Grab your s’mores, your bug spray, a shot of Malort and pack your bags as Riot Squad Media is returning to Northeast Pennsylvania to take over the West End Fairgrounds in Gilbert, PA with Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like 7 Seconds, The Bronx, Less Than Jake, will take place from 5 July until 7 July tickets are available here. Tobin Bawinkel, frontman of Celtic-punk legends Flatfoot 56, has joined TGEFM to discuss this year’s festival for the latest installment of our 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 in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to artists like yourselves?
Playing festivals is super vital to the life of a touring band. It’s amazing for networking and building relationships with new fans as well as other bands. Club shows are great but a festival exposes your music and band culture to way more people in the long run.
What does Flatfoot 56 have planned for us beyond Camp Punksylvania?
We are currently working on a new full length record. It’s been a while since our last full length release so it’s about time we put something else out. The few years have been just singles and EPs.
We are also going to be doing some festivals in the late summer, early fall time frame.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
We have been around for along time so that might be harder to answer then it sounds. We got pulled to Japan in 2006 with Flogging Molly and were given about a weeks notice before we had to be there. It was our first overseas experience and we were doing a bar tour when we got the call. It was a mind blowing experience. One day we were playing a tour for about 30 people a night and the next we were opening for one of the biggest bands in our scene in front of crowds in the thousands. Flogging Molly has always been good to us and it was a life changing experience.
We have also done many tours in Russia and Ukraine. These experiences are bitter sweet because of the war now. It’s a strange thing to look at a video of a crowd in Kiev that we played for and think about how many of the people in the picture are currently fighting for their lives. It’s heart breaking and kind of surreal. We were there in 2014 when they were having their big revolution in Ukraine. We were asked if we wanted to go and see the revolution by the promoter. We followed her to Kiev’s city center and saw thousands of Ukrainians celebrating and camped out as they blocked all the roads into the city capital area. The experience is one that we will never forget. We had no idea what we were stepping into.
We also had a chance to play in a Russian city called Murmansk, which is one of the northernmost cities in the world. I believe it’s in the Arctic circle. It was a very crazy experience.
I could probably go on for days about different experiences but these are some of the ones that stick out.
Regarding live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Camp Punk audience? What do you want the campers to say about your set when they write home from camp this year?
We want to bring the party and we hope we can make t experience one that builds people up and inspires them.
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?
I can’t think of a specific event but I do wish I had learned to listen more to people. As I get older the more I am coming to realize how much I don’t know. I just think I could have walked with more compassion and understanding if had been more willing to ask good questions. I think I could have loved better by doing that. When you’re young you think you have the world pegged and then it hits you in the face with surprise after surprise.
Your faith has been an important, but not defining, part of your music. Do you ever feel the need to reconcile the scene and your faith? Plenty of folks calling themselves Christian and ignoring the tenets of the religion, plenty of folks in the scene calling themselves punk and not accepting individual beliefs because following a path of your choosing is only punk when its not organized. Have you ever had to stand up against your scene in defense of your beliefs or against your religious leaders in defense of your scene?
Man is this a deep and loaded question. Hahahaha 😄 First off, I can only speak for myself and maybe the other two guys in the band that have the same Christian beliefs. Not all of us are professing Christians in the band so I always want to respect the other guys positions and perspectives in what I say.
We have had to definitely learn how to interact with both sides of this rather unique dynamic of what we are as a band. Not many bands would play the places we do and be open about being followers of Jesus. Being honest about who we are though is the only way for us to be authentic as people. Faking it makes for bad music and kind of defeats the whole idea of what punk is. It’s also exhausting. You gotta be true to where you’re at and if you’re not, our scene can sniff that out pretty quick. It’s what I love about it. Authenticity is key. Punk is no place for fakers even if it’s something that the scene you love frowns upon at times.
Being honest about who we are though has definitely impacted opportunities for the band over the years. There has been doors that have been closed because of it. This being said though, I would say the scene is full of more open minded folks than closed minded ones.
For me it’s about being authentic. I have no agenda to push a particular religious establishment or church. I just want to love people well the way I saw Christ do it. 🤷🏻♂️
The punk and ska scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes. The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent? Why do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?
The scene is full of humans. Unfortunately humans live by stereotypes and judgment at times. When we close the door it just means that we are getting tired in our openness. It’s this or that our hurt is starting to define things more than the ideology we say we live by does. It takes work and being uncomfortable to remain open to diversity.
There aren’t very many acts with the longevity and consistency of Flatfoot 56. What advice do you have for the younger acts starting out?
Respect and honor the people you play music with. Create a culture of respect in your van. Their time and life sacrifice is giving you a chance at your musical dreams. If you beat them down with your words and actions you are cutting your own throat.
Also, how you treat your fans will define how long they stick with you. Build family and you will have it for generations. That is if you choose to stick around that long.
Speaking of longevity, with a catalogue as beefy as yours, how do you figure out a set list thats going to appeal to both new fans and fans who have been around for decades?
I wish we treated this more as a science then we as a band do. We just play the ones that flow well together. Hahaha
If Punksylvania were a real camp, what activities are each of you leading?
Tobin- camp fire storyteller
Kyle (bass player)- any sport activity
Josh (bagpiper)- hot tub life guard
Dan (drummer)- fishing coach
Johnny (guitar)- gym weight room instructor
Band as a whole- lunchroom food fight instigators
What song are you performing around the campfire this year?
Anything from Cock Sparrer
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?
7seconds, the Bronx, CatBite, Sammy Kay
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
We are excited to be taking part in this awesome fest. Can’t wait.
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/
