INTERVIEW: JOHN HENRY WEST

Photo: John Lyons

Although they existed for less than a year, the Bay Area’s John Henry West left a significant impact on the American Punk scene of the 1990s with their four-song seven-inch on Gravity being one of the best releases from the fabled label. John Henry West vocalist Cory Linstrum recently made the bands’ studio recordings available on Bandcamp and I wrote an article about all that for Bandcamp Daily that can be read here.

When I interviewed Cory for the article, we ended up really spieling about the punk scene in America during the 1990s. Since it was way too much to be used in the article, the entire interview will be run here on the newsletter in parts. Our first installment will cover the formation of John Henry West, what the East Bay punk scene was like at the time, their live shows, and the recording of their four-song seven-inch that was released on Gravity Records.

Tony Rettman: Please tell me how John Henry West came together and how you knew each other. 
Cory Linstrum: In a way, the band was an unintentional spin-off of the recently broken up - or about to break up - Sawhorse. First, in a far-eastern Bay Area suburb, Jon Bower and Mike Martinez were kicking around the idea of doing something heavily influenced by Verbal Assault. The drummer they were working with brought in ex-Sawhorse vocalist Skot Myer. Skot brought in Sarah Kirsch, who took over songwriting duties. Suddenly Skot Meyer and the drummer quit. Kirsch brought in drummer Dave Batista - a former Admiral roadie that was living in San Francisco. Next Kirsch brought me into the band. I had recently moved to Oakland from San Diego and had met Kirsch from mutual friends in the band Spitboy. Although I was aware of her from the Skinflutes, Sawhorse, and Fuel.

Please explain what the Bay Area punk scene was like at the time you formed and where the band fit within the framework. 
In the early nineties, the Bay Area all-ages punk scene was pretty Gilman-centric; everyone played there. Of course, there were other spots in San Francisco: Epicenter, Women's Building, Club Kommotion, and warehouses. In 1993 John Henry West began playing house parties and warehouse shows first. We saved our Gilman appearances for special bills, where we could open for Born Against, Supertouch, or Los Crudos. The Bay Area hadn't experienced its own Gravity-style band yet. Although we had great Dischord-inspired bands before us like Anger Means, Monsula, and Kirsch's early bands. We went over pretty well, I believe, as show offers started coming in regularly.  One thing that confused many was that John Henry West called itself a punk band. We considered punk to include all its sub-genres under one umbrella. We thought the term hardcore was limiting. We didn't want potential listeners to think we were like Sick of it All or Madball. By simply being punk, people came not knowing what to expect. This way we could play with anyone in the underground scene - and we did.

For me, the thing that made the early 90s era that revolved around Gravity interesting was how it took away all the physicality of hardcore but kept all the frenetic elements while experimenting with the sound. Would you say that is a fair assessment and would you like to expand upon it? 
I agree, the late 1980s was a very violent era with notorious rough shows at the Farm in San Francisco, Fenders in Long Beach, as well as in San Diego where I was from. Skinheads and a general thug mentality ruined it for a lot of people. Even at Gilman Street, a large show, Neurosis or Bad Religion, brought out the same type of people. The kids got sick of this and started a new punk-slash-hardcore movement that was based on respect and care, with as many young women involved as young men. We still had our wild dance floors and stage dives, but no one was out for blood. From Southern California to Northern California, there was a crop of venues hosting shows where the old macho mentality was unwelcome: Che Cafe in San Diego, Macondo in Hollywood, Cell 63 in the Valley, Red Barn in Isla Vista, Epicenter in San Francisco, and Gilman in Berkeley.  As far as experimenting with sound, John Henry West took the formula of the bands that influenced us as a blueprint for Sarah Kirsch to do her thing on top of. She experimented with feedback, amplifier placement, alternate picking techniques - and she used metal guitar picks! - neck bends, playing above the nut and behind the bridge. Anything to make layers of noise.

