More INTERVIEWS!

We had a good few weeks of interviews! This month we chatted with Monica Laplante, Rich Gill, Vy Thorng, and James Benson.

Monica grew up in Rochester, MN before moving out to St. Paul for college. We chatted about the scene in the early 2010’s, realizing local artists exist, the sheltered life of catholic school and getting locked out in the snow.

Like Monica, James also grew up in Rochester. He got into the metal and hardcore scenes around 2007, when local schools ran battles of the bands, churches were punk venues, and limewire was the way to discover new music. We talked about Midwest Skate Park and the janky, drums only stage over the halfpipe, and a complete lack of heating during 30-degree winter shows.

Rich Gill, another Rochester local, founded Rochester Recordings to build out a database of Rochester punk and indie history with thousands of flyers, photos, videos, demos and more. He was the frontman for THE FUCKING AMERICANS, and was a part of the Southeast MN Punk scene in the 90s-00s heyday, when Pla-mor Ballroom was ripping and taping up shitty b/w fliers to every wall was the norm. He ended up living in Minneapolis after high school and ended up going on tour with Motion City Soundtrack, getting a taste for the growth of Punk outside of the greater Minnesota area.

Finally, Vy moved to Minnesota in the 80s at the ripe age of eight, discovering local punk through some tapes he picked up at a garage sale. Amid a sea of f***s, we talked about the sheltered life of Minnesotans, mutual aid in the punk scene, rebelling against Ronald Raegan and getting into mischief in downtown Minneapolis.

Trailer and public announcement are tomorrow!