Posted on September 6, 2009 - by Editor

Politically Correct? Star Fucking Hipsters

Stza Crack aka Sturgeon of Star Fucking Hipsters © Imelda Michalczyk

Star Fucking Hipsters, formed from the ashes of an idea Sturgeon had a few years back, are the natural progression of Leftover Crack. As a female fronted band, they still tackle issues fans will take to, and politics and civil rights issues are core to the band, having themselves been exposed to run ins with the police and the law in the US. Stza Crack AKA Sturgeon took some time to expand on the evolution of the band, their musical progression and clear some of the air on the police confrontations.

So how have things been going so far?

Yeah yeah well. I have been thinking back to when I first came out to the UK and mainland Europe with Leftover Crack and the response was very dead in Europe and huge in the UK; and I wouldn’t say its shifted, it’s the same in the UK but much better in Europe.

And having the Leftover Crack support base for SFH, does that help?

Oh always, Chocking Victim helped Leftover Crack and now it’s helping SFH

Natural progression

Yeah.

And you have a new album coming out this year, is that right?

Yeah well we are trying to get the record out this year, we have recorded a lot of the songs, like 13. It’s a nice number for a full length, 13 songs, even if a couple of them are quick short numbers. We are going to play a few of them tonight.

Ok, so you have actually recorded them already?

Yeah we recorded the music, 11 of them, and we have done the vocals for about six or seven of them. I have never worked this fast on a record before.

Is that a good or bad thing; working this fast on a record?

Well I mean, it’s good we have musicians who can keep up with you at a fast pace as a music writer, and lyricist. So I think it’s a good thing.

So you are pretty much setting the tone and pace at the moment?

Yeah and we are trying to do it for a low budget, this is through Alternative Tentacles as well, and then we are going to try and do a third for Fat (Wreck Chords). And in the meantime we are going to try and work on a split with The Slackers. (The drummer Ara plays in both bands). We recently worked out we will put out a split 7” where we cover two of each other’s songs, and I’m not sure yet, we got to talk to everybody so they can do the new songs too ‘cos it’s not fair only giving them like 12 songs compared to their 50-100 songs!

Star Fucking Hipsters © Imelda Michalczyk

Yeah that’s a cool idea, kind of in the vein of the BYO series.

Those are cool that’s where we did the Leftover Crack / Citizen Fish thing.

The drummer is not on tour with you this time, cos the Slackers rolled through a few days ago?

No, that’s right, we saw him in Bristol and that’s where we sat down and worked the split out. We have the drummer from Ensign and The Degenerics; our guitar player Frank’s, other band.

Has it been a smooth transition having him come on board?

We have had three drummers, two bass players and so far everybody has been great.

Is the rest of the band still the same? Yourself, Nico, Frank and Yula?

Yula is not here ‘cos of personal issues, she will be touring with us in the future and Ara Is obviously with The Slackers. But that’s the core of the band, the people who we couldn’t do this band are me, Nico and Frank. So without any of us really we couldn’t tour.

I have read a lot of things about this online, but how did things come about for this band; this was something you were planning to in 2004 I read? And now it’s come back on board the past couple of years?

Yeah well do you want the detailed history or entomology of the band? Or just a general yes, that’s right? What you said is correct but I can go into more detail.

Tell me the detail.

Ok well, we had a drummer in Leftover Crack called Brandon and he was my best friend and we were going to start a female fronted punk band in 2005. And he died on tour in 2004 actually. So I kind of went into a rut and didn’t come out till the Summer. Well we hadn’t named the band yet and I got some musicians together who were easy going, for a completely female fronted band. I sung a few lines in four or five songs and a few shows, like three shows, in NYC, in 2005.

And you met the guys for the band in NY?

Mostly, one of them used to be in a band called Old Skull, who were like the only punk band, with a couple of brothers, and the only one I know of between the ages seven and nine, from Wisconsin, and we saw them and they became crusties. And we had a double kick metal drummer and this girl from Chicago. Kistin, who was in a couple punk bands there? I played bass and the guitar player was really metal. An Interesting mix. We had one song that ended up being a Leftover Crack song on the split Deadline with Citizen Fish, called “Life causes cancer”, which we don’t play but felt we should out it in our catalogue.

Do you write all the songs?

Well we did our first record and went on tour and didn’t have enough songs so we needed to learn some more, and we wrote 10 more and they were good and we were really happy with them. And with Frank, The first record I wrote almost everything and he wrote parts of a couple songs. And I realised me and him sitting in a room writing songs with an acoustic guitar usually, we would come up with brilliant stuff as far as I’m concerned. I try not to record songs I don’t like, or filler but there have been some (sticking hands up); guilty! But this stuff is good and we have come together on it really fast.

Do you see this band taking over from Leftover Crack?

Well this is a continuation of it. All the song writing energy went from Left Over Crack to Star Fucking Hipsters. It’s the new Leftover Crack I guess which I believe is the new black. (grinning)

And what’s with the name Star Fucking Hipsters? Not too many bands, even punk bands, have a swear word in their name.

