In Defense of Ska Ep 61: Derek Zanetti (Homeless Gospel Choir)

In 2005, Derek Zanetti had an epiphany. He was a weirdo. He already knew that, but he had a hard time accepting it was ok to be a weirdo. That is until a friend told him that he was "never going to be normal because you're a punk." A few years later, Derek would start The Homeless Gospel Choir, a solo folk-punk project that would later go full-on punk rock. And in 2017, he would release the song "Normal," which touched on this moment in his life.

Our guest today is Homeless Gospel Choir frontman, Derek Zanetti. He tells us all about his oppressive religious upbringing that would make him feel shame, and hide his tapes. Speaking of tapes, we sift through his favorite current ska tape collection, which includes Fishbone, The Aquabats, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Suicide Machines. And tells us about being pals with several ska musicians, like Mike Park, Dissidente, and members of Suicide Machines and Reel Big Fish.

We also talk about the Christian bands he still looks back at with fondness, like Five Iron Frenzy, The Dingees, MxPx, Pedro The Lion, and Danielson Famile. He tells us about what it was like to tour with Leftover Crack (Hint: It involves Scott Sturgeon getting beat up by cops on his 40th birthday). He also tells us about identifying with Peewee Herman as a kid and not being allowed to watch his show. And we discuss the greatest ska tape in his collection: Korn. 

Oh, and he's hitting the road with My Chemical Romance later this year! Great job Derek!

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If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.