Riot Grrrl punk legend Brontez Purnell is doing so much these days that it’s hard to keep up. He’s an acclaimed author, publishing the novels Since I Laid My Burden Down, Fag School and, most recently, the stunning, slutty ode to queer love 100 Boyfriends. He’s a dancer too, running the Brontez Purnell Dance Company and recently performing a dance solo, titled Invisible Trial, at New York’s Performance Space (it was choreographed by Larry Arrington and dramaturgy by Jeremy O Harris). He’s also the frontman of rock band The Young Lovers; in April he went on tour with Bikini Kill. And if all that wasn’t enough, in July this year he showed off his artistic flair with an incredible solo show at New York’s Trotter & Sholer, Anti-Alter Ego, which featured zine-inspired Xeroxes blown up large, and a series of performances in the space.

Purnell’s most recent project was a new album: No Jack Swing. It’s a funky, summery, energetic release that is perfect for blasting at a beach day at Riis or cruising with a packed car full of hotties down Route One. To celebrate, I caught up with everyone’s favourite multi-hypenate to hear more about what’s been inspiring him these days.

I loved your recent show at Trotter & Sholer, Anti-Alter Ego. It had such incredible punk energy – the blown-up Xeroxes on the walls, drawing from your zines… it felt like you were making a point about identity and projection, but also having fun with it. How did it feel to put on a show that was so multidimensional?

Brontez Purnell: Disorienting? But ultimately worth it... I’m constantly dealing with how six-dimensional my persona can feel, [the way it is] reflected at others and then back at myself. [There’s so] much that can get lost in translation, [and so much that can] get overly amplified. But also, I think all readings of people can be kind of cryptic. 

You mentioned to me that this show was in part about people questioning the “reality” of your work – whether the things you write about in your books actually happened, when maybe they should just be appreciating that it’s a good book. Why do you think Americans are so obsessed with reality and artifice?

Brontez Purnell: I have no clue – Americans tend not to believe the truth, even when it’s right in front of their fucking face. They also seem to be in love with the notion of switching reality and artifice. Why I am so questioned by the likes of these people is beyond me!

Like any good art coming from a hot punk goth girl, so much of your work has a bit of a magical witchy element. I loved the special dance performance you were a part of for the Venus Jupiter conjunction in Pisces, choreographed by your long-time collaborator Larry Arrington. How do magic, myths, witchcraft and astrology inform your work?

Brontez Purnell: Well, stated plainly, I do think that all things that make up one’s ‘practice’ take on a spiritual element of sorts. Art and dance are my religions, simply stated – both are as sacred as they are secular to me, if that makes any sense. When I’m in a spiritual quandary, I’m not going to turn to the Bible, but rather poetry or my own inner world. I basically do it to have my inner dialogue made manifest.

If there was one legendary artist, musician or witch you could resurrect from the dead to do a collaboration with, who would it be? 

Brontez Purnell: Oh god, no one. I am of the ilk of witch that believes we should more or less let the dead rest – they’ve earned it! Plus the artists I tend to want to collaborate with are like, new people I meet randomly.

“I think the whole blind pen pal thing was a lot more romantic than this reality we live in. When you write to someone for months blindly, you eventually meet them and fall in love no matter what they look like, because that kind of connection allows for it” – Brontez Purnell

I’m so curious about how queer punk kids made connections before the internet and social media became such a thing.  How did you find your people? 

Brontez Purnell: I mean, I was at the start [of the internet], there were message boards. Like, I remember there being the Kill Rock Stars message board, where I basically met the five other gay boys who were Riot Grrrls at the time. But also, I didn’t have an email address until I was like 18, and going on the internet wasn’t something you did every day at the time because dial-up was a bitch!

I mostly met people through the mail, there were lots of weird pen pal services in the back of Rolling Stone, but also this Bay Area punk zine called Maximum Rock N Roll had a special print zine called Book Your Own Fucking Life which printed a list of punks all over the country who had bands and zines, and people listed their addresses so you could write to them and shit. To be honest, I think the whole blind pen pal thing was a lot more romantic than this ‘here’s my picture’ reality we live in. I feel like when you write to someone for months blindly, you eventually meet them and fall in love no matter what they look like, because that kind of connection allows for it. But long story short, I found my people basically because I was desperate to find new ways of thinking and being. As they say, ‘if you are looking for it, it’s looking for you’.

Was there someone who first turned you on to zine-making? What was your first experience of making a zine like?

Brontez Purnell: Well my eighth-grade English teacher was really cool. She would give me banned books. In one lesson, she taught us how to make a ‘dummy’ or mock book – like how to fold it and label it. She didn’t teach us about ‘zines’ per se, but it was the thing that turned into that pretty soon after. By ninth grade, my aunt had given me this old 70’s typewriter she had and I began typing my first zine, Spandex Press. By then, I was pen pals with people who were doing Xerox zines at Kinkos and mailing them all over the country. I met my first bandmate at high school and she did a zine called Liquid (it was so rad), and also this was how I later met my future bandmate Seth Bogart (he was living in Arizona – his zine was Puberty Strike). There was also Janelle Hessig who did Tales of Blarg and Vice Cooler, who did Day The, who I eventually hopped in a van and moved to California with. But I basically got into zines when I was 13, and that aesthetic has carried me all the way into Anti-Alter Ego.

Who are the punks, witches, and artists who inspired you the most when you were young? 

Brontez Purnell: I’m going to take this time to honor all the really bad role models I had growing up, who I do think we have to give some honor to. The people who you watched say ‘this is what not giving a fuck looks like’. It was the sprinkle of salt I needed to complete the dish.