Pack your bags, grab your bug spray, throw back a shot of Malort and follow the inflatable hot dog as Riot Squad Media is returning to Northeast Pennsylvania to take over the West End Fairgrounds in Gilbert, PA with the 5th year of Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like Dillinger Four, The Lawrence Arms, The Vandals and Bridge City Sinners, will take place from 20 June until 22 June. Tickets are available here. TGEFM had the opportunity to speak with Nick Woods (guitar,vocals) of Direct Hit! to discuss this year’s festival for the latest installment of this year’s Camp-centric interview series: Happy Campers. Check it out below and I’ll see you at the campfire!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! You are gearing up for Camp Punksylvania, what does the festival circuit mean to artists like Direct Hit?
It feels like what I loved about playing music before the pandemic, for better or worse. A lot of the DIY promoters and clubs who were nice enough to offer us shows quit or went under during quarantine, and I feel like their proverbial spirit lives on in festivals like this one.
What does Direct Hit! have in store for us beyond Camp Punksylvania?
We’ve been working on a new record that was written in 2020 and supposed to be out in 2021 for the last 100 years, it feels like. I’m gonna be really glad when we’ve finished it and can show it to everyone.
The Camp Punksylvania socials recently posted about the inclusivity and diversity of the team and lineup. From an artist’s perspective, how does the diversity of the lineup and the volunteers improve Camp for the artists and the attendees?
I dunno, I feel like it’s just a lot less weird playing for an audience where three out of every four people there isn’t necessarily a white man. I say this selfishly because I don’t pretend to be a genius when it comes to really knowing the struggle of anyone but myself, but its a lot more comfortable for me, and I maybe naively assume a lot more comfortable for the average person, to be in a crowd that actually feels like the world as it exists, and not some bizarre alternate universe where everyone has bleached skin and a fuckin TV strapped to their face. Like, it’s definitely not the world as it actually exists – a cop-pretending christian nationalist just shot five people one state over from where I live, after all – but it at least feels like it when diversity and inclusivity is encouraged and respected.
Direct Hit! are among the most well traveled performers at Camp. What advice do you have for the younger acts coming up in the scene? What has been the biggest change you’ve had to adapt to since starting out?
I have no good advice to give. If you’re not having fun, stop doing it. Don’t ever think about playing music as a career. Don’t be competitive. All that shit sucks the joy out of being creative, seeing the world from an angle that not many people get to see, and experiencing life more fully.
Social media’s awful proliferation has been the biggest change since I started this project close to 20 years ago. I was embarrassingly positive about Facebook and Twitter and all that when those networks blew up in the early 2000s. I avoid them now as much as I can. Shit rots the brain and angers the blood.
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
As a musician, I really have none. I love writing songs and telling stories and meeting new people. Direct Hit’s helped me do all of that, regardless of how many albums I’ve written or sold, or how many people I’ve played for, or how much money I’ve made from it. It still does. Even as I’ve gotten older and my life’s changed, I still get to drive around and feel like I’m 20 again – maybe less than I used to, but that’d be short-changing my own experience of stuff that doesn’t and can’t happen in the back of a van or onstage.
What do you want the campers to say about your set (counselors, performances and activities) when they write home from camp this year?
“Was that Masked Intruder?”
Many of the Camp Punx artists have not been afraid to get political and in the interest of bluntness, this timeline is kinda way fucked. With all the shit going on, many of us need the community that comes from these small acts of rad at Camp. How do you hope the festival and your performance benefits the scene and community?
I hope it helps you forget that shit for like, exactly 30min. Just to give everyone a break.
Post-show singalongs… What song are you performing around the campfire this year?
“The Apartment Song.”
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see this year?
I wanna see Scarboro play. Also Scowl. Stuff I haven’t had a chance to watch before.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/