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What’s it all about?
The punk explosion of the late 70’s and early 80’s changed the face of music, art, fashion and more. But it didn't stop there.
We believe the originators of this movement were onto something really important. They had a unique view on an alternative way of operating in society (and often outside of it).
Fired up with anger, frustration and hope, they got to work. And the consequences have been as powerful as they are challenging. We set out to reconnect to the same people that were behind this philosophical shift, to see how they live their values today.
What had they learned? What is the lasting legacy? We are interested in what this means for us, now!
The Truth of Revolution, Brother is the result of a year spent with some of the most influential figures in the global punk movement.
The people we’ve spoken to have been musicians, artists, poets, politicians and provocateurs of all hues. We’ve interviewed the brains behind bands like Crass, Minor Threat & Fugazi, Sugarcubes, Big Black, Subhumans, Poison Girls, The Pop Group & Mark Stewart and the Maffia, The Møb, The Adverts, The Membranes, Steve Ignorant’s Slice of Life, Ghostigital, Oi Polloi, Mike Watt of Minutemen, fIREHOSE & The Stooges, Rubella Ballet and many more.
We've spoken to political figures like Jón Gnarr, the Mayor of Reykjavík, and Einar Örn Benediktsson; artists like Gee Vaucher, Jeffrey Lewis, Domo Arigateau and David King. To sound engineers and label managers like Steve Albini and Allison Schnackenberg; to Gavin McInnes, a founder of global publishing phenomenon Vice. To true philosophers like Penny Rimbaud. We’ve been let into their lives and we’ve got to the people behind the image.
And we are still to speak to artists including Billy Bragg, Chumbawamba, Keith Levene of PiL and Clash fame and many more.
The result will be a truly stunning and life-affirming book. We are creating something of real beauty, and have taken enormous care to respect the material and the people that we've been working with.
The Truth of Revolution, Brother is a one-off, and is about the next stage of the punk journey.
Who might be interested?
This is a book for people who are into punk, but also people that are just plain interested in how they can live authentically.
The ideas contained in The Truth of Revolution, Brother are challenging and uncompromising, and offer a rare insight into how it’s possible for us all to live life differently.
Artistically this book will delight the senses. It includes original and exclusive artistic contributions, and is full of never-seen-before and intimate photographs of punk legends (a word our interviewees would hate us using, but we think there is truth here).
So if you are fascinated by punk, philosophy, popular culture, art or how to live now, then this book will have something profound to say to you.
Why now?
The ideas in the book – of challenging authority, of disrupting ideology, of taking charge of your own situation couldn't come at a better time.
We live in the shadow of the Global Financial Crisis and the terrible conduct of the banking industry. We find ourselves surveilled to within an inch of our lives. We look at the system around us and find it riddled with holes.
The philosophy of punk offers a way of doing things differently. It offers a route out of a system that persists in failing us. And the voices heard echoing through the pages of this book won’t be with us for ever. There is wisdom here that we want to capture and to use.
What we need funding for
Most of the project is complete. We have undertaken almost all of the interviews. We’ve sifted and analysed the material. We’ve taken some truly excellent photographs. The writing of the book is provided for, as is the design, the artistic input, the typesetting etc.
We need funding for the final stage of production, and that’s it!
We want the book to be a high quality and beautifully realised artefact. We’re not producing a coffee table book here – rather a creative treatment that provokes and challenges in equal measure to the informative content. It’s going to be genuinely unique in its editorial and form. And we have some great limited edition versions, as illustrated in the Rewards.
Risks and challenges
As we have completed most of the work and the project team (a core of 3 people plus support) have a background in authoring/publishing books and in the field of graphic design, we are well set up to deliver this project as planned.
Robin and Lisa have previously published 3 books (through Wiley & Sons and Palgrave Macmillan) with another book being published later in the year through Kogan Page (see bio for websites).
Charlie has extensive experience of print production, and is wise to the kinds of upsets that can befall a project like this. The project is meticulously planned, with sufficient lead times built in to enable us to cope with unexpected challenges.
Nothing’s guaranteed, but if we do experience setbacks, we’re an experienced team.
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