Somehow we have spat out fifty bloody posts of GFR NEWS, to celebrate we are doing things a bit different and featuring our first ever interview and it's with Munster Times publisher Matt Munster - struth this is TAKE BLOODY 50 🤬 that chick that told me men over 40 shouln't put more than 2 emoji's: 👺🧨🆗

GFR NEWS | TAKE 50

MATT MUNSTER INTERVIEW!

OK GFR News are super bloody stoked to present an interview with Matt Munster.

Matt is a rabid fan of the larrakins from Carringbush in B&W stripes and also of Mark E Smith & The Fall and he sports one of the best Lester Bangs sideburns south of the Yarra. He can be heard DJing on 3CR FM and along with the Flash presents live music on Sunday arvos at my local the St Kilda bolo!.

But for this interview we are focusing on his role as the creator, publisher and writer of Munster Times, a suitably OFFLINE zine that Matt prints on trusty A4 paper - so no waiting for the page to load or squinting to read it on an overpriced computer phone. Fuck me I loath the internet these days, bunch of overhyped crap dressed up in lipstick is still a huge waste of time imho.

Munster Times issues typically include Matt's bitingly subversive introductory rants, interviews with local and international independent bands and artists, some music reviews, some articles on the golden era of Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre and the latest instalment of Fred Negro's legendary PUB comic strip!

INTERVIEW PREAMBLE

Before we get to the interview I wanted to touch on how I came across Munster Times.

So a few years ago I was at the Pasted & Wasted rock poster exhibition selling GFR merch and I was there with stalwart GFR supporter & St Kilda booking legend Suzie 'I like your old stuff better than your new stuff' Q P Dhol. I was vainly searching for mention of GF amongst the flyers for the real bands when I finally found one of Fred Negros PUB themed flyers for the Espy circa 1992/3

Footy Mouth was postulating that the SAT main room action was Guiltfilter and Suiciety. I vaguely remember the gig, v good rider, Jim Beam 365ml + slab of VB yes that was normal in the 90s - we were not really massive fans of Suiciety however back then there were very few decent heavy but not heavy metal bands for our Guiltfilter to play with - Hazchem, WOMNAL, Killing Time, The Black Seeds & Suiciety were amongst the only ones and Premier wouldn't touch us after I shot up on stage in the Gershwin Room to Space Oddity - so Horsehead and Bigger Than Jesus while friendly could not gig with us - anyway Suicety were very friendly young musos who loved fast heavy music so we did quite a few gigs with them at the Espy and POW and if you like you heavy music super-fast, super-serious & straight and tight like Machine Head or Fear Factory you would really like them, GF liked things looser and messier but each to their own I say.

Anyway after the desperate media liazon interviewed me in front of the Espy flyer (there were no famous people there so Suz strong armed her into interviewing me) I did my best grumpy old man indignation thing and whinged about what a bloody travesty it was that I could not read the PUB comic strip anymore. when Ms Q P Dhol explained it was actually available in the Munster Times zine!! and she had most of the past issues!!

I had never heard of it and so she later lent me a bunch of issues and soon I was happier than a jihadist flying high on Bashir's personal supply of Captigon as I lay on the floor surrounded by back issues of this awesome zine catching up with Footy Mouth and all the penis and vagina drawings and best of all it wasn't on the fkn internet so I was able to get completely lost to the outside world for several hours of AAA+ reading. Bonus time and extra points and soft milky skin I do love a good read when it also has pictures (fun fact is the immortal and legendary William Blake was the first to marry images with writing and print it out in multiples back in the late 1700s, he invented the first ever zine like).

What struck me the straight away was the intro's to each issue written by Matt in a undeniably unique style that sits somewhere between Gonzo Journalism, a TISM lyric and a wobbly yet brilliant Peter Daicos miracle goal. All this has left me thirsty for the full story of Munster Times so I asked him for an interview and he graciously accepted..

