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>> What punk rock did for the
Locust’s Justin Pearson

ACRIMONIOUS ACRIDIDS: The Locust

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Given the rising profile of such likeminded bands as Dillinger Escape Plan, An Albatross and Daughters, 2008 could prove to be quite a big year for San Diego’s the Locust. Their new record New Erections continues the band’s trademark assault, but amid the blinding blast beats and dexterous riffs, the Locust have added further thud and wallop to their technically brilliant arrangements. The Mirror spoke with bassist/keyboardist/singer Justin Pearson over the phone.

Mirror: You guys have been outspoken about your boycott of Clear Channel venues. With their increasing monopoly of radio and venues, are you finding it harder to find places to play?

Justin Pearson: I really don’t want to be part of a company that ejects people from their venues for speaking out on the war in Iraq, but they haven’t really penetrated our community yet. We have been criticized ourselves, though, as we’re on MySpace and that’s now owned by Rupert Murdoch, but we were having people create MySpace pages under the guise of being us, and masquerading as us, so we had little choice but to fight that. It’s a drag, but we really didn’t have any other choice.

M: You’ve been on tour with Dillinger Escape Plan as well as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Were those tours different from when you headline?

JP: When we were on tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, they tended to bring out all these dudes that do all these kind of scissorkicks and really testosterone-type dancing. We all love Dillinger, but we would never really want an audience like that because we’re pretty much art fags. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs audiences just thought we sucked.

M: You lived through a horrendous personal tragedy—your father was senselessly murdered when you were a teenager. What factor did music have during these dark days?

JP: Punk rock was really this welcoming community for me when I was going through a pretty hard time. I didn’t feel like I fit in with anybody, and just felt like I was living in this vortex. Then I noticed there were these other fucked-up people and freaks that were accepting. Punk rock, to me, was this dark and aggressive kind of music, but it was also really intellectually stimulating. Listening to bands like Septic Death and Black Flag was actually socially positive and just real for me, because those bands sang the truth. It was because of punk rock that I didn’t become a stereotypical American kid that gets into sports and goes to parties for date rapes. Instead of going to college, graduating and having 2.5 kids, I got to hang out with weirdoes and make art. My mom lost her husband and had to figure out how to raise a kid by herself, and it was hard for her, but she did the best she could. I definitely went through a rough time and I wouldn’t wish it on any kid, but I think everybody has their shit on a plate to deal with. At that point, punk rock just provided this thing where I could really think and figure shit out for myself. I would say I really lucked out when I discovered punk rock.

With Despised Icon, Child Abuse and Discord of a
Forgotten Sketch at le Studio tonight, Thursday,
Nov. 15, 8 p.m., $16, all ages