Hardcore Leather Disco
From Nebraska grindcore to queer leather icon. We caught up with Raws aka Plack Blague during their UK tour, whose journey is anything but ordinary. In this interview, he opens up about his evolution from punk kid to underground legend and the fearless confidence his upbringing instilled in him. With a new album and a reinvention in the works, he’s ready to make 2025 unforgettable.
Photography and Interview Christian Trippe
Hey, hello.
Hey? You there? Is this working. How are you?
Hi, I'm good. What are you up to at the moment?
I just got back from Texas last night and I leave for San Francisco tomorrow. So I'm running around like crazy today. Printing more merch, really fast tonight.
Cool, first I want to chat about our shoot in London a few weeks ago. I took you and Butch Dick to Ridley Road market, dressed in full leather gear. We got quite a few looks! It makes me wonder where you take that confidence from to do that, that you don't really care or worry about it.
Sometimes I care. Sometimes I do have a little bit of worry. I just feel like if I'm gonna do it, I better do it. I will say I gained a lot of confidence from growing up, because my dad. I inherited that from him – be confident and stand up for yourself. That's like a good way to live, you know, they let me do whatever I wanted. I was never censored from anything either and I felt like that was a huge boost of confidence for me to just know that I can do whatever I want, and I think I've kind of stuck with that, my whole life.
That sounds like a really cool way to grow up.
Yeah, I'm lucky to have a really nice and accepting family. And art is really important. And music is really important. Being this persona or this artist, it's interesting to them and at the same time they think it's like cool that I'm doing what I want to do.
“They had weird, shrunken heads and babies in jars, and there was an actual dead corpse on display there of this clown and it was just super wild, but the show was sold out and super packed. “
Plack Blague about playing a gig with Bastard Noise in LA
Let’s go back a bit for anyone who haven't heard of you or Plack Blague before. You're from Nebraska and you started the band in 2001, right?
That’s correct. Plaque was originally considered a ‘joke band’, one of my best friends (Jeff) and I did. Apart from our actual band of that time called Wasetoid. We were a grindcore underground metal punk band and we were trying our best to just tour like crazy, release music and make a name for ourselves and I felt like we really did that over the time in Lincoln, Nebraska.
My buddy Jeff and I started making stupid beats like sampling Kylie Minogue songs then making it so choppy that it was just undanceable. We would just make noise to that and scream a bunch and get in people's faces. Our first show was in 2001 on Halloween. We played in this record store window called Zero Street Records, and we did a 4-hour set while people bar hopped all night downtown.
It was really performative noise and somewhat danceable music but in 2011 the band kind of took its own name for itself, and I was starting to go a little bit more solo with it. My partner Jeff died at that time and since Wasteoid was our band it was like, well, that's over – I guess I do this now.
I got invited to open for Bastard Noise in Los Angeles, at a venue called California Institute of Abnormal Arts, and it was like a weird kind of freak show, venue kind of Vaudeville. They had weird, shrunken heads and babies in jars, and there was an actual dead corpse on display there of this clown and it was just super wild, but the show was sold out and super packed.
Tell me what was it like growing up as a gay kid for you?
My brothers are 9 and 10 years older than me and played in thrash metal bands. And so to me, I thought that was like normal people music, because I didn't know any better. I started learning about punk music and really jumping into it as a young kid. It taught me a lot and opened my mind to so much stuff, like things that were really fucked up in the world, or just like things like vegetarianism. Being queer was cool and like, okay in a lot of punk standards, and that to me was super important, because I grew up in a town of 400 people where I didn't have access to anything.
There was no gay bar, there were no queer people, but I actually grew up on a street with a Transwoman, which at that time, was like pretty groundbreaking and it opened my eyes to a lot of stuff.
I feel like I've always been an outsider to everything, so I've never really fit into any sort of subculture. I'm kind of easy to act or like I can get along with everybody. So that's always been my way of going about.
“The best advice I ever got as a musician was, learn how to screen print. So I started screen printing T-shirts when I was 18.“
Plack Blague always has the most amazing merch. It feels so authentic and 100% you. It seems it’s a big part of your ‘brand’.
The best advice I ever got as a musician was, learn how to screen print. So I started screen printing T-shirts when I was 18. It was just one of those things where, even with my bands at that time, we always had merch. We could do it ourselves and it was just so available for us to have this so like, why not? I do have a total art background. I studied painting in school and photography and I do so much of like everything. It's one of those things where I put all my art world into it. I can do it all myself and it’s helping me make money to survive as an artist as well. So I feel I got to kind of make it interesting and cool and available.
Which artists are you currently obsessed with? What feels new and interesting at the moment?
I'm on this huge, hard techno kick right now and I don't know if that sounds just like boring or cliché, but there's certain like super hard-hitting techno that's very European, like very Berlin.
Actually, a lot of what I listen to lately are my friends' bands and projects and people I meet out on the road. I love supporting them and hearing what they do and seeing them do this all over the world. It's quite influential to me because I feel like at times we are all in this together. I've been listening to a lot of ADULT., Spike Hellis, Kontravoid, Mvtant, Ho99o9 and so on. I love knowing such creative and talented people. It inspires me to try harder and keep working on what I do.
What was your what was your favourite porn magazine growing up? Did you have one?
That's a funny question. Yeah, so my dad owned a garbage service when I grew up and sometimes you would find weird porn in there. My favourite one would probably be these Swingers catalogues, where you can put your classified ad in there, with your description and photo. All amateurs. It was like primarily straight, but there were like gay elements to it, because where I grew up, there wasn't a whole lot of gay anything. I couldn't get gay porn at the time.
“I grew up in a town of 400 people where I didn't have access to anything. There was no gay bar, there were no queer people, but I actually grew up on a street with a Transwoman, which at that time, was like pretty groundbreaking and it opened my eyes to a lot of stuff.”
Raws about growing up as a queer kid in rural Nebraska
How does it feel when people refer to you now as a queer or leather icon.
It feels pretty good actually, because as much as I do this for myself, I do this because I like to be on stage. And I'm like quite the exhibitionist. I've had kids come up to me and be like, “I love coming your shows because I can dress however I want to dress. I can act, how I want to act.” And these are queer kids who don't fit into the world, too and I find that super important. So if they want to find me iconic in that sense, I appreciate it. I sometimes feel like I am just a guy, just doing his stuff.
2024 is coming to an end and it seems you had a pretty cool year. Do you have anything in the pipeline for 2025?
Yeah, I'm releasing a new album called Physical Education. I just finished all the recordings and I hope that it gets released early 2025 on Ormolycka Records, who also released the Night Tracks album. It's been a much-anticipated record because I've been spending years doing this. I am slow at releasing new music. I did everything myself, all the production and all the recording. And this is my first real jump into throwing myself out there entirely. With that record coming out, I plan on doing a lot more touring.
I'm kind of in this spot where I'm wanting to reinvent myself a little bit – I want a new look, videos and new music. It's a kind of a transition period for me.
Yeah, that's the whole point, keeping it fun and interesting. Did you approach this record different, with that change already in mind?
Maybe. I feel like my songwriting has gotten a little bit more pop stylish in that sense, but with a Blague aggressiveness to it. I'm not really trying to like push this new version of me out there but I have matured in that sense.
After I am done with this record I need to do some noise, heavy and weird stuff. Honestly, I want to do a Techno record next, like an EP it's all about releasing new music and all about releasing new videos. And just like all new merch and stuff like that.
So cool, looking forward to the new looks and more music from you next year!
About Plack Blague
Make sure to follow Plack Blague on Instagram to keep up with the latest news. You can pick up some amazing merch from their Bandcamp Store.
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