Jim Saah Interviewed by John Davis June 11, 2018 Wheaton, MD

Jim Saah Interviewed by John Davis June 11, 2018 Wheaton, MD.

0:00:00

Davis: So, today is June 11th, 2018. My name is John Davis. I’m the Performing Arts Metadata Archivist at the University of Maryland. I’m speaking with Jim Saah, who is the man behind Zone V and Uno Mas fanzines. And we’re going to talk about those today as well as just your life in DC punk over the last thirty-five some odd years. And so, first, thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Saah: Sure, sounds good.

Davis: And, I guess I want to start with, how did you get into punk in the first place? You grew up in the DC area, correct?

Saah: Yes, I’m born and raised here.

Davis: And what was sort of the--what was the first moment that got you into this path you’ve taken? I mean, was it certain bands that got you into the gateway into it?

Saah: It was actually something a little less intriguing than that. It was just bored suburban kids looking for some fun and we ended up going down to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in the midnight, you know, at the, The Biograph or The Georgetown Theater. And, before the movie, they’d play music and people would go down in front of the screen and dance. And they played punk rock. Which I’d--you know, at the time I was really into music. I have seven older brothers and sisters that were into good music, so, lot of ‘60s, Dylan and Beatles, and all that, you know, Rolling Stones, all that stuff. But, I heard The Stranglers. I heard The Buzzcocks. I heard no, like, local hardcore. It was more like British ‘70s, late ‘70s, first wave British stuff and some new wave. I think there was, like, some American new wave. I want to say, like, Flock of Seagulls or Human League or something like that, at the time. But, I went out to Joe’s Record Paradise and found some of this music and then people there told me, “Oh, you like punk rock. Well, there’s punk rock happening here, you know? Like, try this.” And I think it was Minor Threat and I was like, “this

band lives here and plays?” And, so, then I went to a show. I think it was GI [Government Issue] and Minor Threat at University of Maryland, in 1982, I think, and was just hooked.

Davis: Was it in one of the ballrooms, or something? The Grand Ballroom or something like that?

Saah: Yeah, yeah. It was in just one of the [Stamp] Student Union ballrooms or something.

Davis Mm hmm. How long had you been working on your photography, at that point?

Saah: A few years, at that point. I started taking photography in high school. I took pictures before that but got serious about, you know, developing and printing my own stuff.

Davis: Right. So, when it came time to doing a fanzine, Zone V, as far as I know, is the first publication you did. You did it as Zone V [pronounced “five”]. It isn’t Zone V [pronounced “vee”] or anything like that?

Saah: Yeah, Zone V [pronounced “five”]. It’s from a black and white, z-zone system of grays, from black to gray and it’s a zone system.

Davis: Ok.

Saah: That’s what it has to do with. It’s actually a photography term.

Davis: Were there other photozines that had inspired you to do that? Or what, what made you decide to do that? I mean, I think maybe the second issue there’s an interview--there’s more, sort of, traditional interview types of--I think I remember the first issue was mostly just photos.

0:4:42

Saah: Yeah, there was an interview in the first issue, too. The format was pretty close to the same. Lots of photos, scene reports, interviews. I think the first one had an interview with Henry Rollins. And the second one had an interview.

Well, it was two. I think it was the Big Boys on the cover. There was an interview with Tesco Vee. Either in one or the other. And then there was a scene report from--I had Thurston Moore doing a New York scene report. He was very thorough.

Davis: How did you know him?

Saah: Just going to shows and hanging out and stuff. He was always pretty accessible.

Davis: So, were there--I think there was Glen Friedman that had the My Rules zine around that time.

Saah: Yeah, yeah, I was going to say that. He says that he created the term “photozine” which, you know, I never really saw it before My Rules and that was probably an inspiration, sure. I mean, I obviously did see that before I made one of my own.

Davis: What else were you reading at that time?

Saah: Touch and Go, Maximum Rocknroll, a lot, Flipside. Maximum Rocknroll was probably the biggest one I was reading in the early ‘80s. But then all those others came a little later.

Davis: And what was it that made you want to make your own?

Saah: Just the whole DIY--I was taking pictures and I was already thinking about maybe, making it a career and I think I got permission through punk rock to just, instead of waiting for just someone to want to publish me, then just do it myself.

Davis: As far as the actual assembly of the fanzine, you know, how did you do that? This was cut and paste, essentially?

Saah: Yeah. The first one was a little bit--Zone V--Zone V was a little bit more legit, in a way, where it was actually offset printed and bound and stuff by the printer. And I actually had to lay it out conventionally with, you know, waxing articles and putting them down and using the line tape and rules and stuff. The other one came into--that was before computers and desktop publishing.

Davis: Right.

Saah: So, that’s the way I did that. The next one, desktop publishing--Uno Mas--had come into play. And I laid it out on a computer. And then, my sister was a Xerox repair woman and she had to do a lot of copies every day to make sure that the machine was working properly that she had just repaired, so she would just put pages of Uno Mas down. (laughs)

Davis: (chuckles) Mm hmm.

Saah: And do them instead of some just random thing that she would’ve put in the recycling.

Davis: Do you remember where you went to get Zone V made? Like, that early offset-printed issue?

Saah: Yeah, I actually do. It was a print shop right downtown Silver Spring [Maryland] called The Suburban Record. It was a newspaper called The Suburban Record. It was kind of like the Gazette or something. But, they also had their own print shop and would take in printing from other people in addition to doing their own printing.

Davis: Do you still have the camera-ready artwork from that?

Saah: I do, actually

Davis: Wow! That’s unusual.

Saah: Yeah, yeah, it’s surprising. It is unusual. I save a lot of stuff.

Davis: Good!

Saah: It’s rolled up on these boards in my attic.

Davis: (laughs) OK! Is it both issues you think you still have?

