15th Precinct: Be ‘Zine.

The Ampirellas, Punchline, 0007, Mourning Tide, Steve Towson, Out Of Step and Scarred Hope play the 15th Precinct launch at the Paddington Workers Club on Friday.

Brisbane punk rock zine launch their new issue this week, and are throwing a bash to celebrate this Friday night at the Paddington Workers Club. Bianca and Paul, the magazines production team, answered a few questions about the launch of their new issue.

What’s the story behind 15th Precinct?

Bianca: “I started it about four years ago because I wanted to promote all the great local bands in my area that the mainstream media didn’t give attention to and basically I wanted to give something back to the punk rock community ‘cause I get so much out of it and I love the music, ideas and culture to put it simply.”

Paul: “It started as 20 photocopied pages now it’s magazine size with a full colour glossy cover with bonus compilation CD.”

What drives you to put it all together?

Paul: “We’re in it for the money, we’re ‘punks for profit’ as someone on our guestbook put it so eloquently. We just don’t know what to do with all the money ‘cause the mansion is full and the boot of the Ferrari’s overflowing too.”

Bianca: “We’re just in it so we can sleep with all the beautiful punk rock boys and girls... but seriously I think it’s just something we enjoy doing and it’s better than flipping burgers.”

Where can you pick up a copy?

Paul: “All the usual suspects, Rocking Horse, Skinny’s, Darkside down the Gold Coast and direct from us at shows or our website www.15thprecinct.net.”

Tell us about the launch show you’ve got coming up? Why those bands?

Bianca: “It’s at the Paddo Worker’s Club. There are 7 bands playing, it’ll be $8. The bands playing are The Ampirellas, Punchline, 0007, Mourning Tide, Steve Towson, Out Of Step and Scarred Hope. Ampirellas and Steve Towson are the only Brisbane acts all the rest are from places in South East Queensland, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba. We wanted a real diverse mix and we wanted to give bands who usually don’t play shows in Brisbane a chance to strut their stuff. It was also important that it could be an all ages event as well as 18+.”

How’s the health of the Brisbane punk scene at the moment? What’s already rockin’, and what needs to be done? What does Brisbane need more of? How do we stand up with what’s going on in the rest of Australia?

Bianca: “There’s some great artists from Brisbane like Against, Sausage Chopper, The Hard Nipples, Badnits, Dick Nasty, Steve Towson, New Mutants, Disables the list could go on but there’s also awesome bands from the nearby areas too like Scarred Hope, Vicious, Mourning Tide, Misfit Mascots, Punchline, Us &Fatso, Dr Octopus, Breakeven. The Gold and Sunshine Coast’s have some awesome talent that usually get overlooked ‘cause they’re not Brisbane based.”

Paul: “It’s easy to become jaded with the sometimes-elitist nature of the Brisbane punk ‘scene’ but then again you can’t expect anyone to do anything for you. What many bands don’t realise is that being in a band is a full time job that all members have to work for unless of course they are happy to just play parties. Music in Brisbane is actually quite vibrant and diverse. As Bianca mentioned there are dozens of bands that really do rock and don’t get the recognition they deserve. Also the demographics of Brisbane don’t allow the different scenes to be divided as much like in Melbourne. I think Brisbane has a lot of potential and I think this is a great city for music but we need to realise that we need some improvement.  We need more venues particularly ones that do all ages shows and aren’t run by wankers in booking agencies that don’t have a clue. We also need a 24hr public transport system like on the Gold Coast and some non-smoking clubs like in California – going to a show shouldn’t be a health hazard unless you wanna get in the pit.”

You’ve done free CDs with the last couple of issues. Who’s on deck this time around and was it a big task to put together? The last disc was all Aussie acts, and you’ve done just Brisbane acts before. Why international artists this time?

Bianca: “We do bonus CD’s with every issue. We decided to put international bands on this compilation so we could get more exposure overseas therefore exposing Australian talent to the greater world. This comp features half international and half Aussie acts like Scarred Hope, The Code, Thought Riot, Nekromantix, Oxymoron, The Boils, Blowhard and heaps more. 27 bands in total.”

What’s next for the Zine?

Bianca: “The world. We’ve picked up distro in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, Wales, New Zealand, France, Singapore, Malaysia and more! So punk, ska, hardcore, psycho bands get in touch.”