Interview with Mookie Waaka From No Brainers

Please introduce yourself, and tell us what bands you and members of the band have been a part of?

Yooooo, my name is Mookie and I am in NO BRAINERS, hott chipz hardcore from Tāmaki Makaurau, and I used to play bass in MARKDOWN, which was the World's Premier Retail Hardcore band. And I was in SUB-EXCREMENTS with Buzzy and Ian for one Halloween show at Tiger Spit Garage.

How did you discover Aotearoa punk and hardcore, what bands were around at the time and is there any memories you would like to share with us?

I am very old and started going to shows in the 90s, my fav shit was fast 80s American hardcore but noone was playing that style, so I had to make do watching bands like Nothing At All at Frisbee in Symonds Street then I started going to see The Coolies and Fake Purr (South Auckland punk rocknroll) at Lost Angel Cafe in Krd and Kings Arms back when it was still a Sports Bar, then a bunch of hardcore kids were putting on all ages shows in weird spots with bands like Balance, DSM, Ghidrah, Season of Evil and all that scene, so I started going to all those shows too - I had to listen to the hardcore show on bfm to find out about shows, or go to Crawlspace Records for flyers. The hardcore shows were fun, though the music was way too slow or metal for me usually. The hardcore shows of that time seemed weirdly well-organised, the spaces they used were always random but super rad and they often had little info stalls about Animal Rights and stuff. I did think the hardcore bands were preachy and super straight though and the hardcore scene looked very white-bread and suburban to me, everyone wore grey marle Champion hoodies and that shit was so pricey in the 90s! Or like Earth Crisis merch was super popular but who can afford that shit - rich kids yo! So I still loved going to my trashy punk and rock'n'roll shows too, cos those kids were from much more diverse backgrounds and a bit more relatable, being broke and shoplifting food and booze etc. Then bands like Missing Teeth, The Rudies, Get Fucked Ups and shit started playing shows and Kings Arms put an actual stage in, then we started doing Misfit Theatre shows and Anna and Simon were doing Necropolis shows and shit was kicking off.

Describe the current Tamaki Makaurau punk/HC scene, name some of the bands you play with regularly, and would you say the culture has changed much over the years?

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaate, lemme tell you, things done changed! Nah, what has really changed is since the late 90s AK has been steadily gentrifying and becoming unaffordable to live in, especially in the central city. It's hard to find affordable housing and buy groceries let alone find a spot to put on a loud ruckus show, but there are still a few rad bands around playing shows whenevs and wherevs they can. My ideal would be everyone playing fast 80s hardcore with short songs ofc, but no one agrees with that and so the Ak music scene is weirdly diverse with lots of different styles. Probs my fav bands atm though would be Knifed, Hackjob, Tooms, Warm Leather and Power Nap. I think in general though, everyone needs to play a bit faster and write shorter songs and to all my peers - you need to start bands you dorks! Please start a fast punk band and invite me to your show. Because the kids are bringing back grunge jams and it's not ok.

I would love to hear about how the Kings Arms door ended up at the Auckland museum, and did they accept their gift?

Lollll, The Auckland Museum has a selection of doors from the Kings Arms' loos and they rotate them in and out of display as they all have different graffiti. Some absolute genius at the Museum recognised that the KA was an important AKL institution and grabbed them before the KA was demolished, then a friend of mine who works at the Museum noticed heaps of the graffiti was mine, so they hit me up for a statement. I actually haven't seen the display yet but people send me pics. Also, that mean as waka in the foyer is mine too, that's my iwi, so I basically own the Museum. I might start sending them other random shit I own and see how much I can get my name in there. Ian - is the Museum taking submissions?!

Favourite Nz show you attended, or played at, can you tell us why it stood out from others?

CODE 13 (USA) at the Grey Lynn Community Centre! So lit. Code 13 were in their final form where they were moving away from the blackened crusty anarcho shit and writing youth crew/80s hardcore anthems and it was soooo good. They played in the main hall, with all the lights on, on the floor, there was no cool atmosphere or rad vibe, just old people playing crushing hardcore under fluorescent lights lolllll (they were probably about 32 at the time). LIMPWRIST at Ellen Melville was rad too...I've been to a milli awesome shows and I'm hyped for future shows too, as long as everything's fast af. Velocity is important!

Can you tell us about No Brainers, your influences, when the band started, what have you put out to date and any future goals you would like to share with us?

No Brainers is most of Markdown and was formed just to play hectic sets at house parties but no one wants us at their house, so we play bar shows instead. It's supposed to be short, fast and loud but we just wrote a 1.45 min song which is basically prog and if I'm honest I'm shook. Who has the time for that shit?! Never Again. We recently released a pretty sweet 7" called ACID MELT on neon green w/ black splattered vinyl and you can grab it from our bandcamp - we got a few copies left. We are gonna try smash out another one early next year so go buy the Acid Melt 7" while you can cos it's a banger. If your band is fast we probs keen to play a show, hit us up.

In the 90s there was a good mix of people at shows. What are your thoughts on mixed shows, are there bands that only do exclusive shows with certain bands, do you think mixed shows are beneficial for a healthy music scene in NZ? Do you mean mixed musical styles at shows?

Yeh that shit is rad, I'm into it for sure. Keen for more club kids in this shit tbh! As long as it's fast... As far as a good mix of people, in general, it could defo be more diverse - Aotearoa punk and hardcore can tend to be pretty white and straight (and in Akl middle class af) so I'm keen on any actions people take to make shows more appealing, safe and welcoming for our POC and LGBTQI+ whanau and friends and actively booking diverse bills is a small but rad start towards that. That said, I would also be way keen to book a show up here of like 10 bands all playing 15min sets of fast punk, but noone is really about that right now - they are into spacey pop jamz and slow guitarz! Need more caffeine in this scene.

Favourite venue past or present and why?

Lucha Lounge! Perfect size, perfect owner (RIP Karyn), it was opposite a bowling alley/spacies place so if someone booked a stoner rock band you could ditch and go play games, cheap tiger beers, post-show karaoke, and you could smash out the smoke machine without any alarms going off. And obvs TSG4EVA, Tiger Spit Garage was our lil spot we put on shows, just our shitty brick one-car garage at a flat we lived at, we threw some mean shows there. RIP HOOLIBEANSES #ANGEL

Top 5 bands or albums that influenced you the most over the years?

There's too many to list cos I'm a record dork but I'll give you my Top 5 snacks to eat at shows - hot chips (ALWAYS&4EVA IN MY HEART), chip sandwiches (pref salty vinny and maybe Molenberg cos I'm bougie these days but I can take a ready salted on River Mill, I aint forget my roots!), cheap lime green soda, those lentil pies from Pye's Pies and I'm gonna say hot chips again but shoestring fries I guess? We once made pancakes at a show on stage during our set and I think bands need to make more effort to be snacking in the set. People should be snacking in the pit too, SNACKPIT is a thing. If we can find a way to make pancakes in a 15min set, like, what is your excuse bro?

Any words or advice for the up and coming bands in NZ?

For all bands in NZ - play fast, write short songs! If it's over a minute long, you really need to stop and think about some of the life choices you are making. The world is ending my G, lose the solo and get it done! I think as a reference, everyone should just have a blat on the Jellyroll Rockheads discography LP and wake up to The Real Deal.

Would you like to give some final shout-outs to end the interview?

Yeah bo, can I give shout-outs to everybody, everywhere - you know who you are! INSERT PEACE EMOJI YO! And play faster!