THE INTERVIEW

Munster Times creator Matt

I spoke to Matt via email back and forth over a week or two from the end of Jan to mid Feb this year, following is pretty much 100% verbatim asides from the occasional correct spelling of a basic word me or Matt mumbled out on that old nemesis of writers everywhere aka look up and your typing in the wrong spot for the last 3 sentences cos you breathed on the bloody trackpad aka the laptop keyboard:

GFR Mags: G'day Matt, considering that myself and many GFR News readers know f'all about your zine, can we begin the basics please: when did you first start the zine, how many issues have you published, how often is it published and how did you initially come about to be putting out your own zine?

Matt: Good evening Mags. I woke up one morning on holidays from TAFE back in 2008, when I was 19, and decided I was going to start my own DIY magazine (don/t think I heard the term zine). This was back when MySpace was a thing. I made a list of bands to interview and sent off a few private messages, and surprisingly a lot got back to me. The very first interview I did was with Mikey Young from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, which I didn/t realise at the time wot a score that was. I wrote it in two weeks. I gave the writings to my friend Taryn, as I knew nothing about graphics and layout, and asked her to make it look something like a proper magazine, and with that issue 1 was born Im about to unleash issue 40 onto the world.

it/s published when its ready. In recent years ive been a bit slack, I used to do it quarterly, and this year hope to get back to punching out four issues a year. Back to when I was at TAFE, I was writing for a street press called the Buzz. It was put together by a fella named Petter Sutton. I asked for be a reviewer and after a 30 minute phone call put me on staff. If it wasn/t for him I wouldn/t be doing wot im doing today. Anyway, I was aving a blast writing for the Buzz, but I discovered zines round this point. You can do this yourself? So I set to work to make a publication that I wanted to read. One that covered punk/garage rock, football, wrestling, cricket, dime store books and weird cult telly/films. Also, I was reading zines by people round my own age. They all had this smug attitude of I know everything, whether its music or running the world. The key word is FAN in fanzine, im a fan first, not an expert or a critic, I write about things I think are worthy of being written about, even if its not my tastes, or if it/s a shit film but one worth discussing. These zines I mentioned had such a serious tone, either talking how shit life is as a student or how fucked the world/government is, im like where all in our teens/early twenties, does anyone wanna talk about anything fun? I decided I really just wanted to keep the zine fun and keep it politic free, as you ave too many idiots talking about that already.

GFR Mags: One thing I have noticed is that the quality and effort seem to be very consistent from issue to issue. I have a few issues from very different years and every one of them seems to always pack a full range of content into every issue. Is this something you are conscious of and do you set a standard of quality for each separate issue?

Matt: Im very humbled you said quality. I don/t ave a word/page limit, I just keep writing til I think thats enough. Im not sure I sent a standard. Again, I just keep going til I think that will do. Sometimes we might only ave four interviews, sometimes more then ten. There are times when im working on an issue and i/ll think somethings missing, then bingo, an idea for an article comes to me, and its ready for print.

GFR Mags: One of the reasons Guiltfilter are rarely played on radio or asked to play festivals is that the DJs and promoters cannot place us in a specific genre: our last album, for instance, starts with a 6 minute heavy prog rock song with tinges of Metal and then track 2 is basically a 3.5 minute super straight 60s rock song. This is because I just let the songs come out without any thought, I don't sit down with any goal in mind. And I try to keep it as esoteric and sub-conscious as possible, and I don't ditch a song because it doesn't fit within a genre. Reading the intro's to Munster Times and looking at the way you give the same energy, research and focus to interviews with so many disparate and different types of artists brings me to my next question: I was wondering if you could explain your process with writing your intro's and picking the artists to interview and subjects to write in the zine? Is it completely random and spontaneous or do you have some guidelines to how you go about compiling the content for each issue? Like are there any musical genres you would not put in the zine?

