Q&A with author, music critic Jon Fine

The executive editor of Inc. magazine, a guitarist and, now, an author, Jon Fine is a man of many talents. The former Chapel Hill resident spoke to staff writer Kristina Kokkonos about the death of indie music and the toll that the now defunct Taco Bell left on his younger self.

The Daily Tar Heel: Where are you from originally?

Jon Fine: I was born in Witchita Falls, Texas, but I grew up in New Jersey.

DTH: Have you been to Chapel Hill before?

JF: Oh God, yeah. I lived there in 1990. My band, Bitch Magnet, was based there. Obviously, it was a much different city. I lived on McCauley Street — there was someone at Pepper’s Pizza who was a fan of the band, so he could give me free food. There was also a Taco Bell that had 39-cent tacos and unlimited iced tea so you could sort of get the spare change out of your car or off your bedroom floor and have a pretty filling lunch. 

Unfortunately, that’s not there anymore.

For your health, I‘m glad there is not a Taco Bell anymore.

DTH: You’re probably right. So, besides your own band, what can you tell me about music scene in Chapel Hill from your perspective?

JF: One of the really fascinating things about the independent music culture of America that got started on the 80s and which really continues today is that there was just this creative wellspring going on in locations that were generally not thought of by the big deal music industry. I’m pretty sure that Warner Bros., Sony, Columbia Records — they did not spend a great deal of time thinking about Chapel Hill and Raleigh. 

But us, in the late 80s, early 90s, we knew about Superchunk, Merge Records, Polvo — a lot of weird stuff people don’t really remember now and typically a town like Chapel Hill was where they did wear it kind of casually. When I had to make Bitch Magnet flyers because we were going on tour, I knew that if I went to Kinkos during the overnight shift, this woman named Laura who was then the bassist in the new band called Superchunk would be working there and she would probably let me Xerox them for free. It was like that. 

So you had a real sense of community, but also just had a real sense of interesting, creative (things) actually going on.

DTH: What inspired you to write "Your Band Sucks"? 

JF: I spent 25 years of my life playing in bands, and playing in a particular kind of band. Like a sort of left of center — not left of center politically — but sort of like a weird, aggressive band with small audiences, if they had audiences, and the people that were into it were really into it. 

I have a lot of very complicated feelings about that culture and that time. Like, there was a lot of insularity, there was a lot of incestuousness. It eventually kind of drove me crazy and I had to remove myself from it. It really was and is a very important American and cultural moment and it feels under-documented in a lot of ways to me. It was really important to me and a lot of people around me. I met a lot of my best friends through it, I had some of the greatest things in my life happen in it and I had some of the worst things in my life happen in it.

Yeah, in the history books, this culture is only remembered because Nirvana came out of it, or because Smashing Pumpkins — who are terrible — came out of it. To me, the point wasn’t the actual celebrities came out of it. To me, the point was the bands that were just going from town to town and doing it that weren’t rock stars. They were taking production in their own hands and they conducted themselves with absolute integrity, artistically and personally. It was just a really fascinating time, and still is a fascinating time. And to me, the story hadn’t been told.

DTH: What are you looking forward to the most today at Flyleaf?

JF: Seeing some old friends I haven’t seen in a long time and seeing some family that are going to come out. I’m just so enormously stoked that Laura Ballance of Superchunk and Merge is doing this with me. She’s completely awesome. I haven’t seen her enough over the years and I’m just incredibly psyched that she agreed to do this. 

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