Crowdsurf & Turf Meets: Derek Zanetti/ The Homeless Gospel Choir
This interview is definitely one from“The Vault”. I interviewed Derek Zanetti, AKA The Homeless Gospel Choir in the summer of 2018 for my previous website, however, a month or so after I decided I was going to start working towards this new project. This interview was so interesting I had to save it to have it as one of the first features of Crowdsurf & Turf. Derek is one of the most inspirational people I have met. Here we discuss touring, talking about mental health and wtf does ‘punk’ mean anymore.
How has your visit to the UK been as well as the shows with Frank Turner?
It’s been an absolute smash. I plan these sold out shows in 02 Academy’s and the Roundhouse and just night after night, being around so many kind people who are interested in music, who are interested in the politics of it. Who are willing to give someone new a chance, it’s been the most incredible and heartwarming experience I’ve ever had. I’m very grateful.
That’s amazing to hear! As well as these support shows with Frank you’ve also had some headline shows including one at Boston Music Rooms. How was that?
A smash as well. It was my very first headline show ever in the UK. It was amazing, the support i had. I played with a band called Nervus. They killed it, so catchy, and so amazingly honest and true, i think we really made a good friendship there. The kids showed up and they sang along, my ears hurt they were so loud. It really feels like a dream.
Will you be Frank’s tour guide when you both head over the the states?
For sure, Frank’s no stranger to the US, he tours there all the time. The best parts of tour, in my opinion, aren’t even playing the shows live it’s the conversations you get to have with folks outside of the shows and Frank and I have a habit of sneaking off and finding doughnuts somewhere, that’s our little date that we have. So we go off and we talk, not about the music but about our feelings, our relationships, music that we’re into and get to know each other. There’s some good BBQ places down south I plan on dunking his head into the sauce in. I’m very excited.
I’ve been really been enjoying your most recent album ‘Normal’. With mental health being such a discussed topic here in the UK and I believe in America too. It’s refreshing to hear you speak so honestly about it, especially on Normal, are you happy with how that album turned out, has it received the reaction you hoped for or anticipated?
It was a dream come true. I don't think I've been able to articulate my feelings in such a way before. I was surrounded by a great team, Chris #2 from Anti-Flag produced my record and he has just a wonderful ear and he was able to take the songs I wrote and help me cartel them into a way that was able to make the songs into pop songs and punk songs. I’m so pleased and happy with how it’s been received. People from all over the world contacted me and just told me how much they related to it. And I think that’s what we really want as human beings, don’t we? We want to know we’re not alone in our struggles, especially when it comes to things in our minds, it’s extraordinarily private. As sometimes in our world, we’re taught not to talk about our feelings, or “be a man”, or this is what a man is supposed to be like and it’s absolute bullshit. The empowerment that comes along with being able to talk about your feelings, in a fair and equitable way, the bridge that I get to build to you and that you get to build back to me. It’s empowering to know that you’re not alone.
As well as being an incredibly talented songwriter, you have also written a few books. Can you tell me about them for myself and for the readers?
Sure! I’ve written two books, one called Existentialism The Musical and that is a series of short stories based on a number of existential crises I’ve had about ‘why am i here?’ ‘how do I participate equitably in this thing called life together with other people’.
The second book I wrote is called Remembering Everything, it’s about cognitive memory, sometimes as a defence mechanism we choose to forget things that have happened to us in a way to disassociate from it, this book presupposes that if we’re able to take that trauma and take the good and the bad we’ll have a more full view of what our life happens to be. I’m working on my third book right now, which will be out in about a year.
When I read about THGC or hear people talk about you, without fail I hear the word ‘Punk’. What does that word even mean to you?
Punk is just freedom, in my opinion. I think if I were to start a barbershop quartet, it would be the most punk barbershop quartet in the whole world. Now whether you’re making jazz or hip hop, or country, the idea that you’re in control and you’re free to be creative, and you’re using your voice, in a way to explain yourself and to make something that’s inclusive, like that’s punk to me. The genre Punk, like, you don’t have to sound like The Ramones or The Exploited or any of that shit, even though I love the Ramones, but that’s not Punk, being creative and expressing yourself and making an atmosphere that’s inclusive, that’s what I’m about. And that's like the most punk thing you could do.
Great answer. Since 2013, you have released 3 albums, so since starting The Homeless Gospel Choir, have you had any major highlights over these last 5 or 6 years?
Every experience and every tour is just better and better. I never thought I’d be 35 years old, I thought I would be dead by now. A lot of the friends that I had that I grew up with have passed away, some are in prison and some of them are in a different kind of prison. Inside their mind, where they’re trapped into thinking that they’ll never be good, or they’ll never accomplish anything, and I try to remove myself from that kind of thinking. I try to remove myself from that type of mindset and I’ve just opened myself up to whatever comes and I have been very fortunate to have very gracious friends like Frank Turner, Frank Iero and Anti-Flag continually invest in me as a person and want my music to be seen by more people and I just feel like I’ve won the fucking lottery.
Amazing, to finish off, you’ve got a very loyal fanbase but you also seem to make a lot of fans on these tours with Frank Turner, Frank Iero etc. what is it about these songs that resonate with people that may have never even heard of you before?
I think people are hungry for an element of care. I think they want to know that they have been cared for, they want someone that they can trust, they can believe in, I’m not some saviour, or political revolutionary or anything I just put honesty at a very high pedestal and I want people to know that this can be done by anybody. I just have an acoustic guitar, I don’t have pedals, I don't have a manager or an agent, the guys who own my record label, do so out of a warehouse, out of teeny office space, this life is possible for anybody who has a dream that’s big enough to go out and get it.
I feel like there has been a connection to people that feel like they couldn’t do it or that they might not have an opportunity to do it and they see somebody like myself up there doing it, and they say “If Derek can do it, I think I can do it too.” If there is one thing people should leave with, it’s the encouragement that if you’re young and you have something to say you should start a fucking punk band and if you’re a woman or if you’re queer or if you’re black or if you’re Muslim and you feel like you don’t have a thing to say or you feel frustrated or you feel marginalised, start a fucking punk band and get your anger out, point your finger at the oppressor and say ‘I’m coming for you motherfucker’.
The greatest blessing I have is that I go to towns that I’ve been at and kids hand me a demo CD and say ‘I wasn’t in a band last time you were here, but you encouraged me to start a band and here I am, I’ve started a punk band with me and my friends and we’ve got something to say’ so I just wanna say encourage anybody who feels like they don't have a place or they’ve been given the short end of the stick or they haven’t been given the same privileges that others have been given. You have a voice and you have a platform and you should use it to encourage other people that feel like they’ve been short-changed and marginalised to go ahead and go after it as well.