforwardly political: there is now slight freedom in clothing and hair colour in the workplaces of the land; there is now a standard pretence to deviance in all youth movements (e.g. pop music)...)

Sinker’s judgment is strong (cf. writing the oral history of Black Flag, with each member contradicting each other!), but his prose is wearing.

This is the real thing though: one type of inspirational, anti-inspirational person, in their own words.

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I weren’t making my way through the Rory Gilmore Challenge (slowly but surely), I never would’ve picked this book up. Do I have some familiarity with punk? Sure–I have at least a basic understanding of the music, aesthetics, and general political culture that goes on in the scene even if the farthest I’ve dabbled into it is the fringes. From that familiarity with punk, would I go so far as to say that I enjoy punk? I would indeed! The fringes I have stumbled along have been enjoyable for sure. But my experience with punk has been fringe and modern–before reading this book the latest my familiarity with the genre and culture went was like the late 90s to early 2000s. Of all the names listed in this book’s synopsis the only one I could say with certainty that I knew who the person was is Noam Chomsky, and the only other one that sounded somewhat familiar was Sleater-Kinney. I’d certainly never heard of Punk Planet before. Without the Rory Gilmore Challenge, I probably would’ve never known about this book. If I did somehow discover it, I probably would’ve flipped through it, gone “I don’t know who these people are,” and put the book back down. But, alas, I really enjoy completing assignments, so despite not being familiar with most of the bands and individuals whose interviews are featured in this book, I started to read it. And not only did I start it–I finished it. And not only did I finish this book–I actually enjoyed it... Read the full review here

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some excellent interviews with a number of punk musicians, artists, and other major players. I never read this magazine while it was in print—mostly because I was incredibly oblivious—but I found this book at my local library and particularly enjoyed the Q&As with Ian MacKaye, Sleater-Kinney, Steve Albini, and graphic designer Art Chantry. I could especially identify with Chantry's preference for more traditional design methods (as design has been commodified by technology) and Duncan Barlow's disillusionment with the hardcore scene. On the flip side: I found Chumbawamba's stance rather confusing, I couldn't really stand Frank Kozik (aside from a few of the comments he made) because he came off as sexist and mostly ignorant—especially with his insipid use of the term "retarded"—and I was was looking forward to, but was ultimately a little disappointed by, the one with Kathleen Hanna. All in all, the way in which Punk Planet conducted interviews was admirable. By letting the people speak entirely for themselves, it was totally opposite from the mostly fluffy, self-indulgent pieces from most of the major music media. After all, I'm going to assume that most of us purchase magazines or seek out interviews for the chance to hear what the artists have to say anyway. If you like punk music and independent culture, this is essential (and inspiring) reading.

[East Bay J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Punk Planet was the best “punk” magazine ever to see publication. The staff were operating on a level that embraced forward thinking and cast a wide net to include all the denizens of punk, be they musician, film maker, author, graphic designer, etc. It was always a treat to pick up a copy of Punk Planet because, always, there was inspiration in those pages.

Reading what Editor, Daniel Sinker, thinks of as the cream of the crop of interviews done for the magazine is a chance to revisit the quality, excellence and inspiration Punk Planet had to offer. Interviews with Ian MacKaye or Kathleen Hannah are as interesting and full of ideas as those with progressive Noam Chomsky or the members of humanitarian group, Voices In The Wilderness. Some of the interviews are less interesting to me but those may well be more interesting to someone else.

Best of all, this one ain’t just for punks. These people’s words apply across the board to all of us, hopefully pushing and motivating us towards something better.

[Sandee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved reading the interviews with artists that I admire (Miranda July) and also those I never was too familiar with or knew much about but discovered something I really liked about that individual's stances on subjects (Ted Leo). But interestingly for me, when they are all stacked side by side, there was a general theme that I perceived of entitlement, whininess, who is "not punk enough" and a lot of shit talking about the whole scene. You want to be a part of it yet many artists seem to get quickly burned out by the punk scene. And the whole theme of "selling out", which I get it - it goes against your punk morals - gets a little old after a while. But I like thinking critically and I like a good interview I can disagree with from time to time. I also enjoy that the interviewers don't mind taking their subjects to task on some of these very issues.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curated by someone I used to know, this anthology cuts a broad swath through a defunct magazine's myriad interview subjects. Some are more interesting than others, some are disappointing and a few are revelations. Ian McKaye, Sleater-Kinney, Noam Chomsky and Steve Albini all do more than enough to hold up their ends, and the deconstructions of Black Flag and Jawbreaker are particularly interesting. Some of the political stuff (Punk Voter 2004 anyone?) is painfully dated, but the interviews that call out the bombing campaign against Iraq that began in 1998 are a powerful reminder of a chunk of recent history that has largely been overwritten by subsequent events.

[Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

As would be expected, the interviews are not all equally interesting, but on the whole I really enjoyed the book. A lot of these people are not frequent mainstream interview subjects, nor the subject of an intelligent interview, and that goes a long way.

It would be fascinating to see a follow-up book with newer interviews with the subjects in this book; I'm not sure that Ted Leo would still qualify as someone who kind of burned out of punk. I chuckled a bit about him being lumped in there, he's done a lot of quality work in the passing years.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interviews, interviews, and then more interviews. Gets a little boring pretty fast. And disappointing, too. In particular, Kathleen Hanna unfortunately comes off as self-centered and even slightly reactionary. The interviews with Black Flag is the typical boring drama that no one cares about. If there are any highlights they are the interviews with Steve Albini, Jon Strange, Bob Mould, Los Crudos, and the Central Ohio Abortion Access Fund. Everything else is the same old shit.

[Betsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The trouble with this collection of interviews is that if you don't care about the artist being interviewed, you probably don't care what they're saying. Or get their references to their own work.

I read the people I liked, which was nice, then I read a couple of the interviews of people I'd heard of, which was dull. And then I stopped.

If you like one of the artists in the book, you could probably just read it in the bookstore.

[Tamara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting interviews here, notably Noam Chomsky, Kathleen Hanna, Los Crudos and Frank Kozik. Lots of stuff you've heard already, such as ramblings by Jello Biafra, Black Flag, et al. Pays almost exclusive attention to the '90's. Interesting stuff, but by no means indispensable -- a good read for the bus or the beach, or a nice primer for the young'uns.