Alternative Press Celebrates their 25th Anniversary with Gallery Exhibition
Alternative Press Staffers including founder Mike Shea (far Left) and featured artists at art opening in NYC photo by: Leslie DJ
128 Rivington St. was the place to be as Alternative Press Magazine hosted a rocking art opening at the Sloan Art Gallery in celebration of the magazine’s 25th anniversary. Many of the featured artists were in attendance along with the Plain White T’s who happened to be in town and have been huge supporters of the publication. They along with the magazine’s current staffers and founder Mike Shea were in attendance.
To say that meeting Mike Shea and chatting about the publication’s history and future was an honor is an understatement. AP magazine was instrumental in Sinister Girlz’s formation and evolution to the short-lived print format. I can’t count how many hours I spent thumbing through issues of the magazine; reading, dissecting, attempting to replicate my favorite layouts. Taking cues from the featured photographers and their photo shoots and trying to pinpoint what elements moved me in the live shots or what ingredients made them great.
The Alternative press 25th Anniversary Exhibition featured work The Pixies' Black Francis, Ralf Strathmann, Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz, Garbage's Shirley Manson and more
With time Sinister Girlz found its own identity and format but I continued to keep an eye on Alternative Press because with time we were able to feature some of the big name artists we’d seen in AP. Not only that but these artists actually granted us interviews even after appearing on AP’s cover!
At the gallery opening reprints of Alternative Press’ very first issue were displayed and made available to attendees. The 2-page double-sided, black and white publication brought an instant smile to my face. After reading Mike Shea’s piece on The Smith’s first US tour and how his hometown of Cleveland was not among the tour stops, I thought it was the perfect time to speak to him.
He revealed that the initial inspiration behind creating the magazine was the lack of communication between music followers. He said, “We just had a void in the [underground music] scene, skate punks didn’t like the metal guys and the metal guys didn’t like the old punks and the old punks didn’t like the new punks. Nobody knew what the hell was going on so we needed a music post, a key to the underground, a platform that would bring everybody together.”
Plain white T's celebtate with AP Magazine during Art Exhibition October 21st photo by: Leslie DJ
With time and hard work the publication began to grow and its format would soon change. “We were just doing what we had to do to survive, we had to adapt and really keep pushing through. When we went from our original format to a newspaper format it was because [the original] format was getting thrown out and buried on the newsstands so we eventually went to a magazine format…you basically do what you have to do [in order to survive].”
Now in the wake of the digital revolution AP is looking to change with the times. Shea revealed their print format is about to undergo yet another transformation. “Print won’t go away [completely] it will just become rare like Vinyl, the fact that [Sinister Girlz] is already online that puts you ahead of us. The issue is that making money online is tough but [the upside to being online] is that we’ll be able to go worldwide now.” He admitted that going worldwide is a bit nerve wrecking, “Now you’re competing with everyone worldwide, we’re now fighting with [publications] in England and getting stories and interviews at the same time. With print you were able to take your time and decide who to talk to first now everything has to be done now.” Alternative Press Magazine will soon go digital but as far as when that will happen Shea wouldn’t say other than, “Soon.” He’s also unsure of what the future will hold, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t have the answers” but what he does know is that, “you just have to change with the times.”
