BOOK NOOK NEW NOISE
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INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST/BASSIST FAT MIKE BY GABI CHEPURNY
“There’s no way that three terrible musicians, junkies, and alcoholics could make it this successful without doing anything, without going to a major,” says lead singer and bassist Fat Mike Burkett about the growth trajectory of his band, NOFX, which is chronicled in their new book, “NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories.” The book hits shelves on April 12 via De Capo Press, and it’s 352 pages of one unexpected story after another, even for those who have been fans since the band’s inception in 1983. Fat Mike, guitarist Eric Melvin, and drummer Erik “Smelly” Sandin started NOFX before punk sold to the majors and even before Fat Mike knew how to sing. Guitarist Aaron “El Hefe” Abeyta joined the band in 1992, ending their search for a second guitarist. The lineup has remained the same ever since. NOFX began the process of writing their book four or five years ago with the help
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of Jeff Alulis, who helped film “Backstage Passport,” the Fuse TV Series that documented the behind-the-scenes action of a NOFX world tour. “We didn’t go with someone who’s ever written a book before. Which is weird, right?” Burkett muses. “So, once again, we did it unlike other people do. We decided to let our friend do it. Basically, listening to what other people tell you to do has not worked for me my whole INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JOE BIEL BY LILY MOAYERI life. If someone says, ‘This is how it’s done,’ I’m suspect.” A punk attitude directs the life of Joe Biel, founder of the 20-year-strong The book covers a shocking amount of Portland, Ore., based independent dark content, including information even entity, Microcosm Publishing. Biel is NOFX’s members didn’t know about each also the co-founder of the Portland Zine other. “Writing a book, you have to dig Symposium, a filmmaker, and an author, deep into your core—for the kind of book most recently of his own autobiography, we wrote—and tell truths that you’ve “Good Trouble: Building a Successful never told anyone,” Burkett says. “We all Life and Business with Asperger’s,” discussed it, and we said if we want to do which he self-released on March 15. a book, it’s gonna be one like no one’s ever done before. We have to tell the honest Not yet 40 years of age, Biel penning his truth about ourselves and bear our souls. life story could be considered premature, And I think we did that.” but early on in “Good Trouble,” it’s clear that this is not the case. Born to For most of their career, NOFX have been a soon-to-be disabled father and an mislabeled and widely known as the funny abusive mother, Biel struggled through punk band that shouldn’t be taken too a difficult upbringing where he spent seriously, but the book may alter their most of his time drunk, but productive. reputation. Burkett says, “People think of As an industrious teenager, Biel started us as a joke band, because we’re funny on what would become Microcosm with stage and we have a few funny songs, but I milk crates full of zines he sold at punk mean, our songs aren’t funny. […] I think shows. people are gonna think about us completely differently. I think maybe we’ll get more Biel writes with the hindsight benefit of respect.” knowing he has Asperger’s Syndrome, Burkett may not be entirely sure where to attribute the band’s success to, he espouses a theory in chapter six. “I don’t believe in God, and I don’t believe in destiny,” Burkett clarifies, “but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s possibly a race of mole people living in the Earth’s core, playing a world-sized game of electric football, and using some huge magnet to somehow always guide me to safety through the chaos.”
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