The legendary Canadian band’s first record turns 21.
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As of the end of this month, Propagandhi’s first album will be of legal drinking age in the United States, not that it hasn’t been drenched in beer by diehard fans more than a few times over the past two decades. How To Clean Everything came out with little fanfare on the then-brand new Fat Wreck Chords (NOFX, Lagwagon, Descendents), but kickstarted the career of one of the most influential bands in punk rock, both in terms of music and critical thinking. Over the years, Propagandhi has evolved from a blistering fast, snotty “skate punk” act into a crushing, intelligent band that’s one-thirds hardcore, one-thirds metal, and one-thirds A People’s History of the United States thrown into a blender and smashed against a wall.
Unlike many others who discovered aggressive music at an early age, I was a latecomer to Propagandhi – around this time three years ago, I was on a short tour of the Northeast with fellow Good Men Project contributor Tony Bucci when he threw on something I’d never heard before.
“What’s this?”
“This is Propagandhi, man. ‘Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes’. You’ve never heard them?”
“No, this is really co-…holy shit.”
And thus began a love affair I’ve had with the band’s music ever since. So when Propagandhi agreed to talk with me for the Good Men Project, needless to say, it was one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do yet as a “writer”. I spoke with songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Chris Hannah about punk rock and politics, and I found out that he doesn’t like the Winnipeg Jets.
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The Good Men Project: When Propagandhi started, punk rock wasn’t as heavily associated with anti-racism, feminism, veganism, and you shoved those issues to the front of the line. Do you think the changes within the community since you started have been for better or for worse?
Chris Hannah: Well, actually, I would say the punk scene we grew up with in the 80’s was generally more willing to explore and embrace radical ideas than today’s scene. Allthe bands that seemed “big” and important to us back then — Dead Kennedys, Corrosion of Conformity, DRI, Guilt Parade, MDC, Subhumans, DOA, etc — all of them dealt with far more radical ideas than the mainstream punk bands of today. The mainstream punk bands of the 90’s were too busy driving SUV’s to the local McDonalds’ while brokering video game placements on their giant cell phones to remember that heritage, so maybe it seemed like we came out of nowhere with this stuff when we put out Less Talk, More Rock, but in reality we were merely standing on the shoulders of giants.
GMP: When did you guys first start taking an interest in politics, history, etc.? Was that kind of a core mission of the band?
CH: I had zero interest in progressive/radical politics when I got into music. I was just a little headbanger obsessed with how fast a band could play (that hasn’t really changed! haha). While I was trying to get Jord (Samolesky, Propagandhi’s drummer) to listen to the thrash metal records I loved, Jord was showing me records by punk bands that were raging about Ronald Reagan and war and corporate domination. I didn’t understand it at first. I thought they were wackos, but they had a similar sense of frantic urgency that the best metal bands had, so I started listening to the records and eventually, when I held up their version of world events to the version of world events I’d been taught to believe, I could see theirs was reality-based and mine was not. that was the beginning of my political transformation and the unstated mission of the band was to pass that transformation on to others trapped in ideological tar-pits.
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“Power over others, as subtle or ubiquitous as it may seem, is an alluring short term gain, and our lives are short. People don’t really care about being good ancestors.”
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GMP: What were your biggest influences when you were first starting out in terms of songwriting?
CH: All the great 80’s metal bands primarily: Sacrifice, Razor, Voivod, early Metallica, Venom, Raven, etc.. then punk bands like SNFU, Raw Power, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion.
GMP: Do you think society has progressed – or maybe a better term is just “become better” – over the past twenty-five or so years, on a basic level of equality?
CH: I think it depends on the metric. if you’re a white gay man living in rural Manitoba in 2014, you stand a far better chance of not having your head kicked in compared to 1985. so that’s better. But we still live in a homophobic society. We still live in a colonial settler state. We still live in a society that is essentially a rape-culture. We still live in a world where people’s lives are ended in the pursuit of profit. So, lots to be done. And importantly, I think that wherever we have “become better”, it’s only due to the years of unbelievable sacrifice and struggle that oppressed/ marginalized groups put in to fighting the prevailing order.
GMP: What do you think is the biggest obstacle to solving problems like inequality, racism, sexism, etc.?
CH: People with relative privilege don’t want to relinquish their privilege. plain and simple. Power over others, as subtle or ubiquitous as it may seem, is an alluring short term gain, and our lives are short. People don’t really care about being good ancestors. That is a huge obstacle and the prevailing economic systems we have been born into leverage this human frailty to sustain themselves.
GMP: Over the years you started developing a more metal-driven sound, to the point where Failed States was my favorite metal record that year. Have you been embraced at all by that community? I’ve always kind of felt it wasn’t as receptive to political discussion as the punk scene.
CH: I don’t think we’ve been embraced by the metal scene in any general sense. As a metal fan myself, I can understand why not to a point. We don’t “present” as a metal band in any way, shape or form. And you could say the same with the punk scene actually. I don’t think we’re particularly embraced by the punk scene either because we don’t “present” as a punk band. We’re just a band. There’s not much to hang your hat on if you know what I mean. Our crowd is different from either scene really. There is some crossover, but the people that like Propagandhi tend to just like music and have some degree of interest in the ideas and not worry about whether it’s “punk” or “metal” or whatever.
GMP: When I heard about Godspeed You Black Emperor rejecting the Polaris prize winnings on moral grounds I immediately wondered what Propagandhi would have done in that situation. So, uh, what would you have done?
CH: I don’t think we’ll ever have to worry about something like that, haha.
GMP: Are there any major differences, in your mind, between American and Canadian politics? I know you guys collectively aren’t waiving pompoms for Harper.
CH: There are differences, sure. but I think the main point of concern is the shift to the far/reactionary right in Canadian politics, with Harper as the main head on the hydra. Obama is a war criminal and corporate shill, but I would place him to the left of Stephen Harper for whatever that’s worth.
GMP: I know you’ve talked previously about balancing your love of hockey with your moral opposition to stuff like that – but how stoked were you when the Winnipeg Jets came back?
CH: I was not particularly stoked at all! Haha. I was never a Jets fan. I’m a Leafs fan, so any excitement I had was because I would now have the chance to see the Leafs play here in Winnipeg a couple times a year!
GMP: How would you feel about an NFL team in Canada?
CH: Utterly disinterested.
GMP: Where do you see Propagandhi going in the next few years? Can we expect to see a new record soon?
CH: I wouldn’t say “soon”, but I can say that I am personally 110% excited about making another record!
Propagandhi is heading out on an Australian tour later this month.
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Photo credit: Mandy Malazdrewich/Epitaph Records