Again in Buenos Aires, Descendentspioneers of melodic punk rock have been teaching since 1978 when they formed in the Hermosa Beach, California area. Among some characteristics that make them unusual, we have that their true leader is the drummer.Bill Stevensonwho also knew how to do it in the historical Black Flag.
And on the other, its lead singer, Milo Aukermanhas a doctorate in biology from the University of San Diego (California) and a postgraduate degree in biochemistry obtained from the University of Wisconsin. Titles obtained while singing about girls and caffeine (the band’s main driving force) on historic albums such as Milo Goes to College (1982) which precisely alludes to their atypical university condition, condensed in a caricature that alludes to it and is a central part of the band’s graphics.
Before their presentation tomorrow, Wednesday the 11th, with another classic band of the genre, Circle Jerksat the Teatro de Flores, Aukerman spoke about his unusual character.
-What were the sounds and personal issues that led you to embrace punk rock all those years ago?
-I wanted to listen to loud, fast and aggressive music. At the time I was listening to new wave, but I wanted something more frenetic. In 1979 I went to see Devo and a band called X opened, and that changed everything for me. At that point I became a big fan of the Los Angeles punk rock scene. Personally, I was a huge nerd in high school, an outcast. So I saw other punk rock fans as a bunch of like-minded frogs from another hole, and the anger of the music really spoke to that outsider mentality.
-You invented a trend of nerdy punk rocker that at that time was a novelty. Nowadays it seems like it’s almost a pride to be a nerd, but back then it wasn’t like that.
-Absolutely, it was not cool to be a bookworm, an intellectual, a nerd, whatever word you want to use to describe an awkward teenager with glasses who had no success with girls. At some point I just embraced that image of myself and realized that being okay with it is a big “screw you” to all the cool kids at my school. I still embrace the nerd “thing” to this day… and yes, it seems cooler now!
-Which of you was the one who proposed the topic of caffeine as an integral part of your speech?
-Bill (Stevenson) fished commercially with his friend Pat McCuistion, sometimes all night in the Pacific. Pat took amphetamines to stay awake, but Bill refused and started drinking a lot of coffee. Except the coffee had to be VERY STRONG to keep up with Pat, full of pills, so Bill invented the “extra cup”, which is a ton of instant coffee powder with just a little bit of water in it, ie. coffee sludge.
-How traumatic was it for you to be in a punk rock band and have the concern of pursuing a university degree?
-The last year of university was especially hard because we were on tour a lot. I took a semester off to go on a long tour and when I came back my head was no longer in “college mode.” Last semester I failed a music course, so it was time to leave school for a while! The main problem was that each activity (education and music) should have been a full-time activity, rather than part-time, so in the end the two collided.
-Many of the bands that became millionaires playing punk rock in the ’90s (Green Day, Offspring, NOFX) are clearly influenced by you. Did that generate any kind of resentment?
-No, because I had left the world of punk rock behind in 1987, I was working as a scientist in the early ’90s and I had never seen music as a career, so I never felt like I should have made millions anyway. In 1995, instead of envy, I felt vindicated, like, “Ahh, the world finally caught up with us.” If anything, it was the success of those bands that inspired me to come back to this (in 1996), because it was a very exciting time and the Descendents were being “rediscovered” thanks to those other bands.
-Where is your future: in punk rock or in biology?
-For me it is definitely punk rock. I’m too old to be a scientist, but not too old to be punk…
What was the best and worst thing that happened to you on Descendents?
– The best thing was coming back in 2010 at the FFF Fest in Austin, after not having played in more than 7 years. We didn’t know how it was going to go, but everyone went crazy! And then I just shook my head, thinking how is it possible that people still care about us? And here we are, still at it! The worst was my heart attack last year, in Barcelona. We had to cancel the whole European tour, which made me feel really bad. I knew I could recover and at least continue playing music.
Descendants. With changes in its lineup, the band has been playing since 1978.-As a man of science, I wanted to know how you experienced the pandemic and your opinion on the anti-vaccine movements.
-From a scientific perspective, the US government botched the response to Covid. Testing took a long time to successfully implement and in some cases was even discouraged because Trump didn’t want to see large numbers of positives… So scientifically we failed. But the development of the vaccine was a positive step. I am ultra pro-vaccine; I have no patience with the anti-vaccine movement, because it is basically anti-science. How medieval can you get?
-Is it good or bad, both for punk rock and for science, that Trump has won again?
-Bad for both. As for science, I can’t imagine Trump supporting it as a public good. His supporters are against science, so he has to be too. For punk rock, well, ultimately it’s musical entertainment, and when prices go up due to Trump’s tariffs, people will become poorer and have less budget to afford luxury things like entertainment. People will stop going to see live music, plus tours will be very expensive – higher prices will lead to more overhead.
Now I know some artists are licking their lips, thinking of all the great anti-Trump songs they can write. And I’ll probably write some, but that’s hardly a release after your band can’t afford to tour anymore.