Matt: I wouldn/t say that i blackball any genres. but my personal favourites are punk, garage and powerpop. if you pick a genre, im certain even the styles im not right into (hip hop, folk, electronic) im sure i could still name a few acts i enjoy. i wouldn/t say i ave any guidelines. 95% of bands ive covered im a fan of. there might ave been the odd one here and there where i thought well its not my thing, but it is something different and people should know about it. im not really strick on guild lines, if i think the act is interesting and people should now about em, i/ll cover them, thats about it. so id say its more random then spontaneous. im happy to cover any genre but i guess i just stick to the genres that are my favourites. For the intros, I usually think I got nothing, but then something will come up in my life or in the world i/ll feel the need to rant away. Intros are always the funniest part, when I get on a roll I can punch them out in 15 minutes

GFR Mags: Classic multi-historical-top3-faves question here - a bit corny but I personally really like 'em and they are very popular here on GFR News! OK first, name three of your favourite zines from before Munster Times started and please add some basic details like the genre or subjects the zine was known for. Also can you throw in three of your favourite retired wrestlers with their nationalities, active years and federations they competed in? Then can we have three favourite musical artists or bands that you were listening to before you started the zine. And finally three of your favourite old-skool VFL/AFL players who completed their careers before the year 2000.

Matt:

Top three zines

Nerf Jihad: this was the brain child of a Sydney fella named Matt Ford. It wasn/t a music focused zine, but he did ave interviews with musos every now and then. One time he interviewed a singer songwriter and he asked her a few music questions, then he asked her, as she was a school teacher, if he trailed her music on her students. And then asked wots your favourite Bill Murry movie. I loved his interview style, ask some questions re the work, a personal, but not probing question, then some random nonsense. Twas brilliant. He mostly wrote surrealism, he would write all these bull shit complaint emails to various companies, and if they wrote back he would publish that. Also he would write to channel 7 and 9 personalities, insulting them via praise, and they all wrote back so he would publish the responses. He/d also write short funny stories from his life, and would write random articles like who would win a fist fight between Nick Cave and Shane Warne. It inspired me as he just wrote nonsense, you didn/t ave to make some grand political/social stand, he was aving fun and I loved it. Every Munster I end by saying eternal respect to Matt Ford, as hes a genius, I hope hes still kicking around doing something

Unbelievably Bad: these fellas used to review my zine, and they once said I had the spirit of a unicorn and Munster was basically wot UB would look like if it was a school project and with a staple in the corner. No one has given me higher praise then that. UB was a wonderful zine was pretty much my bible . I didn/t grow up with the internet, so I would read UB and take notes of the bands and go to record shops and track down all the cool bands covered. And I loved how a Sydney band that would ave one or two demos tapes would get the same amount of coverage as Jello Biafra. One highlight was the never ever ending interview with Herschell Gordan Lewis, which featured in every issue.

Stitches in my Head- Kinda cheating as this started the same time as Munster. Christina, who has also run a record label and plays in bands, first released a great hardcore zine, that covered the local and international zine. A great insightful writer who knew her subjects inside out, and again gave equal coverage whether it was a local or international act.

Wrestlers

1 Harley Race (USA 1959-1990. St Louis). Race was the travelling NWA World Champion for the majority of the mid 70s til the early 80s. He wrestled in every territory at the time and every big star from that era. Harley was not a jacked up Steroid freak like the WWF wrestlers in the 80s. towards the end he ever grew a beer belly. He was that guy in the bar if you pushed him and pushed him you could get the shit kicked out of you. He was the reason why I grew sideburns

2. Terry Funk (USA 1965-2017, Amarillo). Funk has the best quote about wrestling. "i can/t make them believe wrestling is real, but I can make them believe im real". No one did that better then Funk. Again, another guy that wasn/t a roid freak, Funk had the element of danger and unpredictability. Funk and Race get my one and two, as on top of looking like ordinary guys, they also had the rare talent of people able to be thrown in the ring with almost anyone, and make it look like a competitive bout.

