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. Mike Sosinski, of Bad Time Records and Kill Lincoln 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?
Thanks for asking us to do an interview Ed! We’re stoked for Camp Punx and are super grateful to have been asked to play. What does the festival circuit mean for artists like us… uhhh honestly, usually that we’re not getting to play any of them! Major shout outs to THE FEST and CAMP PUNKSYLVANIA for including ska (in addition to the SKA themed festivals and you know who you are)!
What does Kill Lincoln have planned for us beyond Camp Punksylvania?
We have a full slate of shows through the end of Summer and fall hitting most of the US. We get to tour with The Suicide Machines, HEY SMITH, Big D & The Kids Table, and Less Than Jake all in one year so we are f*ckin stoked. I just wish we had something to promote with all of these killer shows.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with
the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
Both times touring Japan have been life changing. Last year we opened a show in Tokyo to 3,000 people. I almost shit my pants. Food (sax) was throwing up. That was the most unexpected thing that has ever happened to us. The weirdest thing is that people come out to our shows.
Regarding live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Camp Punk audience? What do you want the campers to say about Kill Lincoln’s set when they write home from camp this year?
We are gonna bring some GOOD TIMES to the Camp Punkers. We’re gonna have fun. We’re gonna get sweaty. We are not gonna win ‘best dressed’ cuz Catbite is playing, or ‘most likely to succeed’ cuz WATU is playing, so we are gonna go for ‘Class Clown’. Wait are superlatives a thing you do at camp?
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 think it would have made things a lot easier for us if we chose a musical life that did not involve SKA, but sometimes the SKA chooses you.
I won’t call it a ska revival because ska is something that’s never gone
away, but there is a massive rejuvenation of the scene with We Are The
Union, F (editor’s note: I’m a moron and fat fingered a non-existent act here.. Mike played it perfectly) and Catbite. What is going on out there that has gotten so many people back on their boards to ride this latest wave of ska?
I love F, good dudes backed hard. I think people realized (remembered?) that they really like moving, dancing, and experiencing joy despite a broken and bitter world that continues to beat us over the head. One of my good friends and inspirations D-RAY calls New Tone ska a “Joyful retaliation” and I think that sums it up perfectly.
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 but also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?
I think when you get into a subgenre as small and niche as SKA, people tend to get very protective about what they like… or what they think constitutes as ‘real’ ska… and as a large group of outsiders, it makes natural born bullies feel like they’re on the inside by trying to exclude someone else. I’d say this group of people within the ska community is fortunately very small though, and getting smaller.
What advice do you have for the younger acts starting out?
Make sure you’re having fun first and foremost. Don’t do it for clout or whatever. Don’t worry about what other bands are doing. Don’t worry about what big shows you’re not getting. If you’re not on the big fucking show, book your own big fucking show.
Many of the Camp Punx artists have not been afraid to get political, and Kill Lincoln are certainly no different. Hard to believe we can’t get better than the leading 2 candidates: an octogenarian, megolomaniac, convicted felon facing off with an octogenarian, father of a convicted felon. How is the already absurd political climate and performative legislation across the globe, playing into your writing, the live experience and your mental health?
The world is fucked, so take care of the people around you and in your community. Act locally. All we have is each other.
If Punksylvania were a real camp, what activities are each of you leading?
Is ‘high jump’ a camp activity?
Time for some post show jams… What song are you performing around the campfire this year?
…anyway, here’s “Wonderwall“
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?
Always stoked to see our friends Catbite, We Are The Union, and BIG D (wish we were same day as LTJ too 😭)
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
Nope, thanks for the interview!!!
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/
