Vic Meehan
Editor’s note: my mate Vic Meehan asked if she could interview me. I thought this was odd as I’m not known for my talking abilities. I knew I had to do it. I’ll throw you over to Vic, thanks for having me in my own zine Vic, love ya tons.
I kept drunkenly saying to Matt that I would interview him for his own zine some time, and in true procrastination Vic style, 2 years later…here we are. Better late than never hey! Hope you all enjoy learning more about the man behind Munster Times!
What inspired you to start The Munster Times?
I guess the main part was that I was bored; I had just left school and thought I needed something to do. I always liked writing and I always liked music so I thought I would combine the two.
I guess like Hubert Selby Junior “The only thing I knew was the alphabet.” I never studied how to write or anything. I wrote for a street press called ‘The Buzz’ that now lives on as a website. Also, this is going way back to 2008, I wrote for MelbourneUndergound.org… don’t look for it, it’s not there.
I also read this really cool zine from Adelaide called ‘Stay Gold’ which was a music zine all done by this one girl ‘Bree’ and it was basically 3 or four interviews, a rant all done by herself.
I never even knew what a zine was, this idea of just doing it yourself, writing it yourself, publishing it yourself was a bit foreign to me and I guess having written for those other two things I kind of thought this is the sort of thing I should do, just having total control, writing exactly what I wanted, not having anyone above me. It all sounded very appealing, so I thought I would give it a shot!
Who would you say is Munster Times biggest fan?
Ummm, chuckles it’s funny that, because I remember I went to see Marilyn Rose perform once and I was speaking to her daughter Sidney, and Sidney said “My Mum is the biggest fan of her own band” And I thought that is funny, because I am not the biggest fan of my own zine.
I dunno, I guess that is what I like about it, we don’t have a lot of fans but the fan base that we do have are really passionate and really love it and people say to me “when is the next issue coming out?” and there is a bit of hunger for it amongst the people that I give it to, so that’s cool.
I don’t know who the biggest fan is but I people who I know who really like it, like me mates Paul and Terry, Amy who does all my front covers- she is a very big supporter and she always says to me “Don’t change the way you write” and always gives me lots of good feedback.
You and your Mum ‘Dianne’ too, always ask me, Kate and Nathan, Suzi Q and Mirium, Josephine Rushbrook, and several others that I can’t think of right now but I know it is definitely not me.
Who is Munster the biggest fan of?
Musically, The Fall. Mark E Smith is my hero, my muse, my inspiration. The only guy I consider a hero is this guy who has made 31 albums in 40 years, basically he just writes an album a year, records it, produces it, tours it. He hires musicians/fires musicians as they go, he just walks into his local and hires people.
Just that sheer work ethic is just really inspiring and of course the music is fantastic. So yeah, I guess he is the person I put above everyone else. As far as zines go the two that inspired me the most are Unbelievably Bad as every issue knocks me on my arse at how good it is, the always have a killer lineup and every interview is brilliant, never a wasted page, and a guy from Sydney called Matt Ford who wrote Nerf Jihad, what I liked about that was it was full of nonsense, not one serious article and full of random thought and stories. I learned a lot reading those two zines.
Do you feel obligated to keep your side burns now that you are famous for them?
Haha, Yeah, my mate Chrissy once said “Wouldn’t it be funny if Matt shaved his sideburns and no one recognised him” that could be true. I honestly don’t remember how they got there, I think when I was 19 they got to their thick and full ways, they started when I was 14 but not as thick just very thin hair and it just looked really…I dunno, I haven’t really seen a photo of them then, but I don’t think they were very strong. But now that I have them I will just keep them.
But I wouldn’t wear anything ya know I wasn’t comfortable with. But people tend to like ‘em do that’s a bonus.
Do you think Fred Negro would still draw you the same if you shaved them?
Haha Nah I don’t think so, I think he would probably update his caricature
Who would the Munster love to interview?
As I said before Mark E Smith is my hero so I would obviously love to interview him. I almost got him through The Age actually, my Mate Marty who works for The Age approached me and asked if he could get Mark E Smith would you like to interview him and I said “Oh yeah, I might like to do that.”, and then I waited and waited and he said ‘Just forget about it’, so I tried myself, I asked Melbourne Festival when they toured and they said they would get back to me. And they never got back to me, so I pleaded and pleased saying “Please, I had a radio show and my whole zine is dedicated to how much I love them” and they just said “yeah they aren’t doing interviews so just forget it.”
But maybe one day I will get to, however, he can be a bit unpredictable so maybe better admiring him from a far.
Rowland S Howard and Lemmy are other ones that I would have loved to interview but they are no longer with us. They are the ones that got away.
Who is your favourite drinking buddy?
Fred Negro and Dave Moll.
Where do you see Munster is 10 years?
Hopefully just still alive. I have had people say to me, even just on the weekend my mate Jess said “You should be selling this” But the only mission is to keep it alive and to keep it going. Hopefully it will just still be alive and functioning. It is a weird thing to have in my life; you know most of the people I know are musicians or have some kind of outlet to express themselves.
Some people do it as their main thing, or other’s just when they get home. That is always what I have just done, go to work, come home, and get the typewriter out. Sometimes it might be nothing, just something I throw away.
Other times it will be something I use in the Zine. I guess I just need that outlet and Munster is the best way to do it. So yeah, I guess for my sake, I just hope it is still alive in one way or another.
Have you seen the movie Heather’s?
Nah?
Well it is the best, you should. They have this lunchtime poll they do in it, so I will ask you the question…
You inherit 5 million dollars on the same day that aliens land on the earth and say they are going to blow it up in 2 days. What would you do?
I would buy as much alcohol and cigarettes as I could and just lock the door and wait for the inevitable to happen.
What? just by yourself?
Yeah, I have plenty of records and books to keep me company.
So, Matt wouldn’t invite us to his 5 million dollar end of world party but he has still done plenty for us all, so we will forgive him. Making a magazine off your own back, out of sheer passion for keeping music alive is why Matty and people like Matty are so valuable to the industry. Thanks for letting us hear more about you and we look forward to supporting all the future Munster Times Zines!
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