Yancey Strickler

How did this thing you're doing start even?

You're going to do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I think basically all my work always starts with, uh, like why Yancy sad and just like a dumb self interrogation.

And for me it was, uh, like I'm a writer and I was building an audience.

I was running a community and doing a lot of stuff and having success with it.

And I felt very lonely all the time.

and tried to elevate people to be a part of it with me and just never, the dynamics were off.

And yeah, I just felt unhappy.

I was doing what I loved and I felt unhappy doing it.

And I ended up just like pausing for a bit, like for a month and I just read a lot.

That's what I do.

I just read, I read old and random.

And I read two things in the same week, one about history of hardcore and punk bands, which is my world, and how in all cases, they made such weird music, no record label would put them out, so they had to put themselves out.

But to put themselves out, they just made up a fake record label name, a logo, and a PO box.

And you print it, and then you self-legitimize.

But what always happened is by the time the first record would come out, like four other people would come and be like, we make music like you, can we be part of it too?

And it made me see that something like a punk label is not just putting out music, it's manifesting more punkness.

It's teaching people the worldview, how to adopt it.