Henry Rollins interview on the art and business of DIY media

I am currently reading a lot about the trend towards content marketing and media marketing and find many similarities to DIY publishing or even DIY punk record labels. The whole approach I grew up with, the paradigm of being unhappy with mainstream media that forces people to start their own thing and "become to media". 

So I am following the websites Copyblogger Media and the Rainmaker Platform www.newrainmaker.com, which is more technical. They recently featured an interview with Henry Rollins which is very interesting. It suffers a little from sounding too much like a phone interview, and yes, Henry likes to have longer monologues, but he has got interesting things to say.

Besides historic things you might already know if you have been into punk for a while, he talks about his work ethics and his upbringing in Washington D.C. with friends who do things DIY style, like Ian MacKaye. I especially liked his stories about doing things independently, but then switching to major labels or big book publishers for certain projects. Funny enough, some of his weirdest projects have been on majors, like WARTIME. The label must have lost a lot of money on them. Check them out here: http://www.discogs.com/artist/521490-Wartime

The interview also has the story behind the famous "Parent" sticker on back cover of the classic "Damaged" LP. The members of BLACK FLAG surely spent a lot of time in that warehouse glueing on all those stickers. But it is in line with the concept of taking some projects to big corporations to get exposure. And, in that case, failing.

Speaking of projects, it’s time to check out one of my favorite Rollins projects again, HENRIETTA COLLINS AND THE WIFEBEATING CHILDHATERS - Cut It Off! The Whole Thing!