Posted on January 10, 2010 - by Taron Cochrane

True North, Strong & Free! No.1

Random Thoughts straight from a Friendly Canadian’s Punk Rock Journal.

Taron Cochrane is a graphic designer (whose clients have included Far From Finished, The Unseen, The Real McKenzies and more!) Interviewer. Music Enthusiast. Workaholic. Smart Ass and token tall, skinny guy with thick rimmed glasses.

It’s 7am on December 22nd, 2009, I am slowly marching my tired body through knee-cap high snow banks.

My destination is my car a few feet away.  My mission is to un-plug it.  Yes, you read right…I plug in my car.  It’s the Canadian way!  Without it my engine would freeze solid and I’d be stuck out here to die a horrible icy death.

Dealing with weather like this can bring a man down.  It’s depressing, it’s dark and it’s unbelievably cold.  Today is no exception except for some reason on this morning there is a warmth inside of me I can’t quite describe.

As I turn over the engine and my car gasps to life, I realize that I left the stereo cranked the night before.  It’s damn loud but as soon as I hear the first line that warm feeling hits me again, this time like a tank!

“White riot…I wanna riot!”

That’s it, the warmth was the music. I almost forgot that today was the day we said good-bye to punk rock legend, Mr. Joe Strummer not too many years ago.

How could I have forgotten?  Not that you should attempt to memorize days people pass away but this was the day that every single person in the punk rock community world-wide lost a little piece of themselves.  A legend had truly fallen.

As I sat there shivering through classic Clash songs like “1977″, “Clash City Rockers” and “Cheat” I reveled in the legacy this band had left behind and wondered what it must feel like walking those same streets that had shaped a musical revolution.

As the coffee in my hand finally kicked in then the thoughts really started to flood my brain.  What punk rock from my neck of the woods had influenced the world? What bands could we wear proudly on our sleeve?  Where did Canada fit in the punk rock pyramid?

Now that the bone-chilling cold was starting to slowly leave my body, I made this my new mission.  My destination had been met and the task was now at hand.  It was my duty to find out as much as I could about the punk history of my country and what it has provided the punk community as a whole over the years.  Not to mention, I needed to know how this history affected the Canadian punk you currently hear today.

Over the next few months, I’d like you to awkwardly take my hand and together we’ll cross this fine country from mountains to prairies…sea to sea. We’ll watch the sun go down as we talk endlessly about the past, present and future of (not only punk rock) but Canadian punk rock.

Who knows we may even fall in love?

In closing, nothing to me is greater than pride in where you come from and having an amazing soundtrack of good fucking music to guide you down life’s’ twisted paths is key. It will keep the highs high and the lows low.

Joe Strummer once said, “The Future is Unwritten”.  In that case, I think it’s time to get writing.

See ya soon!
Taron