How’d you get into all these bands in the first place?
FM: I collected records and I liked this odd stuff. I’ve collected punk rock records since I was twelve or thirteen years old. It was ’78 or ’79 when I started collecting. As soon as the first wave punk records came out I got them. I don’t know why I gravitated towards those. I think I read a Jane Scott article in the Plain Dealer about it and was just curious, so I picked up the records here and there when I could.
Given the journalistic landscape in Cleveland, even if that’s how Frank found out about the scene, why’d you decide to start your paper, the Niagara Falls Reporter, elsewhere?
MH: The way it happened was that I got a job at the daily in Niagara. There was a guy I knew – he was my intern at one point. It turned out that he was editing the daily paper there, which is called The Gazette. So, I left New York to take the job in Niagara Falls.
It didn’t really work out and after 18 months, I left. I basically didn’t have anything to do and I didn’t have enough money to get out of Niagara Falls. A bunch of the political guys and business people said, ‘There should be another paper in town.’ They set me up and lent me enough money to get started.
Mikes runs a newspaper and doesn’t have a proper degree. Frank, you’re the opposite. You run a label and have a law degree. Is there a connection there?
When you run a label as a full time profession, there’s a lot of law work. It’s predominately the work that we do - getting agreements figured out, making sure people follow them. It’s a lot of work.
Mike, have you been hindered by not pursuing a degree?
MH: You know, I wonder. I knew guys that I grew up with that went to college in 1977 to get a degree in order to get the job that I had. Working at a newspaper is certainly better training for working at a newspaper than going to school and studying journalism.
In talking about business, it seems that Smog Veil has focused on functioning as a green label. Does that jive with whatever punk’s ethos is or was?
FM: As a reissue label, we do a lot of recycling. We’ve always had this green consciousness and I wanted to apply it to the business. I wanted people that ran other labels to investigate these ideas. When we moved to Chicago, we were lucky enough to find a living space that we’d be able to operate the label out of.
Does caring about the environment fly in the face of bands like the Pagans?
FM: I don’t preach this stuff. I try to be an example in the industry. There are other businesses within the industry that have incorporated this consciousness. But it’s cool with me if people do whatever they want to do.