In life and in lyric, Ian Shelton is working on a version of self that balances truth and compassion. Making the process public, he explains, is a punk value.
“I’ve always lived in opposition to something else.”
If we’re keeping count (I am, albeit poorly), I think this is the third or fourth of the new antimatter interviews to state this explicitly. If we are all defined by the negative space around us, for better or worse, I think there’s something about accepting that rather than fighting it that ends up being an interesting interview.
I think there’s a sense that hardcore kids start doing this early and most don’t realize it’s an issue until they get older. I made some spiteful decisions, for example, that were very much meant to be in opposition to my family—even though the people I was living in spite of were literally unaware of it. It’s the phenomenon of setting yourself on fire and thinking someone else will burn.
Whenever this concept comes up, it makes me think of the All song "What Are You For" from Problematic, which, when I first heard it, was the first time I'd really thought about how most punk and hardcore was about what the lyricist was against, especially a lot of the straightedge songs that were such a big part of my life at the time. It made me really consider what I was writing from then on, and while I still wrote a bunch of songs about what I was in opposition to, I really tried to balance it with subjects I was in support of, or at the very least, try to propose a solution within the lyrics, instead of "just bitchin' about the situation". So, thanks Karl Alvarez.
Ian said, "I’m not always ready to hear what someone has to say about their own trauma" and it's something I really, really identify with. It's also something I have a hard time articulating to certain people who think because we share trauma that I want to hear or speak about it at any given moment. Sometimes I just want to talk about the present, you know?
“I’ve always lived in opposition to something else.”
If we’re keeping count (I am, albeit poorly), I think this is the third or fourth of the new antimatter interviews to state this explicitly. If we are all defined by the negative space around us, for better or worse, I think there’s something about accepting that rather than fighting it that ends up being an interesting interview.
I think there’s a sense that hardcore kids start doing this early and most don’t realize it’s an issue until they get older. I made some spiteful decisions, for example, that were very much meant to be in opposition to my family—even though the people I was living in spite of were literally unaware of it. It’s the phenomenon of setting yourself on fire and thinking someone else will burn.
Whenever this concept comes up, it makes me think of the All song "What Are You For" from Problematic, which, when I first heard it, was the first time I'd really thought about how most punk and hardcore was about what the lyricist was against, especially a lot of the straightedge songs that were such a big part of my life at the time. It made me really consider what I was writing from then on, and while I still wrote a bunch of songs about what I was in opposition to, I really tried to balance it with subjects I was in support of, or at the very least, try to propose a solution within the lyrics, instead of "just bitchin' about the situation". So, thanks Karl Alvarez.
Bigtime
Both this and the Brendan Yates interview have been top notch
What a great read, Norman.
Ian said, "I’m not always ready to hear what someone has to say about their own trauma" and it's something I really, really identify with. It's also something I have a hard time articulating to certain people who think because we share trauma that I want to hear or speak about it at any given moment. Sometimes I just want to talk about the present, you know?