No Ordinary Life

Photo by Kevin’s friend

Kevin Debroux is from a small town in northern Wisconsin where he grew up on a brew of self-doubt and hardcore. His old band was called Hatefuck but the album he released in 2007 as Pink Reason,

Cleaning the Mirror

, is a bum-down classic, which basically gave the Internet one giant erection. A lot of the press he’s received in the past has involved him taking cheap speed and caving in peoples’ eye sockets but he assures us he’s changed his ways since then. He’s lived in Russia, (on a dope farm) and until the city crushed it, a car. The deaf guy Kevin shared a jail cell with, and who once cut off part of a guy’s lip and tongue with scissors, also sung in an early incarnation of his band. Basically Kevin’s a really non-boring person to hang out with and just happens to be bringing his very non-boring band to Australia at the end of this month to play some shows.

Vice: It seems that your life would make for an interesting book.

Kevin:

I’ve thought about that a lot. Most of my life my friends have been the types of people that nobody else wanted to be around. In a way we bonded, not so much over our love for one another, as over our hatred of everyone else. It would make for a good read.

You wrote a piece on Russian punk music for Vice a few years ago. Have you done much writing besides that?

I used to make zines when I was younger and wrote quite a bit until Pink Reason started taking up more of my time. I always used to think of myself as a writer first and a musician second, which was probably delusional. Looking back at much of my old writing, it just seems like a bunch of acid-damaged post-Miller/Bukowski speed freak rambling. I have been working on putting together a book about the Soviet-era Siberian punk scene and am planning a trip to Russia next year to work on that.

Much of what’s been written on you seems to focus on your life before Pink Reason. Do you get tired of talking about doing meth and sleeping in parks?

I guess the story gets romanticised a bit and it’s a little tiring at this point, but it’s all essentially accurate—although it’s been edited in order to shield and protect the guilty, myself included.

You seem to live a transient lifestyle and you pick your band mates according to who is homeless and unemployed at the time. Who will be coming to Australia with you?

I’ll be touring with Matt Horseshit, who is currently underemployed and seems to be living out of his practice space, as well as Ryan Jewell, who is a “professional musician”, which means he pays a hundred bucks a month in rent and lives off of ramen noodles.

You’ll be playing Flip Out festival with fellow Wisconsinites Goodnight Loving, who you’ve shared the occasional apple hash pipe with. How did you meet up with them? Your musical styles seem quite different.

Well, Shaun Failure, who I formed Pink Reason with, played in his first band when he was twelve or thirteen with a member of Goodnight Loving. I’ve known them all for years, just from shows and parties and stuff. When Goodnight Loving started out it was kind of a dark rootsy home recorded project. “Sad Bastard Music” is what they called it at first. Some of

Cleaning the Mirror

was recorded at Andy Kavanaugh’s place using his gear too.

Your favourite Australian musicians?

Most of the usual suspects I’m sure. Michael Bray, who is a member of Pink Reason and Psychedelic Horseshit is pretty amazing on the guitar and has impressive fashion sense. I really like Melbourne band Deaf Wish too. It’s funny because the first lineup of Pink Reason was originally called Deaf Wish, back when we had a deaf singer.

If you ever decided to settle down and buy a house, where would it be?

In the northern woods of Wisconsin, where I come from. I’d set up a studio, grow dope, experiment with chemistry and mycology, and collect guns. Same kind of shit I’ve always been into, only somewhere more private.

TIM SCOTT

Pink Reason play the Flip Out Festival and Record Fair in Sydney on Aug 29th and Melbourne Sept 5th. Myspace.com/flipoutfestival