3. Spiros Arion (Greece 1961-1980, WCW (Australian one)) when wrestling was as big as the VFL when it comes to TV ratings, the Golden Greek Spiros Arion was so over he could been an MP, he was that popular. One of those great grapplers that was a master of controlling the crowd, whether he was a heel or face. He was as loved in Australia as hated as he was In the WWWF. Never get tired of watching his matches or seeing him talk.

Bands

The Fall- Weird lyrics by a pub philosopher, who runs the band like a football team, telling short stories while forever changing the bands sound. Mark E Smith will always be number one at everything for me.

Ramones- four misfits singing about being misfits and 50s girl group tracks. I band I refuse to believe anyone can dislike

Anything with Billy Childish- master of garage rock, blues and using his personal life for for lyrics. Like MES someone special to me

Footballers-

James Manson- one of the worst kicks ive ever seen but still kicked 106 goals. Who can forget the time when Charles Manson was injured after taking a mark, so Doug Barwick had to take the kick and kicked yours truly to put the pies in front in a crucial point of the match. Wot a team man, and even better that he all of a sudden he overcame the injury as soon as the kick sailed through the goals. Miracles do happen.

Denis Banks- a great small forward before the term existed. A bloke that should ave retired young given the hell his body went through but somehow pushed on earned a much deserved Premiership Medalian. They don/t come braver or tougher then Banksy

Michael Gayfer- again, another guy was not a natural footballer, but gave it his all and worked around his weaknesses to also be a major part of 1990

Ah, writing about those three brings a tear to the eye

GFR Mags: Thanks for those answers Matt - to the reader I note that we are doing this interview back and fourth 2 questions a time via email and I just excitedly read answers 3 & 4 and it was great to see Matt's answer on the intros, I think they show a really unique Australian voice and would love to see a compilation of them in book form at my local bookshop someday! OK Q5 is going on from your zines focus on punk, garage and powerpop: you are know around town and in the zine to be a really massive fan of the UK band The Fall. I had never really heard much of them and know nothing about them except that their fans seem very passionate and in an interview in the great aussie book 'Roadies' by Stuart Coupe one of the roadies describes Mark E Smith from The Fall as a famously difficult performer to roadie for who rained verbal abuse on the crew and his very young wife and walked offstage more than once! I am fascinated to know your story with this enigmatic band, a little info on who they are, and are you possibly a Fall obsessive?

Matt: Yes, the Fall Army is a very dedicated fanbase. info, basically the group had five plus members but Mark E Smith was the one constant. they had either 30 or 31 LPs (i say that as there debate over there final release, New Facts Emerge, whether it was an LP or EP). I am a Fall obsessive yes. Mark E Smith was one of three people i call a hero. the band always kept evolving there sound, while MES would come up with the most insane, beautiful lyrics i ever heard, while 'aving the same tone in his voice throughout. he was more a writer then a muso, but music happened to be the best. he was more influenced by H.P Lovecraft then any singer/songwriter. on top of his music, i loved how he ran the group like a football team, he knew when to keep musos on and when to move them on. he was a genus and i don/t use that term lightly.

Munster Times Upcoming Issue #40 cover

GFR Mags: As a youth I used to read every single issue of the PUB comic strip by Fred Negro and also all his Espy, POW and Greyhound gig guide adverts with Footy Mouth - and so did literally everyone in the Australian music scene. It is hilarious, subversive, controversial, titillating and endearing and completely unique in it's premise. I have read a lot of non action hero comics and PUB is so original and easily up there with the best in the world and I thought it stupid that is was discontinued, a blight on Australian publishing and a win for the boring conservatives that seem to run the world these days. So a 2 part PUB comic strip question: How did your relationship with PUB creator Fred Negro happen and how in the hell did you arrange to have new PUB strips released in each issue with Munster Times? A massive coup that! Tell us the DL on how it happened please.

Matt: i first met Fred formally when i interviewed him for Munster when i was 19. he invited me into his place at Brighton. as time went on and i spent more time around the traps we hung out more and got to know each other, to the point we where regulars most nights when Book Club was going. there was a period when we saw each other daily. we could talk music, books, football and telly, so we got on famously. how the Pub Strip came on my desk. he pretty much just ask me, and i said yes.