Photo: John Lyons

I remember an immediate buzz about the band here on the east coast. My memory tells me you played with Merel when they toured out there and they talked you guys up. Anyway, do you remember the band gaining attention right away, or am I off here? And what would you say was the reason for the band gaining interest so quickly? 
The band had an immediate buzz because of Sarah Kirsch's notoriety as a member of Fuel and Sawhorse. And, to a lesser extent, Jon Bower was in the Lookout Records band Scherzo and I had been in both Brain Tourniquet and End of the Line. Playing with Merel and Hell No in San Francisco was probably the direct word-of-mouth pipeline that brought our name out to the East Coast.  But John Henry West moved fast, we had played several shows in Southern California before we had even released our seven-inch.  And we all had connections. We pooled our resources to get some great gigs!

I hate to ask such a generic question at my age, but what were the influences on John Henry West?
Nothing wrong with generic! There was a conscious effort to model John Henry West after Verbal Assault, Minor Threat, Swiz, and Government Issue. The VA and GI influences might not be as musically evident as the other two, but for Kirsch and myself, as the only straight edge people in the band, we would, as a joke, occasionally draw those skinny X's on our hands as we saw on John Staab--as opposed to the big fat youth crew X's like the New York edge bands wore. We did this simply as an inside joke based on our obsession with the early Dischord bands. The other guys in John Henry West would draw O's on their hands, as in tic-tac-toe. 

How long did the band exist and how many shows did you do in that time? What are some of the shows that stand out? 
John Henry West existed for less than a year. We were all so young and it was moving so fast. I think I was 22 and Sarah was 23. Everyone was moving towards the different types of music they would go on to make later. We did exactly fifty gigs and after a full U.S tour, we realized we had left our mark and it was time to let it rest. I can't remember if we ever broke up. We just stopped practicing and booking shows.  Kirsch also had the Navio Forge project going.  

As far as shows that stand out: Our first gig with Heroin January 3rd, 1993, us and EconoChrist playing with a very early Dead & Gone,  ABC No Rio with Undertow and Sparkmarker, the historic Antennae Club in Memphis, Oakland's Occidental House with Antioch Arrow and Karp, the 3/12/93 show that became a compilation seven-inch on Ebullition, supporting Born Against at its last show in Richmond, Virginia (We cruised onstage in Pizza Hut uniforms), D.C with Universal Order of Armageddon. Our last gig was on a sick bill with Los Crudos, Huasipungo (with Steve Dore on drums), and Face Value, August 7th, 1993. We played with early Rancid many times and one of the flyers wound up on one of their record jackets. 

Photo courtesy of John Henry West Facebook page

What is the chronology of John Henry West's studio recordings? When/where did they happen? How do you feel about them in the present day? 
The first recording we made was a demo recorded one afternoon in an empty Gilman Street Warehouse. We borrowed the keys and brought in Brian Edge to engineer, who had previously done demos for Operation Ivy, Sweet Baby Jesus, Soup, Crimpshrine -the cream of the crop of the OG Gilman bands. We recorded our set live through the board. This was intended to send out to get gigs or record label interest, although we never needed it for either.  It later was included as a bonus CD with our Door Bolted Shut discography reissue on Ebullition. We went down to Jeff Forrest's Double Time in San Diego to record our seven-inch in March 1993. Matt Anderson from Gravity and Heroin produced. It was a two-day session. We cut the four songs for the seven-inch, the song for the 3/12/93 compilation, and another with Kirsch on vocals that remained unreleased until the Door Bolted Shut collection.

How did you get to know Matt Anderson and how did you end up on Gravity?
I had been living in San Diego and Matt A and Scott Bartoloni from Heroin were housemates of mine. In 1991 we had all played together in the band End of the Line, as well. I had left End of the Line to move to Oakland. The Gulf War was going on and I bailed on conservative Southern California for the liberal Bay Area. I had tons of friends in the punk scene in San Francisco and Berkeley. I've been here since.