Mike Vallely interview
Extended interview from the HUCK#020 feature on Mike V's new DIY project.
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Despite hitting forty this year, father-of-two Mike Vallely has just launched another self-made project, a new band called By The Sword, comprised of his old Revolution Mother bandmates with the addition of Throwdown bass guitarist, Mark Choiniere.
But despite exclusively playing Black Flag tribute sets, the ex-Powell Peralta team member and current Element poster dad, insists they are not a cover band.
HUCK: Can you tell me a bit about how By The Sword formed?
Mike Vallely: We’ve always covered Black Flag songs and made no secret that Black Flag, even as Revolution Mother, was a huge inspiration to our music and on me as an individual […] So a couple of years ago, I got the idea that I wanted to do some sort of Black Flag tribute set [… ] I just feel such an affinity to the music and I think it’s timeless music. I figured it should be performed live and it should be experienced live. No one’s doing it so that kind of took root a few years ago and has recently flowered [...] I just told the guys [from Revolution Mother], this is what I want to do and everyone was cool [… ] Initially I just thought we’d set up a couple of shows for me to get it out of my system. But the shows have been so well received that I think there’s maybe a something little more to it.
So you only play Black Flag songs?
The majority of the set is Black Flag material and then at the end of the set, we play some Minor Threat and some Agent Orange.
And are people into it?
I think there’s a fairly interesting dynamic because it’s a tribute set but we’re not really presenting ourselves as necessarily a tribute band. I grew up listening to this music and associating with it. The first show I ever saw was Black Flag and the first record of consequence I ever bought was Black Flag. And in 2003 when they did their reunion, I was invited to be guest vocalist in that reunion.
What was that like?
A fairly crazy experience, you know. I think the reunion itself missed the mark with the fans. Black Flag, they have such a gloriously messed up history. They’re never really going to get back together, they have so many different members, they don’t get along. But their music lives on. And like I said I feel such an affinity to it that I feel like I can be a good conduit for that music and have it be legitimate in some way, more so than just a cover band. I’m not an actor playing the role of something, I live and breathe the music as well.
Where does the band go from here?
I set up a few shows initially. But we’ve been so well received and people have really gotten into the shows, singing along and dancing. It’s been a lot of fun. There’s a slam pit and guys are jumping up on stage, these are older guys too. We’ve basically only played a few bars but what I saw from that, I feel like I’d like to take it to the younger kids too and do some all-ages shows and I’d like to get it on the road. There’s a lot of people contacting me from all over the world saying ‘we want this too’. I’m looking to try and find a way to get it out there to more people.
What do you love more punk rock or skateboarding?
Luckily I don’t have to choose. The ethos of both when I got into it in the mid-eighties was the same – it was the do-it-yourself mentality. That’s what I learned from punk rock music and skateboarding. So that’s what’s empowered me and inspired me for the rest of my life. [...] Skateboarding and music at that time were so intertwined, the lifestyle, the attitude and everything. That’s the kind of lifestyle I chose at that age that I still live today.
Do you feel like that’s different today?
I think the skateboard scene is much broader now, it’s a lot more diverse. When I started skating, it was teenage misfits who found punk rock, or aggressive music or metal. But it was all kind of in the same spirit. The cultures have evolved and moved in different directions but I still think the nucleus and the spirit of the thing is pretty much the same. It’s just that people don’t always articulate it the same, but I do.
Do you feel like your part of an international community because you’re a skateboarder?
Yeah I think so. I’ve always felt that through skating. And when you play in a band and you travel around, you feel that too.
Is community important to you?
Oh yeah, definitely. Community in the sense that these are individuals who respect other individuals. That was the thing I always liked, the pie in the sky sort of utopian punk rock idea that everyone was their own individual person and they respected other individual people. I don’t know if that’s a true reality in life, but we get to experience a little bit of that with skateboarders and in the punk rock community.
Did having kids change your perspective on things?
No, having kids didn’t really change my perspective as in how I live my life and what I’m all about. The same passion and lust for life that I had from skating and punk rock music has just opened up broader when I had kids. Family was always important to me and being able to share life with others, I’m totally into that. It definitely changes you in some ways but for me it’s only continued to intensify me and made me want to go out there and do it even more.
But does having to make sure you generate an income from skateboarding take the joy out of it?
No, I’m an ambitious person to begin with. I just want to do stuff, I just want to do stuff that's cool. I definitely have not been able to make a good living riding a skateboard for a long time. I don’t see that ending any time soon. There’s some hustle involved. Are there times when you are fighting a little bit harder to get something done but that’s true of anybody in any walk of life. I enjoy work, I enjoy all aspects of it. Hey nobody said it was going to be easy, you know. I like the challenge in front of me, having a family to provide for, does that mean I do things differently? I don’t think so.
Who or what do you think is exciting in skateboarding at the moment?
I think what’s really cool now is a lot of skaters are taking ownership of skateboarding again. We’ve kind of ventured out into the mainstream and the corporate world. That will continue but now there’s a little bit of reclaiming going on. I think if you look at things like The Berrics, Steve Berra and Eric Koston’s website and skatepark, and the content they’ve put out on that, which is all skater-created, skater-driven, that stuff’s really cool. That stuff gets me fired up and I think it’s just important that skaters continue to just be skaters and advance their own culture and their own lifestyle and skateboarding itself.
Do you think the commercial side of skateboarding is unsustainable so people are taking matters into their own hands?
Yeah, I see that happening and there’s more of an effort on my part to just kind of wrangle some things in and make sure that they live up to my expectations. I think there’s a real necessity to have things filtered through your own test of what’s cool and what’s not cool. I just find myself applying that mentality more and more, to everything I do.
What's cool to you?
If I don’t cringe at the idea of it. There have been a lot of times in the years where I’ve found myself cringing because when I say yes to something, I’m the guy who will try to be the best soldier I can possibly be. But at times, I’ve been like ‘what is this’? [What’s cool to you] comes naturally, you’ve just got to listen to yourself.
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Mike Vallely interview (text) by Shelley Lee Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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