INTERVIEW: Shining Life YouTube Channel
A couple of years ago, John Scharbach (Breakthrough, Mob Mentality, GIVE, Open Your Eyes) and Zack Wuerthner (Mob Mentality, Intent) established Shining Life, an imprint dedicated to publishing print ‘zines spotlighting certain bands and scenes throughout the history of hardcore with some of their stand-outs being a complete oral history of BOLD’s final tour in 1989, a thorough history of Swiz complete with lyrical analysis from guitarist Jason Farrell and a hardcover collection of New Jersey 90’s Hardcore ‘zine, Hardware.
When the orders for the Co-Vid lockdown happened, John and Zack thought it’d be the perfect time to launch the Shining Life YouTube channel and cram it with enough never-before-seen footage from the ’80s and ’90s to make your time down in the bunker extremely bearable. And yes, even though I have made a conscious effort to keep myself busy writing-wise during the past few months, I can attest to wasting many an hour watching footage of both the shows I attended as a teenaged fat-ass and the ones I missed due to either my distance from the gig by a few thousand miles or being grounded for faking my report card.
Since I was so enamored by how their project has siphoned so much of my free time, I tracked down Zack and John to ask about their motives behind the channel, how they came about some of the footage, and their future plans in both the digital and print form.
Please explain the initial concept behind the Shining Life ‘zines and how that has expanded into the Shining Life YouTube channel.
John Scharbach: Shining Life started so we could make hyper-focused ‘zines about things that interested us. We love print media and it was a way to be creative and stay involved. There wasn’t a conscious decision to expand with a YouTube channel, it just happened. The channel was just a spot where we could dump videos that people gave us. For example, when we did the Hardware book, Brett gave us some VHS tapes he had that had been collecting dust so we just digitized them and tossed the sets up. That’s where those two Born Against videos came from. Since the quarantine, we had a lot more free time and Zack started going through all his old VHS tapes and putting up the sets that he had. I think Chris Minicucci had sent him some VHS tapes years ago so it was a good time to finally throw them up. Since it got going, we have gotten significant VHS collections from Brad Hyra, Tim McMahon, Andy Norton, and Tim Faulkner - Thanks to them. We just wanted to put this shit up for anyone who might be interested and it helps to pass the time.
Born Against at WFMU
How did the process of uploading the videos to YouTube initially start?
Zack Wuerthner: It initially started with a small collection of VHS tapes that Chris Minicucci gave to me a few years ago that had some live sets that had not yet been uploaded to YouTube. I had the equipment and some extra time with the quarantine so I decided to finally digitize them and make them available. I shared those videos with a few friends and once the word got out that we were digitizing videos it kind of grew legs and people started reaching out to contribute. The digitization process takes quite a bit of effort so we do have a healthy backlog that will likely keep us busy for the rest of the year.
Assuck 1/10/90
Are there certain eras of hardcore that you concentrate on to put on the channel?
JS: It probably seems that way, but there isn’t any real curation. Everything that’s up is what people have given us and it’s all mostly sourced from old VHS tapes. It feels like videos of hardcore bands from about 2007-ish and beyond are all well documented already so it’s easier to fill in gaps with older stuff. I personally wanna see everything, especially the weird shit and less documented scenes. We are firm believers in “All Eras” meaning every generation and every nook and cranny is worthy of being documented, discussed, and obsessed over.
ZW: I think it’s important to document all eras of hardcore. It just so happens that most of the tapes we have are from the mid-80s to mid-00s so most of what we upload falls within that time frame. After that is when the digital era exploded, analog became a relic of the past, and everything was fully documented so we don’t really have a focus on that era.
Infest 7/7/91
When you upload a batch of videos, do you just pick them out at random, or is there some actual rhyme or reason behind it?
ZW: I had the goal of getting sets that had not already made their way to the internet uploaded and available for everyone to see. That very quickly expanded into getting everything we had uploaded, but with precise dates, locations, lineups, anecdotes, etc. There is a lot of inaccurate info - or complete lack thereof - on many of the sets that are already uploaded so it was very important to try and set the record straight. In general, I don’t want to upload something until I’ve done all the research and gotten precise info on the set.
Swiz 3/31/89
Why do you feel it is important to do this channel?
JS: I honestly don’t think its that important to do this channel, it’s just fun but I appreciate and respect the history and I love hardcore, so it’s always interesting taking a peek into where things came from. I’m constantly debating with myself if hardcore being insanely archived is a help or hindrance. I remember when I first got into hardcore, I had an older friend who refused to watch old videos. A group of us would be huddled around a TV in the living room and he would literally walk out and leave or just sit in the hallway until we were done. But yeah, again, the videos are just a way for us to stay busy and share what people have given us.
