Fairly Normal Radio #3

Punk is not only about looks.

Last week we came across an interview from this Steve Flack guy, he is a member of Liberty, a Punk Rock band from the 80s. In the interview, he explains why, now in his 50s and more than 30 years later, the band is once again active in both music and radical politics. The sentence “The People Who Care Are Still Angry!” ( the title of the 1986 Liberty’s album) got stuck in our heads since then.

It’s common as a teen to have your punk rock phase, but when you get caught growing up it’s easy to stop caring. Eventually, you get a job, your own family, a bunch of responsibilities, and you consider yourself too old to have a revolutionary mindset. The truth is that being punk requires a lot of energy, and punk songs are not usually the type of music that you want to listen to after a long day at work.

For those who have no idea what we’re talking about, the Cambridge Dictionary defines Punks as a culture popular among young people, especially in the late 1970s, involving opposition to authority expressed through shocking behavior, clothes, and hair, and fast, loud music. Punks might seem scary at first, but we think we have a lot to learn from these subcultures we tend to marginalize right away.

The punk ethos is heavily reliant on beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, and anti-corporate greed, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist and direct action. All in all, punk is about liking what you like, doing things your way, defining your own fundamentals, and saying what you think. You don’t really need tattoos, spike bracelets, a leather jacket, or two feet high red mohawk (although that is wicked cool).

Fairly Normal is a small independent brand and that gives us room to do what we believe in, without having to answer to a big board of corporate shareholders. This allows us to tell the world Fast Fashion sucks, that we should produce organically or recycled, protect our workers, pay fair and living wages even when all of this is slowly crushing down our profit margins. We answer to no one but ourselves and our own principles. Is there anything more anti-systemic than that?

We now leave you with a collection of songs we used to hear during our skate afternoons in our teens. An ode to the punk mentality that aims to fire up the revolutionary enthusiasm inside each one of us. The objective of this playlist is quite simple: to challenge you for non-conformity and fight for what you believe it’s right, even when everyone says the opposite. Keep in mind: just because there are some big sharks, it doesn’t mean they’re always right.

Stay Punk,

PS: if you kept thinking about the two feet high red mohawk try to google “The Casualties” for inspiration.