Interview: Megan March

The “Take Back the Future” tour of Street Eaters and forgetters came through Olympia, WA on Monday, January 31st, 2011. Megan and Johnny were nice enough to record these monologue-style interviews…

Street Eaters are the kind of people you’re glad to meet. They’re sincere, energetic, and awesome. Tirelessly touring, playing in tons of bands, and while angry about plenty of important things, they come across as super hopeful and positive people. I dig it. Better yet, their music rules. It hits you well enough… a kind of low-fi pop.. but then it kinda grows over your brain and you hear more each time you listen. Smart, powerful, raw and uncompromising. Go check out more about them and their music at their website: http://streeteaters.com/

[interview transcript]

Hello, my name is Megan March. Right now, I’m currently playing in Street Eaters. I play drums and I sing. I wanted to talk a little bit about how important community is, I think, in our scene for music… and also Art, in a greater picture.

I was born in Berkeley and I grew up in Oakland. My sister and I didn’t have a really happy home life. And so we both enjoyed going to school and took every excuse we could to get out of the house. She’s a lot older than me, so she went to college when I was about six. She also took me to Gilman around that time, for the very first time. I think being able to have a safe space to go to when you’re a kid — especially if home is not safe — is incredibly important.

I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have a place like that.

She also then later moved to San Francisco. I spent a lot of time living over there with her and commuting to go to school when I was in high school in Oakland. Around that time, there was a really amazing space, much like Gilman, that isn’t around anymore, called Commotion. She helped out with the booking and stuff there. They would have a lot of different bands coming through from Europe. Like the Ex played there and a bunch of others, and also local bands. So that was a really amazing all-ages space.

Also, there was the Epicenter, which was a collectively-run record store which had a zine library and they hosted workshops and bands played there. Then it got closed down because during some show some dude hung from a pipe, and of course, the pipe broke and flooded everything.

Another amazing space that was also in San Francisco was Mission Records. They had two locations. The one that I got to know really well was the one that was on 19th next to the thrift store across the street from Cancun, where we would go and get lots of burritos.

It’s really crucial, I think, for the punk community to embrace it’s all-ages spaces because we’re all going to get older and be able to go to bars, but you know there are a lot of kids that need the safe space to express themselves and have a place to go and build a community, and to continue writing songs… about justice, and the things that we care about, and community, and I guess, you know, carrying the flag…

So I just wanted to say a couple of words about the importance of all-ages spaces. Especially coming from the Bay Area in California. Sometimes we forget what a bubble it is we live in and how lucky we are to have those type of resources. I’ve toured around the country and seen a bunch of other spaces that are happening right now. It’s incredible! And it needs to continue!

So go out… go forth… and start some all-ages spaces! Because we’re all in this together…

Going to bar shows is fun and everything, but there’s something really, really important about the community that is created from an all-ages space.

Thank you.

[end transcript]

You can also listen to John’s interview…

Street Eaters are from Oakland, CA. This interview took place on January 31st, 2011.