Gareth Williamson is putting the humble music fanzine back on the photocopier, writes Larry Ryan
With blogging being proclaimed the future of publishing, where does that leave the old-fashioned music fanzine? Beloved of punks back in the day, the zines and their simple ways - cheap print, staples, scant design, typos, odd grammar and handwritten screeds by excitable editors - appear to be numbered. Not so for Gareth Williamson. Since March the 24-year-old Dubliner has been flying the flag for fanzines with his defiantly named Play the Song I Like.
"The name came from a T-shirt my friend made for a band. It was black with 'Play the one I like' written in white Tipp-ex," he says. "I misremembered it, but when I realised I decided I preferred my line better." Why a fanzine rather than a blog? "I wanted to have something I hadn't had," he says. "And to stretch myself and produce something that would really test my patience."
Blogging was too simple; he wanted to muck in with print and paper, producing about 200 copies of the zine on photocopiers. It looks like a programme for a school play, but really it's about the music, man. "Friends weren't happy with music magazines. I thought maybe I could do something a little different, from my own perspective." The fanzine documents Williamson and his friends' encounters with songs, albums and musicians.
As Play the Song I Likemakes no money, Williamson funds it by working in HMV and appearing as an extra at Ardmore Studios, in Co Wicklow; he's currently filming the second season of The Tudors, with the pouting king Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Williamson distributes his fanzine in music shops and at gigs. Like a true budding publisher, though, he has started delegating, with a friend, Shannon Duval, taking on the bulk of the editing process. Beyond this there is no grand plan. "I said I was going to do it for a year. Even if it was s**t. I'm just going to keep on doing it until I don't feel like I can do it any more."
It's not perfect - it's a home-made fanzine, after all - but there is something noble about the effort. And its celebratory tone, rare in alternative music, is heartening. "No negatives - a waste of paper and my own money," he says. "I stated to people: 'Write about what you like.' I moan enough in my day-to-day to my friends. I don't want to print it."
The fanzine was an attempt by Williamson to get out of a rut earlier this year by doing something creative. The knock-on effects have all been positive. "Because of the zine I've been doing other things - writing things that I've wanted to for a long time," he says. The fanzine has also exposed him to like-minded souls. "From it I've made so many good friends - musicians, DJs and writers. That's the most positive thing I've gotten out of it."