Peach Jam Podcast: New Junk City

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New Junk City on the Peach Jam Podcast

Credit: GPB

 

Dakota Floyd: Hey, I'm Dakota.

Jeff Claxton: I'm Jeff.

Mason Turner: I'm Mason.

John Vournakis: I'm John. We're New Junk City, and we're a punk band from here in Atlanta.

Jeremy Powell: Does punk have too many subgenres? And so you just call it punk, or are you just punk? Because it's really difficult to Google what punk music is.

John Vournakis: Yeah, I think it's just kind of a catch all term. A lot of times I'll just kind of use it interchangeably with like, we're a DIY band. I think it says a little bit more about like how we operate and like less about what kind of music we play. Rock and roll seems a little too generic. I think punk, like, kind of gets at it. I'll say we're a pop punk band sometimes, but I think that evokes more like Sum 41 and Blink 182, and a little and a little more like immaturity, like silly bathroom humor. And. I don't know.

Jeremy Powell: I love that the other guys are just nodding their head. 

Dakota Floyd: I'm not trying to interrupt and mess with the sound guy.

John Vournakis: Please interrupt me.

Dakota Floyd: I'm not rude. Yeah. I mean, you're like drowning there. But no, I do think there are so many subsets and so many subgenres. And occasionally you'll get somebody that's like, yeah, it's not punk, that's that's emo wave, you know, just like go down the rabbit holes of genre. So I think it is easy to say we're a punk band for a pop punk band, we're a DIY band. It's just people generally get it. And we live in an age now where like, okay, it's not like you're browsing the punk section and that's what you get. Like you're just going to listen to a song on Spotify. Yeah, for yourself. You know.

John Vournakis: I feel like anyone that's asked me that question is probably not someone that's going to listen to the band anyway. Like, like people at the bar I work out come in, "oh, you play music. What kind of music do you play?" And I'm like, Let's not play this game.

 

 

John Vournakis: But I mean, I think it's like I want to take what we do seriously. I don't want to take ourselves too seriously. Like we're lucky that we get to play music. You know, that anyone wants us to come play a show. So there is some levity to that, I think. But again, like, I don't know, I honestly feel like I don't have a lot of control over the content. Like it's just whatever comes out. Know, if you told me, write a song about X, Y or Z, I'd probably be like, I don't I can't do that. Right? And I think anything that's coming from like personal experiences is by nature going to be a little bit more serious. But I don't think there's anything like all that, all that heavy in the music and we try to have fun with it.

Jeff Claxton: We don't take it for granted. I think like if ten people show up to a show, then it's, as far as I'm concerned, it's a success.

John Vournakis: Like I take that seriously. Like if people pay to see your band, like, I think you should do a good job and take like, treat it like work.

Dakota Floyd: Oh and you guys know my motto for last year. "Every show is a gift." Like, we're getting older and a lot of our friends, it's called dropped out of Punk. When you stop playing shows, you stop going to shows. And it's just it's nice. Every show is a gift, especially when you're geezers in your mid thirties like us. No offense to everybody older than that in the room.

Jeremy Powell: Yeah, yeah.

 

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New Junk City with Peach Jam Podcast Host Jeremy Powell

Credit: GPB

Jeremy Powell: However, when you do go out on shows. So if you Google your name and you go out and you play, you'll find there's these write ups and there's these people who want to evoke all these large words trying to describe you and how you have whisk. Yes, yes, yes. Plethora. There was one I read it was whisk of nostalgia. And I don't even know what that means.

Jeff Claxton: I don't either.

Jeremy Powell: You just come off as as for dudes who really have a good time, and, I don't know, some people maybe want to look too much into it when it just seems like this is what you enjoy. Some people bowl, some people fish. You all play punk.

Dakota Floyd: Well, I do think there is something with any art, whether it's music or a painting or, you know, whatever it may be, that once it's out in the world, part of it isn't yours anymore. And how people interpret it and comprehend it and grapple with it is up to them. So I do think that like, yeah, there's probably influences. We get compared sometimes. To like the Gin Blossoms, which love that band as a kid. So I'm sure there's elements of that and it's that whisp. What was it?

Jeremy Powell: A whisk. Yeah, like a kitchen whisk of nostalgia.

John Vournakis: That's the caliber of writers writing about us, they don't know the difference in a whisp and a whisk.

Jeff Claxton: I think that's cool, though, that he. He got that out of it. Whatever that meant to him. He got something out of it no matter what it was, you know?

Dakota Floyd: Well, the fact that anybody is writing anything that isn't incredibly mean.

Jeff Claxton: Yeah. So the fact that anybody cares, even like one person, two people, like, blows my mind. Like, it means a lot to me. I like it, but I made it, of course. Like, you know, it means something to me. So, yeah, the fact that anybody cares means the world.

 

 

The Peach Jam podcast from GPB features songs and stories from a variety of the incredibly talented and diverse bands and artists who call the Peach State home.

Recorded live in our GPB studios, you get a front row seat for the intimate musical performances and free-flowing conversation from a truly eclectic variety of Georgia musicians. You can find more at GPB.org/PeachJamPodcast — please download and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform as well.

And check out GPB's YouTube channel for exclusive live performances from all the feature artists.