Chipp'd Teeth Zine mxpx interview (october/98) By the song lyrics he writes, you can tell he is very intellectual (in a good way) and aware of his surroundings, but at the same time just out to have fun and make music. Mike Herrera, bassist and lead singer of the punk trio MxPx is definitely the kind of guy to take home to mom. Well...after she get’s over the initial shock of his heavily tattooed arms and piercings. Definitely, not the model 90’s punk rocker, Mike grew up in Bremerton, Washington along with his bandmates Tom (guitar) and Yuri (drums). As Mike put’s it, "a navy town...there are naval shipyards there, so its all blue collar workers, welders, my dad is a welder...its pretty bad actually." Still living there with his best friends and bandmates, he has toured with for three and a half years. He described them as, "Tom is definitely not crazy, he is pretty set in his ways. Tom does stuff you know he is going to do" Yuri is kind of weird in a way but he’s got a really big heart." The guys hardly ever fight anymore, says Mike and it is very rare that you will ever find them apart, "its like your married to them" adds Mike. Mike also writes all the songs for the band and he can bust out some pretty good punk rock tunes, although his days of blasting punk rock throughout the house are over. "I mostly like old music, I like a lot of country. Most of the new music I like is country too, I like Tom Petty, The Who, Clash. I don’t listen to punk rock too much anymore, it just gets old and boring and I want to keep it real and interesting." He also has a message for all you little punk rock kids out there: "I think kids these days need to branch out on their musical genre or whatever, ya know what they listen to. Everyone is so one sided...when I was a kid I just listened to punk rock too. Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Descendants, I can understand if that’s all you want to listen to, but ya know I will listen to Chet Baker or whatever now." Definitely not a man to go along with the new trend or latest fad, he elaborated on the subject even more when asked what his thoughts were on the latest whoop-dee-doo, swing music. "I like old swing, not the new swing. I think its just been done before and it was done better and most of its just covers and kids don’t even know. Ya know I am not saying that we are all that original, but we try to take our influences from what was there before, what all started it, not what’s out there now." Mike admits that he reads a lot in his spare time. His heroes are authors C.S. Lewis and Francis Schafer. No, his heroes are not punk rock gods or famous porn stars like the classic punk rocker you would think of. They are philosophers and fictional children’s authors. Which didn’t surprise me after getting to know Mike, he’s a pretty calm down to earth guy, who knows what he wants and doesn’t let other people influence his decisions too much. Like I said before, mom would be proud. We Know Something You Don’t Know The scoop on the MxPx song "Cristalena" straight from Mike: "the story behind that one is, there was this girl i used to go to school with, well theres a lot of people i went to high school with, but i had her in a couple classes and i worked with her so we became friends and she knew i was in band so she basically just said 'hey write a song about me' and i was like 'alright' and i did" Betcha didn't know: Theres a video tape out there, somewhere, that has all the boys from MxPx on it dancing and singing while doing kareoke to "Hangin Tough" by the New Kids On The Block.

"not christian enough!!" (excerpt from the abba news vol. 5, no.1) Christian music is at an all time high. Labels popping up like a spring sale before Christmas time. Bands are more musically diverse with their eye on the mainstream market. Now with the good comes bad. What have we turned into as Christians in a Christian industry? Deep down are we truly acting like Christians to one another? Or just undercover entrepreneurs in a dying world to a strong sales market? Bands being slandered for being Christian, and bands being slandered for not being Christian enough! Lyrics are changed to be more Christian to sell more albums. We need to draw the line. Who will set the standard or continue to be top dog in a copy cat world? What's really funny is this situation that occured at a show... This is crazy. I don't understand. I was at a show and I saw a kid with an MXPX shirt on. The kid had crossed out the MXPX logo with a circle and a line through it. To me this meant anti-MXPX. My first thought was why are you wearing the shirt? I asked him and he said "you know why... they're sell outs." I said "what do you mean sell outs?" How many other people are angered and frustrated with MXPX like this kid? I used to be frustrated with them too. Then God showed me how much damage I was really doing for the strong man, by running my mouth about MXPX. Who am I to view anyone other than myself? I am not God. God is in control of all things, even MXPX. He uses everything for his glory. Do we really know what impact for God MXPX is making? Only God knows that. And it really doesn't matter because Jesus is Savior and He knows what's going down. I read a Spin article a few months ago about MXPX. It didn't mention anything about God or their walk, but it did mention how they planned on remaining abstinent till they were married. This in itself was a witness, totally going against the grain of the world's standards. They were willing to take a chance at persecution from the world for saying that in order to stand up for what they believe. Yet they are still accused of not being Christian enough. You would be surprised at how many people could come to know the Lord through that. Who draws the line? Who sets the standard by which someone is measured a good enough Christian? God and God alone. Yet even some Christian bookstores won't carry MXPX because they aren't Christian enough. I wish that sometime a manager or music buyer would go see what kind of punk rock kids are really buying. They would probably reconsider some of the thoughts they have had on MXPX when they even look at the album covers of some secualr punk bands, let alone hear the lyrics. MXPX delivers a positive message. A message ultimately inspired by Jesus. Do you think most punk bands sing about their fiance like Mike Herrara does? Do they show the kind of love and respect Christ would have you treat a girl like Mike does in his song titled "Andrea"? No they don't. But because these lyrics don't contain a directly evangelical message does this warrant to disrespect and trash something God has given? People really just don't understand what this band is really doing. This anti-MXPX kid, along with others who feel the same way, are causing more confusion than the band MXPX ever did. There are things that can be controversial with anyone or any band. Even Jesus himself was controversial. He healed someone on Sunday. But it destroys God's kingdom when brothers are tearing brothers down. What's so funny is think of a non-believers stand point. The only thing that they see is a Christian having something against another Christian. Why would they want to be a Christian, to be part of persecution?