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. Sammy Kay 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?
The festival circuit is a weird beast. Things like camp, fest, pouzza, they are obtainable slots, compared to the major festivals, and a chance for all of our little communities around the country to get together for a few days and enjoy the moment. I look at these as massive family reunion. We take off the whole weekend and get a couple extra hours together that we wouldn't usually get with the folks we call family spread around the world.
What do you have planned for us beyond Camp Punksylvania?
I'm not sure what I'm gonna have for dinner… but I'm sure there will be more shows and more music. I'm gonna assume… but you know what they say.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences within the scene so far? What's been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
Human kindness is both the most unexpected and weirdest. Vague, I know. From the early days of cold call shows and folks we met on the street putting us up, to an old man in Italy who saw our van broke down and took us in as strangers, and cooked and let us stay for a few days. Tour offers, show asks, writing sesh, studio work, whatever it may be, it's all out of human kindness.
Regarding live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Camp Punk audience? What do you want the campers to say about the Sammy Kay set when they write home from camp this year?
I'm excited to play a show, to be honest, I don't think I've played a solo show this year and with the new record, I'm excited to see some of these new songs live. What the campers gonna think? Realistically that I need to go to therapy and stop obsessing over the impending Oasis reunion. “Wonderwall” anyone?
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?
Throw on ol frankie blue eyes – “my way.” You'll get what I'm trying to say.
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, Kilograms, PWRUP 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 have no idea. No fucking clue.
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 the community welcomes, until there's cliques and then the outcasts have the chance of being the cool kids.
It's fucking mean girls. Ya know? It's everywhere. It ain't just the scene. I see it in every form of subculture I've encountered. People are people, and there will always be some form of hierarchy within that. Just don't be a dick. Follow the golden rule.
You're originally from NJ. It's such an interesting, diverse and generally under-appreciated place that has bred so much amazing music. Why do you think the area churns out so many brilliant musicians and songwriters? How does the area feed into the music you are writing, if at all? Same questions for the burgeoning scene you call home in Cincinnati?
I think that water brings energy and creative ideas. I think most major movements in music are all based around water. Right? Delta blues, jersey bar rock whatever you wanna call it, the Southern California thing, for fucks sake, LAKE ROCK. It's all water based.
Within music, hell, civilization as a whole; there's 3 types of people. River folks, lake folks, and ocean folks. These days, I write more about rivers more than oceans. I haven't lived on a coast since 2018. I lived off the kern river in California, and now I'm just a few blocks from the ohio. You throw an old Mississippi blues man in jersey, you'll get a Springsteen song outta him real quick. Hell, look at woody Guthrie's career. It was all Oklahoma life, and when he was in Coney Island, he wrote about the ocean. You write about what you are surrounded by
You've worked in both solo and band environments (most recently the outstanding record from The Kilograms). What are the benefits and obstacles to both sides of that spectrum, as a solo artist and in the collaborative band setting?
I don't really see any obstacles besides compromise within creativity. Everyone's got a riff that they'll die on the hill for, but what it comes down to it is it's all for the sake of the song. I'm not gonna call Eddie Van Halen‘s kid to come play a solo on a KGS song or a quiet folk song. That's a wasted day in the studios and won't do anything for the actual arrangement… but for my sweet hot dog themed Thin Lizzy cover band Thin Glizzy, he'd be my first call for a couple of rippers.
If Punksylvania were a real camp, what activities are you leading?
Adventures in the anarchist cookbook . Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 pm.
Time for some post show jams… What song are you performing around the campfire this year?
“Junco partner.” Any version. All versions.
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?
7Seconds.
Was there anything I missed that you'd like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
The part of the brain that helps you decide what kinda sandwich you want to eat is called the subconscious.
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/