GFR Mags: Thanks for those answers Matt, now I can go listen to The Fall and read some of his lyrics, I am fascinated by enigmas, misanthropes and eccentrics and he sounds like a home run on all three counts. OK before I get to Q7 I would like to formally announce that Munster Times has officially moved into the GFR Throne Room (my toilet). Now this is a huge compliment because I only put books and magazines next to the shitter that have taken on some form of legendary status in my literature sub-conscious - current dunny lit includes the greatest oz music book ever compiled IMO 'BLUNT - A Biased History Of Australian Rock' by Bob Blunt, VICE Mag Vol 4 #4 GANGS v CULTS, 'I Need More - The Stooges and other Stories' by Iggy Pop w/ Anne Wehrer & 'The Anarchists' edited by Irving L. Horowitz - so congratulations there. So the question: Do you have a favourite issue of Munster Times and can you highlight a couple of truly memorable or laugh out loud funny interviews from over the years, who pops out in your memory?

Matt: ah thank you, pleasure all mine. im with great company. don/t know that i ave a favourite issue. i think if i did i would stop. as i always think the next issue will be better, and my best work is around the corner. when i finish an issue it takes so much time im like its done fuck it i dont care how it reads. then after a few weeks i/ll be like that issue was ok, which is about as satisfied as i get.

I/ve always loved interviewing my friends. Penny Ikinger, Jack Howard and Billy Pommer Jr come to mind. I liked those interviews as there all played in well known Australian bands but also ave there own solo/other projects. I spoked to Billy early on in the zine, and he said to me at the bar one night if it was any good, I said hell yeh. He was talking to someone and said Matt does a zine, but it didnt feel like an interview, felt like two mates chatting, which I considered high praise, and how I wanted the interviews to come across, more like your eavesdropping at the bar as opposed to an interrogation.

Very fortunate to ave spoked to Martin Bramah and Keiron Melling,, Martin was in the first Fall line up (he was in the group when they was originally known as the Outsiders) and Keiron was there at the end. Both lovely guys

Specking to Damian Cowell from TISM twice, once about Disco Machine and one about football had me on the floor laughing

But Tony Martin was probably my favourite. I grew up on Martin Molloy and Get This was wot got me through VCE. Again, lovely fella. I mentioned before Unbelievably Bads never ever ending interview segment, if I could pick a person to do that with it would be Tone as im a massive fan and could spend an interview covering one specific aspect of his career easy.

GFR Mags: Currently my toilet reading is dominated by Munster Times #8 featuring Fred Negro, Kym Volkman, Junkyard PBS' Michael Mullholand and The Onyas - I had never heard this Brisbane 3-piece before and what a great album 'Get Shitfaced with The Onyas - a top rated issue #8 is and I love your Top 100 awesome things and I see you also like 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' scribbler Hubert Selby Jr which brings me to Q8: Australia literature seems to be dominated by liberal left friendly Booker Prize friendly authors like Peter Carey, David Williamson, Tim Winton, Germaine Greer and family friend of mine Helen Garner - meanwhile where the fuck is the darker Australian authors? Where is our William S Burroughs, our Selby Jr, our Cormac? The answer seems to be either A. there are none around, or, B, Australia is a deeply conservative country and has no room for celebrating the dark underbelly when it comes to literature. What are your thoughts on why we have such a straight conservative bent when it comes to authors in Australia?

Matt: haven/t really thought about it from a literary sense. it was only in recent times i heard the phrase "Australia has no culture" . and you know, if your someone who just watches the mainstream TV i could see that. aside from some great kids shows, most of my pop culture grounding as a kid was from the US. for me it was re runs of 60s/70s US sitcoms (back when sitscoms where on prime time TV), while the only content from Oz i saw was A County Practice. lame. then i got older and resized that wasn/t the case, wot the big wig suits thought was Australian entertainment was not for me.

