Grab your s’mores, your bug spray and pack your bags as Riot Squad Media is about to take over Northeast Pennsylvania with Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like The Suicide Machines, War On Women and A Wilhelm Scream, will take place from 1 September until 3 September, tickets are available here. Miami meets Brooklyn Ska-rocksteady juggernauts Stop The Presses joined TGEFM to discuss their upcoming appearances at Camp Punksylvania for the latest installment of our Camp-centric Roll Of The Dice interview series. Check it out below and I’ll see you at the campfire!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Stop the Presses, your sound and what you stand for?
Presses love you. We just wanna play pop music, while keeping us ska af. I think we stand for truth, and love, and dancing.
You guys started outside of Miami and then moved up to Brooklyn to really cut your teeth. I’m not sure there are two more diverse areas in the US than those 2 cities, but the cultures of both are completely different. How do the cultures of those two locales impact the band’s sound and attitudes?
The scene in Miami was small, so all the punks, skins, rudies, and metal kids knew each other and went to the same shows. But we all also knew the Indy, noise, avant-garde, and performative odd-balls, so all the shows were mixed bills and we all seeped into each others creativity. You throw the Latin influence on top of all of that and it was a great place to play and experiment. Coming to New York was no joke. Everything is legit here because this is where you come to prove yourself and that taught us to take the thing we like and get really good and really precise at doing it.
You are gearing up for Camp Punksylvania in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to individual artists like yourselves?
We feel like the festivals are the cross sections between all the individual markets within driving distance. It’s really important for artists like us to play for the folks who haven’t heard of us yet or who can’t come out for a Tuesday night mid-tour show. We are honored to share the stage with people we admire and so thankful to gain new fans and keep the people dancing. Camp is great size for that too. Some festivals are just way too big and it’s hard to feel like you’ve made a lasting impact.
Any summer camp worth its salt knows there needs to be a lot of different activities to participate in. What activities would each member of Stop The Presses be in charge of if Camp Punksylvania was an actual sleepaway camp? What song are you performing at the last campfire or talent show?
Ali: music, sing alongs and flash mobs
Danny: meals and camp fires
Karole: nature and agriculture
Liz: arts and crafts
Steve: sports and games
Jack: would disappear the first day of camp only to reappear on the last day on bus back home.
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see on each stage?
We’re really excited to see The Suicide Machines & A Wilhelm Scream!
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
We’re just so thrilled to be apart of camp this year! We can’t wait to spend all of our money on all of the awesome vendors and we hope that punks will bring their kids so we can spread ska music to the younger generations!
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
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/
