Print presha

Dubstep’s been pretty online since moments after it appeared – hyper online cats like Kode 9 probably had a seminal role to play, but blogs, online zines and message boards have played a crucial role in developing, describing and disseminating the sound. But the latest publication to upset the dubstep pond is none of those. Instead it’s a black and white printed fanzine.

Woofah‘s history was drafted before the zine even hit the streets; the thing was written and edited by bloggers, self-deprecating types they are, who promoted the hell out of it.

I’ll tell you where it started – John Eden burbling in a pub. “I HAVE THIS MASTERPLAN,” he began, doing the index finger-jabbing-the-table-on-every-syllable thing he does all the time. “A MAGAZINE CATERING FOR GRIME, DANCEHALL AND DUBSTEP. WHAT WE’LL DO IS…”

I’m sorry, I truly am. One of the seminal moments in the history of fanzine culture. The DIY publishing equivalent of that time Hitler had one too many in the bierhall and started his “Jews this, Jews that” rant. The hands of history on our backsides. And what did I do? I drifted off. I caught the end of the odd sentence…”TOTALLY INDEPENDENT”, “NO ADVERTISING”, “HONEST REVIEWS”…but I’d left my body about 5,000 miles behind. Oh come on, who actually knocks out fanzines anymore?

You can find the rest of that rant here, but the long and short of it is that they actually knocked out a fanzine, which was delivered across seas and into my mailbox (I mentioned the thing here).

Anyway, I’m sitting on a panel in a few weeks called ‘Why bother with print?’ about media changes brought about by the internet. It’s part of a larger conference, New Connections, organised by Vibewire, with talks on social networking, online communities, health, engaging rural people, web 2.0 and other fascinating topics.

I’ll be representing the niche music (print) media makers, so the concept of Woofah kicking off as a print-only publication had my curiosity piqued. I got in touch with John Eden, the editor and founder of the mag.

“In the ’80s and ’90s there was a thriving network of zines covering all sorts of subjects,” says John. “And I think I missed that. The inspirations for Woofah would include reggae zines like Boomshakalacka (’90s), Reggae Quarterly (’80s) and Pressure Drop (’70s).

“I also felt it was important to provide a forum for a bit of cross-pollination – maybe showing some die-hard reggae fans a bit about dubstep and grime, and vice versa. There are a lot of very exciting things happening now and doing the mag is one way of us actively contributing to that, or supporting it rather than just buying tunes.

“Plus I’ve managed to meet a lot of very talented people and wanted to do something completely independent that would be a good home for them to do their stuff whether that be writing or design or photography…”

It’s pretty standard music mag: interviews, pages of reviews and so on. I guess the thing I wanted to investigate was the editors’ decision to go print only, considering dubstep’s such an online community.

“For me it’s the same as vinyl vs MP3,” John says. “People tend to invest more time and attention in print, it feels more special and that allows us to do more. For example I imagine a lot of people are happier to be interviewed by a print magazine than by a website, ditto sending us things to review.

“The downside is the cost, of course, and the time it takes to pull things together rather than just whacking it online. But this means that not many other people are doing it, so I guess we either have an edge there…

“I also think that magazines are a better way of absorbing information. Sitting down with a coffee or sitting on a bus with headphones on is much better than furtively scrolling down pages of text at work.

“Print attracts the hardcore – and that is what we want.

The contributor list for Woofah includes Matt B (Idle Thoughts), Melissa Bradshaw (Plan B), Droid (Bloggariddims), Simon ‘Silverdollar’ Hampson, Dan Hancox (Guardian, New Statesman, Dazed), Martin C (apparently not that Martin C), Gabriel Heatwave, Paul Jasen (Deeptime, Riddim.ca), Paul Meme (Grievous Angel), Georgina Cook (Drumz of the South) and Woebot.

A big cast, and a very vocal one, which is why the mag had a lot of profile before it even appeared. But what actually happened when the Woofah dropped?

“The feedback we’ve had has been brilliant, far better than what we could have hoped for. It really seems to have captured people’s imagination. Loads of people have got in touch to say ‘well done’ and suggest things for future issues, we’ve made it into the Dubstep Forum Press Poll (as have a number of our contributors) and we sold out the first issue in just over a month.

“The print run for our debut was 700 copies, which was all we could afford to print. I split the costs with Paul Meme/Grievous Angel and my half came from flogging a few tunes and old zines on ebay. Quite
clearly we should have printed much more, but it was all a bit of a risk initially – it seems crazy now, but we genuinely had no idea if people would want Woofah or not!

“Issue 2 will have more pages and a bigger print run and hopefully some colour.”

At just about the same moment in time, another dubstep zine, Blastoze, appeared. A little glossier, a little younger (maybe), it seems to have sprung out of Dubstep Forum. It’s otherwise pretty similar – issue one, no date yet for issue two – print only, on principle. I haven’t read it yet, but it features interviews with Vex’d, DJ Distance, Tes La Rock (Bare Dubs), Marlow (Storming, Hot Flush, Boka), BunZer0 (Dubstep Forum, Sub FM), Mate (Warriorz, Urgent FM) and Reload-Radio.

Here’s the blurb from their website:

First of all we’d like to welcome you to the first edition of Blastoze. Secondly we want to explain to you why Blastoze is a fanzine and not a magazine: A fanzine is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. We want Blastoze to stay free of charge!! We know that as soon as money gets involved, our drive will be gone and stress will be involved. We can’t say precisely when #2 will be out, but hopefully you’ll be able to get your hands on it at the end of 2007.

Talk about the zeitgeist.