Taylor Swift, rerecording albums to own her masters, is infinitely more punk rock than I am
Sure, my band The Loved Ones had a punk sound. With Taylor, I’m talking about punk ethics, what punk is really about.
Taylor Swift and I both come from Pennsylvania. We both love melody and lyrics, we both love Patty Griffin and Bruce Springsteen, and we both think Kanye West is an incredible, but really annoying, artist. And we both make up songs and sing them for a living. That’s about as much as we share in common. Other than that, we have led vastly different lives.
Taylor had a publishing deal and a record contract by the time she was 15. I graduated high school, worked construction and then roadied for two legendary punk rock bands, The Bouncing Souls and Sick Of It All, in my early 20s.
When I was 26, I started my own punk rock band, called The Loved Ones, and released two albums on an independent record label. I went on to start a solo career as a singer-songwriter in 2011, and I’ve released five solo albums, three of which I co-wrote with my younger brother, Tim. All of them have charted modestly on Billboard and recouped their initial investment, and then some, from the labels who put them out.