After a 20-plus-year absence, Canadian political punk legends Propagandhi are returning to Victoria. Embarking on a tour of western Canada while crafting new material for their seventh full-length album, the Winnipeg band, who got together in 1986, will be returning to Vancouver Island for a show at Sugar on Sunday, February 7.
Naturally, the return of one of the dominant icons in Canadian music has many local musicians and fans giddy with excitement. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone involved in the Canadian alternative music scene who is unfamiliar with Propagandhi. The group’s ferocious yet passionately melodic instrumental work, combined with their politically charged and intransigent lyrics, have placed them in an echelon all of their own.
And you don’t have to look too far around Camosun to find those willing to sing their praises. Current Nexus managing editor Greg Pratt is always happy to go on at length about them (see his editor’s letter on page 2), and former Nexus managing editor Jason Schreurs, now publisher and editor of Powell River-based Peak Publishing, is also a big supporter of Propagandhi.
“Propagandhi are a life-changing band whose importance to not only Canadian punk rock but Canadian music in general cannot be overstated,” says Schreurs. “They are probably the most important punk band of our generation.”
That importance has been built through years of hard work and dedication to their craft. While Propagandhi originated as a skate-punk group, with their first album, 1993’s How to Clean Everything, featuring a novelty Cheap Trick cover (“I Want You to Want Me”) and a furious assault on the sensibilities of ska through another joke song, their delivery has improved greatly, which is why they’ve achieved a rabid following and much critical acclaim.
“The thing about Propagandhi,” continues Schreurs, “is with the goofy name and the notoriety of their first album, many music fans have just written them off as some tongue-wagging pop-punk band, when in fact they have progressed unbelievably over their past few albums into an amazingly talented bunch of musicians. A lot of punk fans don’t even know they have more than two or three albums, and that’s a shame.”
FEEL THE RAGE
The band’s impact can certainly be felt nowadays, although it’s sometimes in the strangest places. For example, Propagandhi guitarist/vocalist Chris Hannah and bassist/vocalist Todd Kowalski have provided guest work with Canadian prog-metal titans Protest the Hero, who are always happy to talk about Propagandhi’s importance. In addition to their musical impact, the band has achieved a status that transcends their musical endeavours.
Hannah was once voted the second-most-hated Canadian by historical magazine Beaver (now called Canada’s History). He was narrowly edged out of this prestigious title by polarizing Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau but surpassed controversial Canucks Stephen Harper and Paul Bernardo.
“On a whim I submitted my name and encouraged people to vote for me,” says Hannah. “Due to the power of the internet, I almost won the whole thing. And I think they were not impressed that that happened.”
Being named a more notorious singer than CŽline Dion, who finished seventh on the list, is a point of pride for Hannah, as it would be for many red-blooded Canadians. While Hannah’s place on the notoriety list is facetious in nature, he says there are certainly those out there who aren’t the most amicable toward the band. Early Propagandhi shows were infamous for their volatile nature, with Nazi skinheads often coming to start trouble due to the band’s active stance against racism.
“Back in the day, starting fights was the purpose of the show for a certain bunch of people, particularly skinheads, who want to just dominate the place,” says Hannah. “That was par for the course depending on the town. LA was bad; Winnipeg had a bit of that going on. Places like Fresno, Bakersfield, Birmingham, and Alabama all had the same kind of vibe.”
Kowalski also remembers the incendiary nature of the old shows. However, the crowds have lightened up in recent years, he says. Whether that’s due to skinheads finding a new target, the change in venues, or the maturation of the crowd, Kowalski is just glad people are now showing up to enjoy the music.
“I don’t like being around lame people,” says Kowalski. “There haven’t been too many goofs coming out to shows now. I don’t know if it’s because everyone’s older and smarter or what. Maybe it’s just the type of venues; they’re not just little community halls where every little drunk goof shows up. It’s usually decent shows with good people. We don’t even tend to have many fights or anything. Maybe dumb people don’t care anymore.”
Hannah also notes that the crowds and shows have become more secure in recent years. While he’s pleased that he can just focus on the music, part of him also misses the excitement and furor that came with the older gigs.
“It’s not like the old days,” he admits. “In the old days it was insane. Everywhere you went there were skinheads. The shows were just generally more disorderly, sometimes in an exciting way, sometimes in a dangerous way. They’re really isolated incidents now, as opposed to the norm, which I guess I like, but I kind of miss it a little bit.”
A MUSICAL JOURNEY
The group’s musical evolution is an inverse of the chaotic-to-calm evolution of their live shows. Hannah admits that Propagandhi’s debut is not his proudest moment.
“How to Clean Everything is just so goofy in some of those songs,” he says. “We were doing what Mike wanted because Mike was paying for this record. We put the Cheap Trick cover on there; I wish we didn’t do it but we did.” (Mike Burkett is better known as Fat Mike, the frontman of NOFX and co-founder of Fat Wreck Chords, the label that Propagandhi released their first four albums on. Burkett has said that it was the Cheap Trick cover that sold him on Propagandhi; on the band’s last album with Fat Wreck Chords, 2005’s Potemkin City Limits, Propagandhi called out Burkett on his business practices and political leanings in the song “Rock for Sustainable Capitalism.”)
Hannah’s gripes with their debut stem mostly from its delivery but also from the point of time it reflects.
