I'll admit that I know very little about the legendary punk rock band the Cro-mags and the New York hardcore scene that they dominated in the '80s. The kinds of "indie" musicians I listen to are the kind that (lead singer) John Joseph would probably have knocked out on the street if this genre of music had existed a couple of decades ago, back when he was fueled by the anger for the lot he drew in life.In his auto-biography "Evolution of a Cro-Magnon," John Joseph paints a picture of growing up with a father who abused his mother, weaving through stories that are both dark and funny. His first set of foster parents, the Valentis, fed him and his two brothers a breakfast of Oreo filling they scraped off with their teeth and then spread onto moldy Wonderbread. Otherwise, the boys were treated like dogs, forced to live outside on the patio, coming inside only to sleep at night (in the comfort of the garage). They were allowed in the house every so often to clean the rugs - not with a vacuum cleaner, of course, but with toilet bowl scrubbers.
John Joseph's a punk-rocker who spent his teenaged years bouncing around between foster homes, on the streets, selling fake drugs, and then in jail - but he has no regrets about a single moment of his difficult life. Long before penning an autobiography, he embarked on a soul-searching mission, joining the Hare Krishnas and practicing yoga. When he's not playing shows as either the Cro-Mags, or his new band, Bloodclot, he works at soup kitchens, offers a yoga class at 93 St. Marks, or works on one of his many screenplays.
He is currently finishing up a screenplay based on the first five chapters of his memoir. I recently had a chance to chat with him over the phone, and he mentioned that Paul Haggis (two-time Oscar winning writer and producer of "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash") has expressed interest in the story.
When did you decide to write the book?
I’m actually working on a film you know actually a couple films – comedy and drama – but my writing partner Priscilla Sommer kept encouraging me to write. She was like, “you should write a book, you should write a book.” At first I was a little hesitant because I thought it might be a little narcissistic to sit down and write a book about myself at this point in my life, but then as I started writing the book I thought wow maybe this is a story that could help a lot of people and it was very therapeutic to me. As I started to write it, it felt natural, so I kept going. It took me five years.
Has writing the book changed the way you look at your life? Now you almost discuss yourself as a character.
I think it made me see the world a little differently and how everybody’s going through a lot of stuff. I got a lot of e-mails from people that went through similar circumstances. It just really made me look and see that there’s a lot more that unites us than there is that divides people.
How do you feel about strangers knowing intimate details about your life?
I kind of detach myself from it because that’s what you have to do. In spiritual yoga practice you’re always realizing that there’s a reason you’re on every path you’re on. I was just reading this morning that we shouldn’t see ourselves as the doer of anything. Really I just look at it like I'm letting people understand what the Cro-mags were dealing with what I was dealing with, and also it’s a book about other people that I came in contact with – it’s just a real New York kind of story.
Describe your writing process - what helps / doesn't help / hurts it?
Trial and error. Even on the screenplays. I started writing scripts in ’89 and I didn’t know what I was doing. The main thing about writing - I love Steven Pressfield. He put out this book called "The War on Art" - it just tells you you gotta be in it doing it every day. That’s what separates the talkers from the doers.
How much time did you spend writing?
Hours every day. I wake up, the first thing I do is some yoga, maybe a little stretching, and the next thing I do is write because I tend to get most of my inspiration in the morning. So I stretch, I chant, I write, just to get a good chunk of the writing done. It’s a little harder when I’m touring. I was going to take my laptop on the last tour but in Europe and everything you need converters.
I think you find your voice when you’re writing. If you try to be artificial about it, it’s kind of like what music has become. Everyone wants to write music in a genre and do this and do that – that’s why music all sounds the same now.
How was the book put out? Was it entirely a D.I.Y. effort?
My friend Todd he used to play drums for Murphy’s Law, Todd Irwin, I gave the book to him just to check out and he never checked it out. One night he was sitting in the house and his wife Jen was reading the manuscript and she was cracking up, and he was like what are you reading and she was like “John’s manuscript.” So then he read it after her and was like dude, talk to his partner. They said “we want to design the book” because that’s what he does – he has a graphics design company. Logos and branding. So they wanted to design the book and they checked into how much it would cost to put it out and that’s how Punkhouse came about. I’m 33% partners on the publishing company. We just sold out of the first pressing of the book and we’re doing the second pressing, and a new book is coming.
