About the Book
Real Conversations No. 1 is a collection of lengthy interviews
with indie-media luminaries Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Billy Childish,
and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
These punks and poets extemporize passionately, angrily, hopefully,
fearfully, and humorously on how to stay independent in a corporatized
world, covering everything from SUVs, the WTO, and the prison industry
to visual art, punk music, independent presses, and artistic and
political protest. Filled with controversial, sometimes conflicting, and
occasionally unexpected commentary born of years of artistic, industry,
and political experience, this book appeals to a broad cross-section of
progressive artists, writers, independent publishers, producers,
skateboarders, intellectuals, and activists. These funny, entertaining,
enlightening, deep discussions about the sources of creativity,
philosophy, ethics, and the meaning of life are inspiring and
provocative.
About the Author:
Henry
Rollins is the former lead singer for early punk group Black Flag. He's also a
poet, journalist, book publisher, music producer, punk culture archivist,
actor, spoken-word artist, comedian, television show host, radio show host, record
collector and vocalist fronting his own Rollins band.
Born
2.13.61 (also the name of his publishing house), Rollins grew up in Washington,
D.C. At age twelve he attended the Bullis School for Boys. During his early
teens he befriended Ian MacKaye (who would later form Teen Idles, Minor Threat,
and Fugazi); the two were pioneering skateboard activists. In 1980 he joined State
of Alert (SOA) as lead vocalist, and in 1981 joined Black Flag and moved to Los
Angeles. Henry
Rollins and his band tour regularly out of their home base in Los Angeles,
California.
Jello Biafra was the lead singer/songwriter of the early San
Francisco punk band Dead Kennedys. Unlike most punk musicians, he was one of
the first to go up against the music industry itself, forming Alternative
Tentacles Records over 20 years ago. He remains musically active today in
Guantanamo School of Medicine.
In 1986 his Frankenchrist trial (the first
record in history charged with obscenity) forced him into international
limelight as a gadfly speaking out on censorship and First-Amendment violations.
Thus began his career as a spoken-word firebrand. Biafra has a way of
penetrating political and corporate media smokescreens to spotlight the real
issues festering beneath. His radical insights inform a dozen music albums and
six spoken-word albums on the Alternative Tentacles label.
Billy Childish is a British cult hero--a painter, punk
rocker, poet, and publisher (Hangman Books) who since 1977 has produced over
150 LPs, CDs, cassettes and 7" 4s; 40 books; several zines; and thousands of
drawings and paintings. His bands include Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, Thee
Mighty Caesars and The Buff Medways. His books include
My Fault and
Notebooks
of a Naked Youth.
Billy's official website is
www.theebillychildish.com.See also
www.stuckism.comfor information on Stuckism, the first Remodernist art group, which Childish
founded with Charles Thomson, Sexton Ming and other artists. Billy Childish
lives in Chatham, Kent, England.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was the first San Francisco Poet
Laureate. Besides poetry and prose, he has produced hundreds of paintings,
drawings and other works.
In 1953 he and Peter D. Martin co-founded City Lights Bookstore,
which published Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem,
Howl. His own
Pictures
of the Gone World and
A Coney Island of the Mind became poetry
best-sellers. Ferlinghetti has spoken out against HUAC, the Vietnam war, and
numerous other political and social violations.
Until the end of his life, he continued to write, give readings, paint, and write a
monthly column for the San Francisco
Chronicle, "Poetry As News,"
archived on
www.citylights.com.His numerous books are listed at the back of this interview.
Currently there are five biographies in English of Lawrence
Ferlinghetti: Neeli Cherkovski's
Ferlinghetti: A Biography (1979;
personable, not a critical biography); Barry Silesky's
Ferlinghetti: The
Artist in His Time (1990; a more scholarly account); Larry R. Smith's
Poet-At-Large(1983; not a full-scale biography); Michael Skau's
Constantly Risking
Absurdity (1989; Whitson Publishing Co.) and Christopher Felver's
Ferlinghetti
Portrait, an art-photography hardback. Numerous books containing
Ferlinghetti biographical data and interviews exist in other languages. He has
also been documented on videos such as
Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Rivers of
Light and
An Evening with Lawrence Ferlinghetti) as well as on
various audio recordings, including some poetry-and-jazz sessions.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti has two children, several
grand-children, and lives in San Francisco. [He died February 22, 2021]