“It’s a bunch of songs written as a teenager,” he says. “If people imagine having to show everybody the poetry or diary they wrote in their teenage years to everybody, there you go. That’s how it feels.”
As the years have progressed, Propagandhi have emerged from their skate-punk chrysalis into a melodic-hardcore force to be reckoned with. Their latest two releases, Supporting Caste and Failed States, are much more focused, fervent, and ferocious records that display their growth as musicians.
“I think we’ve just gotten incrementally better at our instruments as the years have gone by,” says Hannah. “When we first started the band, we had bigger visions of sounding more like a melodic punk band, but we wanted it to be more metallic and have more elements of Kreator and Sacrifice in it. But we just weren’t there, particularly me. I wasn’t a good enough guitar player and I couldn’t sing like any of those guys, so we defaulted more to the melodic punk stuff. As the years went by we got a little bit better and were able to achieve the vision we had for the band more successfully.”
Kowalski attributes the success of their later records to the chaotic nature of the music.
“I think we’re all over the place,” he says. “We don’t have any limits or rules. We get in there and there are a couple little curveballs this time around. We generally have a lot of riffing and heaviness going on. Because it’s fun, you know?”
A LYRICAL JOURNEY
While the band’s music is a key component of their success, they wouldn’t be the punk legends they are today without their politically charged, inflammatory-yet-introspective lyrics (samples of which can be found in the February 3, 2016 issue of <em>Nexus</em>). Guitarist Sulynn Hago joined the band in September of last year; she was chosen from hundreds of applicants. Hago describes Propagandhi’s lyrical impact on her before she joined the group in the same way one would talk about a great novel or moving film.
“It makes you think,” she says about the band’s lyrics. “When you have such powerful messages, it can inspire you like you’ve just read a good book or watched a moving film. It’s almost like they’re sitting down and having a conversation with you through the song.”
Hago also notes how Propagandhi’s music has the ability to reflect the cultural landscape of its era.
“It’s a little bit of a timestamp, but not in a bad way,” she says. “It has this aspect of, ‘Hey, I know exactly when this was written.’ It’s just genuine. Whether it’s social commentary or pop culture, nothing about this band seems forced.”
Hago has big shoes to fill, as she is replacing former guitarist David “The Beaver” Guillas, who left the band to pursue a career as a teacher. While it is always tough to see a band member leave, Propagandhi have been nothing but pleased with their new shredder so far.
“She has an unbridled musical enthusiasm,” says Hannah, “and a drive to learn, and she was different. She’s from a different place [Florida], has a different background, and she has a different set of influences than we have, musically. She has an energy that’s contagious, and it’s really fun to see her up there rocking out.”
Kowalski is also pleased with finding a new bandmate who has managed to integrate so successfully.
“So far it’s worked out awesome,” he says. “She really has this creative spirit, the same spirit I enjoy, which is just rocking as hard as she can and being as creative as possible. If she lived in Winnipeg it would be perfect, but she lives in Florida, so it’s a little more difficult. But she’s easygoing; she’s fun to be around.”
The process to find a new guitarist was an arduous one, according to Hannah, but they believe the work they put in to making the right selection has paid off.
“The process was a nightmare. We didn’t anticipate having 500 people throw their names in the hat. We just wanted to do due diligence for the whole process,” he says. “So far it’s been great. For once in our lives we made the right choice.”
Hago is very excited to have joined the band. As a childhood fan of Propagandhi, she was ecstatic to learn she was chosen for the job and is ready to show the world just what she can do.
“I was in New York at the time,” she says of when she found out, “and it still doesn’t even seem real. Even though I’ve already played four shows with the guys and jammed with them, it’s nothing I could have mapped out in my head happening. If I were to go back in time and tell my 14-year-old self I would be playing in Propagandhi, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Whether she believes it or not, Hago certainly has the credentials to play with the big guns like Propagandhi. An established punk rocker in her hometown of Tampa, in way she’s been preparing her whole life for this gig.
“I’ve just played in a lot of bands for the past ten years,” she says. “Basically my whole life has been trying to find a solid unit. From a guitarist’s standpoint, being in Propagandhi is perfect for my tastes, as they’ve got this punk aesthetic in terms of the crowd and the values and content, but as far as a guitarist’s standpoint, I love the riffs, I love the heaviness.”
And what about that aforementioned seventh album? The band is known for taking long gaps between records; their last album, Failed States, came out in 2012. Hannah says Propagandhi are in the midst of preparing material for a new full-length.
“We’re taking it as it goes,” he says. “If you ask me, I want to be recording this summer, but I’m not sure how realistic the other guys think that is. We have so much material, but we have to hammer it all together. The hardest part is the last 25 percent of writing; that takes the longest. So I’m gunning for sometime this year to be in the studio making the record.”
Even with the departure of one guitarist and the addition of another, and being in the midst of writing a new album, they’re still excited about going on tour and playing some shows for fans, new and old.
“We’re looking forward to finally getting back to Victoria and playing again,” says Hannah.
And Victoria fans, who have been waiting for over 20 years for the band to return here, are just as excited as the band is. Some are even travelling to Vancouver to catch the band’s two nights there.
“I’m going to all three of their BC shows,” says former Nexus editor Schreurs, “and I could die happy after that.”