In terms of literacy, I thought David Williams did a fair representation of wot Australian culture was like. Wasn/t always pretty, and maybe no seedy underbelly like the writers you mentioned, but was a good representation of wot it is.

David Ireland was a wonderful writer, much better then Carey and Winton. The Glass Canoe is a desert island book for me. He wrote about piss heads, people with mental health issues, the homeless, voices that didnt appear in other books. Like Selby he had his own style. It wasn/t roses and sunshine wot he wtote about, but he won three Miles Frankins, but no one talks about him these days like they talk about Tim Winton.

I don/t know, I guess with the big publishing houses, its the same as the major record labels. They play safe as opposed to interesting.

GFR Mags: Great answers there Matt, yeah the Working Dog guys are absolute legends, D-Generation, Frontline, The Castle and The Panel are comedy gold, worth noting all the audio production for them over the years is done by former Kids In The Kitchen bassist Craig Harneth at his St Kilda based Hot House studios. And with your answer to Q8 I think you hit it right on the head, Australia is a smaller market so the people who run the publishing companies and book stores are terrified into choosing the safest authors and books to really get behind. I would add that unfortunately we don't have a daring and risky literary magazine like The New Yorker or The Guardian to champion risky off beat writers, in fact daring journalism in Australia is to me non existent with sports taking up 14+ pages and the arts taking 1, that's the reason most great oz musos move overseas I reckon. ---- OK Now Q7 is a 2-parter: You and The Flash have been putting on live music at The St Kilda Bowls Club on a sundee arvo, how has that experience been and what are the challenges that go with it? B: I see you have done some live to air DJ work on 3CR, do you enjoy doing that and can you tell us what type of content you have been doing?

Matt: i ave to give credit to Flash for the gigs, he was the one that got me involved, which im most greatful for. the experience has been great, its been a great ride so far and 2026 will be a ripper year for gigs at the club. and i love working with Flash. we ave different skills and taste but we work well together. wouldnt do it with anyone else. Challenges, i guess trying to get people out. there's always stuff on, in St Kilda and North of the river. so getting the word out and getting people to come is the challenge, which it is for everyone.

Again, Im very grateful to be involved at 3CR. I mostly play garage, punk and powerpop, with the odd bit of stand up in the mix

GFR Mags: OK last question all you short attention span readers can unhook your knackers from your stress glands and breath/// Matt A HUGE THANKS for doing the interview and tarting up TAKE 50 of GFR NEWS, really very much appreciated and I cannot recommend Munster Times enough, great music interviews and reviews and a take on modern life that is 100% original, subversive and hilarious - also thanks for DJing at Guiltfilter's live launch of the new OFFLINE album, I'll send you a free, signed OFFLINE 12" vinyl once they are done. OK last question: What have you got going on, any new Munster Times issues coming out soon? Any new albums or gigs coming you want to plug? And lastly how are the Pies going to fare this year?

Matt: thanks for aving me Mags, very honoured you asked to talk to me, and more honoured it is for a milestone post. and i am most grateful for all your help and support for Munster. and thanks for aving me at your launch, had a blast

Munster Times issue 40 is out now at Rocksteady Records and Greville Records. For those that want a copy please email at mattryan4@hotmail.com Look out for one in your PO Box soon

Gigs:

Billy Pommer Jrs 65 birthday gig with the Johnnys, Penny Ikingers Marbles, and the Tramaboys. Saturday Feb 21, tix at Oztixs
Willie Js 6V6s, Snake Powder, Budd and Spitting Chips. Sunday Feb 22. Tix via Trybooking
Shepperton Airplane Friday March 20

All at St Kilda Bowls Club.

As for the Pies, im hoping we can scrape into the finals. Im a bit concerned whos going to kick goals, and some of our recreuits in the last two years aven/t lived up to the hype. Id be happy to make finals, but not expecting much for the rest of the dedace. But you never know.