ZW: Being a collector of all things hardcore, naturally I do think that it’s very important to preserve and document these videos. It’s one of those things where, if they are available to us and we have the ability to do so then why not? I feel like a little kid on Christmas when a new Youth of Today video I’ve never seen before hits the internet. So I think it’s cool to try and share that little bit of excitement with everyone else during these strange and chaotic times.
Youth of Today 3/30/88
What are some personal favorite videos you've put up on YouTube? Are there any specific videos of bands or whatever that you are looking for?
JS: The Youth of Today videos are my personal favorites, especially that City Gardens set from ‘88. We have been wanting to see that video for fucking decades so it was cool to finally get a hold of it. The Integrity and Insted videos are dope, and Nerve Agents at CB’s is fun for me too. Two things that I am looking for - first is footage of BOLD from Positive Numbers Festival 2005. It was the only year of the festival I wasn’t able to be at and I want to see Matt throwing that football. There is also an alternate angle of the Stop and Think set from Posi Numbers 2002 shot from right beside the drum set that I used to have and would watch it all the time. A friend from North Carolina, Jon Norris filmed it and he included the set on a VHS compilation called “Good Company” that had a cover and insert and was in a clamshell case, the whole nine. He sold and gave away a good number of them but no one I know kept theirs and I contacted Jon a few years ago and he had gotten rid of all of his old footage. I really want to track a copy of that down.
Insted 8/4/89
ZW: My favorite set that we’ve uploaded so far is easily Youth of Today at City Gardens in 1988. I feel like that was my white whale for many years, and now we’ve got the full set for all to see - that was a huge milestone. Shout out to Tim McMahon for providing it. I’d like to get more Youth of Today sets that we’ve never seen before, the full Supertouch set from Tompkins Square Park in 1988), Chain of Strength’s first show at Yester Years and Free Spirit’s last show at Anchors Up.
Irate 1988
Are you concentrating solely on the YouTube channel right now or is there Shining Life press stuff in the works?
JS: Yeah, the ‘zines and books are still a priority, and I’m constantly pestering and tracking people down for a ton of different things. The stuff that’s been announced that we are working on like the Floorpunch book, the In Effect and Positive Influence fanzine anthologies, a Restraining Order and Fuse zine, the Donna Parsons and Rat Cage records book by Spoiler, the next issue of Joy Machine - that’s all still being worked on. For newer shit, my friend Larry hit me up a few weeks ago about helping to design and publish a book about the River Rock Cafe, which was a venue in Buffalo that has a lot of history attached to it. He grew up in the Buffalo area going to shows there and has a ton of material for it, so we are psyched. I’ve also been working on a book about The Faith with my buddy Jason for a long time and we have a crazy amount of shit for that. It includes my favorite interview I’ve ever done with Guy about the Faith and DC hardcore so I really want it to see the light of day. Not sure if it will be on Shining Life or not though.
Chain of Strength 8/4/89
Are there any dream projects Shining Life would like to do?
JS: Number one is a book about Mental, full color with all the fixin’s. A Boiling Point anthology is another big one, kind of insane it hasn’t already happened. I talked with Tim Singer a few times and he seemed interested but maybe was too busy to take on a project like that at the time, or maybe he just thought we were dweebs, who knows. The Youth of Today book for Rev that has had a lot of starts and stops kind of got reignited recently so hopefully, that can actually happen. I’ve been particularly obsessed with the scenes in San Diego, Louisville, and Memphis lately and would love to do deep dives on them. But yeah, and then more books about Toy Machine, video games, Ninja Turtles, Garbage Pail Kids, and other horseshit like that I would love to do my way.
….AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE SANDPAPER LULLABY LIGHTNING ROUND! ANSWER AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!
Pressure Release 3/10/89
Pressure Release demo or Prison Of My Own seven-inch?
JS/ZW: Prison of My Own
Insight’s Standing Strong seven-inch or their track “Silent Shore” on the Only The Strong I seven-inch compilation?
JS/ZW: Standing Strong
Motherfucking Pushed Aside!!!! 9/9/89
Pushed Aside demo or Against The Wall Where The Strength Lies demo?
JS/ZW: Pushed Aside
BOLD 7/7/87
Bold Speak Out or Looking Back?
JS/ZW: Speak Out
Forced Down or Statue?
JS/ZW: Statue.
Hey! What do you know? Great minds think alike four out of five times!