I have this strange defence mechanism with the music industry, like some people believe Leftover Crack is big and we might get booked into playing something I don’t want to, ‘cos its like a corporate sponsor. Or you end up on some record store you don’t want to support ‘cos you don’t know them. If you are a punk like me, you need to know about it ‘cos it’s very easy for it to slip out of your control. As a defence mechanism. like with Leftover Crack, I think our best record is “Fuck World Trade” but most record stores in the US wont stock a record with the word ‘Fuck’ in the title or the World Trade Centre burning on the album cover. So I actually wanted the band not to be political in nature but it became that.

But your personal interests are always going to creep into the music.

Exactly, so we were really bad-ass, and no-one would be able to sell it anywhere.

Well yeah it filters out a lot.

Yeah it does, maybe I won’t do that forever but I keep just doing it and I totally don’t regret it at all.

I have read a lot about your well documented confrontations with the police .

Well I wouldn’t say well documented but they are documented and I wouldn’t say they are false information but …

So I hear Star Fucking Hipsters are suffering from the same things as Leftover Crack, when you tried to launch the first album in New York, with police intimidation etc.

Oh yeah, our first few shows were completely over run with this weird free speech issues and protests. Like we are in 2008 and these issues didn’t come up in the 60s; it’s taken us and me to bring them up, police ban our shows, the fact that we cause that, I’m not aware of anyone else that does that. It’s taken 30 years for the police to decide to act and silence people and is become this issue, and by default I was in the middle basically through my politics and the people involved in the court cases. And we play free shows in NYC every year and the police after years of hearing ‘Police Cracksteady’ and ‘One dead cop’, some have said it to me themselves “We like your music, you are like one of the best bands that play free shows, but why hate us?” and it’s like well “I don’t know maybe ‘cos you are a gang that backs each other up when you don’t have to”, it’s the nature of their game to back each other up.

Do you paint them all with a single brush?

Well I’m sure there are some good cops but if there is one, if there is a bad cop that does something wrong, the good cop has to still jump in and protect the bad cop so, it’s the gang mentality. The good cop can only be so good. I’m sure a lot of the good cops are the younger cops and after 10-20 years on the force they become corrupt, that’s the nature of power and authority. They have to, to some extent, as they are street soldiers.

Sure I’m a cynical person too but believe most people who join the police and politics do so for the right reason.

Right but I think time changes that. We became involved in the centre of this civil rights thing; we knew what was going on as they were targeting my bands. And before we even played a Star Fucking Hipsters shows cops were showing up and shutting down the shows. And then they came to the park where we played a free show and said there had to be a decibel limit. And the thing with that is it was 70Db & 1200 feet away which was basically the volume of a vacuum cleaner. And the ambient noise, like the crowd or them singing along was counted too, so we can’t really do a show, and if we can’t be heard that’s not free speech and that’s our point.

Is there a reason you get hassled by NYC police so much or do you get hassled when you travel too?

I get hassled overseas, I have been by the Italian and UK police.

For the same reasons?

No just random. Like a glass breaks near me which I have nothing to do with?

Guilty by association.

Yeah but police are pretty much same around the world.

OK, and you personally spend a lot of time in Guatemala and Mexico is that correct? Is there a reason for it?

I haven’t moved there, I do move around, but I have been going there the last seven years, every winter ‘cos its very cheap place to live and eat and kill time. After Choking Victim and LOC, killing time between recording and tours, month and months off, I started not liking NYC winters but now I have started enjoying them again. I just got sick of the freezing cold and its expensive in NYC, although I don’t pay rent ‘cos I live in a squat it became a thing y’know.? And I wanted to learn Spanish so I started taking Spanish lessons and travelled for a couple months. Getting to know a new country which was totally different yet still close for me to get to. The first time I went there I rode a bicycle from Texas 800 miles to Mexico. Took about a month. The second time I hitch hiked from Houston and every since then getting down in way or another. And my Spanish is improving.

Do you find the getaway time is good for writing music?

Sometimes. Like last year I took an acoustic guitar with me to write music but I really didn’t do much ‘cos I was drinking too much, I shouldn’t be doing that!

(I mentioned talking to Justin Sane from Anti Flag and under age shows)

Yeah I think people like Justin or me who are politically minded, or like many other people. You will try your damndest to not sing about politics but you can’t, it’s social responsibility to sing about it. Especially in a band, it’s almost like a necessity.

Sure I understand that-using the platform, but it’s a double edged sword as some fans will not like a band purely for their politics but the music.

Yeah sure you get that, but if you reach one out of a 100 kids you are doing good. Maybe those people will listen to it for ten years or a couple of years and eventually figure it out. They might actually take something positive out of it.

And for you is there a primary issue recently that you are concerned about- there have been so many things I realise like the Afghan-Pakistan region, recession etc.

The big thing in the past year is the immigration situation in the US. I don’t believe in national borders and nationalism is not a positive thing. It can be, but most people taker over a county and subjugate the local indigenous people so what happens to their identity and nationalism?

Yeah sure history is written by the winners.

Exactly. A winner’s history.

Star Fucking Hipsters © Imelda Michalczyk