How did you get the book into Borders and Barnes and Noble stores?
We got a distribution deal. We’re pulling it off of Amazon now because Amazon rips everybody off. They take seven months to give you a check and you make no money off of books. We’re going to try to pump up the Punkhouse website, http://www.punkhouse.org/
How are your screenplays going?
We wrote a comedy about a religious cult based on the hare Krishna stuff and we have this boxing drama, and I’m working on something myself. The one I’m working on is called Beyond the Fishbowl and it’s an adaptation of the first five chapters of my book.
We’re going to end it on the streets of New York in the seventies. My girlfriend dying and the whole thing. But we do pull pieces out of the later part of the book because it’s an adaptation you don’t have to be scene for scene the same. You have to extract a story from all that, and that’s what we were able to do. I have to fluctuate my time between touring, spoken word and writing.
Do you have a plan to get the screenplay into the right hands?
Moby actually introduced me to Paul Haggis (two-time Oscar winning writer/producer “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash”) and we went to his party, I gave him the book – one for him, one for his assistant. The assistant is like “we love it, Paul likes it.” They’re interested in the material. My other friend is a big-time actor and these producers that he’s involved with are reading it, and they love it, and there’s a lot of people waiting for the script so I’ve gotta get it done.
What would you compare it to?
I think it’s a lot of elements of different things, and I hate comparing things to other things. It’s definitely a New York story and a search for what’s important in life.
Have you ever heard from the Valentis since the book was published and you stopped by their house?
I ain’t hear from them, you know. I’m sure they’ll be like “oh it’s b.s.” or whatever. The fact of the matter is the state shut their home down, and my brothers can attest to everything in that book. I’m over that. If I had written this book twenty years ago it would have been different, but I’m working on myself and I really didn’t have any anger toward them.
You included a lot of personal details in the book about yourself and other people. Was there any fallout amongst your family members?
My brother was a little upset, my older brother. Even my mom a little bit but you know for the good of the story it had to be put in there.
We became much tighter, me and my mother especially. When you read the end of the book, all of the stuff that went down, that was a result of writing the book.
Looking back, what would you have done differently in your childhood or teen years?
I wouldn’t change a thing. The past is the past and we weren’t made to be in some nice home. I needed to go through everything that I went through – getting locked up. It’s just part of the story that made everything else possible. I really feel that God had a plan.
What struck you about the Hare Krishnas? Why did you first join, and why did you stick with the religion after finding out you had been scammed?
Food obviously but then the chanting and the philosophy. I’m not going to lie, it was the food first. I’ve been hungry my whole life. When they were like, “Yo, we got free food and it tastes good,” I was like “I could stick with this.”
What's the story with the Hare Krishnas? Are they all corrupt, or is it just a certain sect?
99% of the Hare Krishna devotees are innocent. They don’t know any better. It’s the leaders that are corrupt.
It’s a long story but go on iskcomirm.com you can find out the whole thing. Basically a bunch of people hijacked the movement.
http://www.iskconirm.com/
In your book you discuss your relationship with HR from the band Bad Brains a lot. Do you still have a close relationship with him?
Yeah of course. I may play in Brazil with them on the Fourth of July.
What do you think of New York in 2009?
Oh man I was up in the South Bronx on Saturday driving through and I seen old New York and I loved it. I’m waiting for it to get gangster again so all of these people will get the hell out. Some dude asked me this question: “what do you think about that dude in one of them emo bands opening up a bar on Avenue C, and I was like yeah he wouldn’t have had that bar 15 or 20 years ago, I’ll tell you that.
The Cro-Mags will be playing March 29th 2009 at Europa in Brooklyn. Come down to 93 St Marks every Sunday there’s a feast from 7-9, free dinner, yoga.
www.myspace.com/thecromags
