“Music and art can be topical and informative, but I like it best when it also creates a new space, where escape is possible and interpretation is open.”
-Axis: Sova’s Brett Sova
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You didn’t think we’d halt On Tyranny just because the Democratic Party smashed the GOP to smithereens in the midterm election, did you? Hell no. The war against authoritarianism in America and across the world is going to be a long slog – expect one battle after another for likely generations to come.
The latest installment of our wildly popular series – thanks to you, dear readers, for learning more about the intersection of art and fascism, as it can be tough to consume at times – features the first band from one of the most consequential indie-rock labels of all time, Chicago’s Drag City. If you’re predicting discussion about ICE’s historic and repulsive invasion of that city 14 months ago, you’ve been paying attention.
The Bad Penny hasn’t covered eclectic rock band Axis: Sova before, so by way of introduction, they started as a solo bedroom project roughly seven years and have since blossomed into a full-fledged band. The group features Brett Sova (electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, programming); Jeremy Freeze (bass, vocals, guitar); and Josh Johannpeter (drums, programming).
Axis: Sova’s latest effort, Flowerage – which dropped about two weeks ago – leans more heavily on post-punk than the group’s previous release. Recorded at Chicago’s Electrical Audio last year (RIP Steve Albini), Flowerage is a fun, lively, rough-around-the-edges record that is a perfect fit for Drag City, the home of lo-fi.
Our favorite song on Flowerage is the fourth cut, “Fictional Autonomy,” which features the spot-on lyrics: “Freedom is not what it seems/ And no one should suffer their dreams/ Fictional autonomy all across the USA/ You think that we’re fightin’ a monster/ Designs built against one another.”
No doubt Bruce would approve too.
Without further ado, here’s our interview with Sova, who discusses topics ranging from ICE to employing joy as a form of resistance to his tumultuous past year.
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