Saah: I think so, yeah.

Davis: Wow! So that last issue was what? Maybe nineteen-eighty- -was, Zone V, ‘83?

Saah: ‘83.

Davis: And then Uno Mas was your next fanzine. It was probably six or seven years later, right? 1989? 1990?

Saah: Yeah.

0:9:40

Davis: What was going on in the interim and what sort of inspired you to do something, to do a new fanzine?

Saah: I wanted to do a culture magazine and my idea was to cover music and, also, I had fiction, poems, artwork from illustrators, illustrations on linocuts, like all sorts of stuff. And--I don’t know, it was a vehicle for my photography. But, I really didn’t have--I would have maybe a photo essay in each issue. Maybe, two or three pages from something but I’d also publish a lot of other people’s photographs and things.

0:10:47

Davis: Did you collaborate with [editor of Greed fanzine] Kurt Sayenga at all? Wasn’t there some sort of crossover almost between the end of Greed and the [beginning] of Uno Mas?

Saah: Yeah, I did. I collaborated with him on Greed doing photography and we actually did some reviews together. We interviewed a couple of members of Wire one time together, and some other things. And he, then, helped me out. He wrote some stuff and edited and, actually, he was one of the early people that knew how to do desktop publishing and had a computer so, he actually laid out some of it.

0:11:32

Davis: And so did you learn that from him or in the subsequent issue of Uno Mas? Because, you know, it’s pretty unique in how polished it was that early.

Saah: Hmmm.

Davis: You know, to have something that was that well put together. I mean, Greed, to me, is sort of the first [D.C.] zine that really sort of stands out like that. And then, Uno

Mas sort of felt like the next step from that. How much of the layout were you doing?

Saah: I was doing most of it. I would have other people help out. Scott Crawford, who did his own fanzines and ended up being a designer and stuff.

Davis: Because Metrozine was aesthetically quite, quite different (laughs)…

Saah: Mmm, yeah.

Davis: …from those. And he did Noiseworks…

Saah: Right.

Davis: …around that time, which was a little more in step with Uno Mas.

Saah: Yeah, then later, Bent.

Davis: Mm hmm, right.

0:12:39

Saah: But, he helped out. And I did a lot of it myself.

Davis: Was that PageMaker? Or was that…

Saah: Quark. Quark existed, in like, the ‘90s. Early ‘90s. Yeah. I had the other stuff, like Illustrator, but, I never really did that stuff. I had a lot of people help out, friends, artists-- illustrate articles.

Davis: Do you remember what you were reading at that time that might have been an influence on the work you were doing then? Because it seems it was pretty different in tone from the early ‘80s sort of punk zines.

Saah: Yeah.

Davis: There was more of a, sort of a sophistication to Uno Mas or a literary mag element. Not completely, but it was there.

Saah: Yeah, there was definitely a component. I mean, we interviewed what was his name? The Irish author that got really famous for…

Davis: Frank McCourt?

Saah: Yeah, Frank McCourt, Frank McCourt. We did an interview with Frank McCourt. And he was really big at the time. I think when I asked his publisher for an interview and I told her what our circulation was like there was just this pregnant pause.

Davis: (laughs)

Saah: And then she lied to him. (laughs) ‘Cause she told me, “Don’t tell him what, what your (laughs) your circulation is.” We interviewed David Sedaris before he even had a book out. Like he just had the “Santaland Diaries” that he did for NPR. And then that came out. It got popular on NPR and it came out as a book. We did some cool stuff before some people--before they got popular.

Davis: What was the circulation of Uno Mas?

Saah: I printed, I guess, close to like, between, fifteen-hundred and two-thousand and would mostly get rid of them all through independent record stores. I’m sure you know of See Hear in New York, which was a huge fanzine store. They’ve been around for a long time and they sold a bunch. And Tower Records and then distributors, independent distributors like Dutch East India, and stuff. They would take them and get them in record stores. 0:15:00

Davis: Yeah, Tower was where I first saw it.

Saah: OK.

Davis The one in Rockville.

Saah: Mm hmm.

Davis: And just the issue with, like, Sugar? Stereolab?

Saah: Oh, yeah. Mm hmm.

Davis: I can’t remember which number that was but somewhere around ‘92 or so, and…

Saah: Mm hmm.

0:15:39

Davis: It definitely stood out to me amongst fanzines that were coming out of DC--more, sort of, slickly designed. This stuff was starting to become a little bit more common by ’92-‘93. There were other zines around here that were employing that. But were there other DC zines that you read and liked at the time, or was there any sort of, camaraderie at all, in that scene?

Saah: Hmmm, yeah. I think there was. There definitely was, not really competition or anything. There was camaraderie like, we all were just trying to make something and contribute. Everyone--yeah, there was a lot of illustrators. Like, Jack Hornady still does illustration. He did a bunch of stuff for me and, of course, I wasn’t paying anyone. And, you know, that wasn’t an issue at the time. Other DC zines--I was friends with Scott from the time he started Metrozine ‘cause he called me and asked if he could cut up Zone V. And, well, he asked me if he could use my photos and I said, “You know….” He sounded like he was twelve, at the time. I mean, he sounded like that on the phone. He called me when I was working at Waxie Maxie’s Record Store, and he said, “Can I use your…?” and I was like “Um, I don’t know.” I thought I’d have to make prints for him and I didn’t have access to a darkroom at the time. And I was just like, “Oh, I don’t know if I can get you photos” and he was like, “I’ll just cut up your magazine and paste them on.”

Davis: (chuckle) Mm hmm.

0:17:43

Saah: So, I said, “Sure.” And that’s what he did.

Davis: That’s what I did also with--I took, I believe one of your photos from the Dischord [Records] catalog… (laughs) when I first (laughs) when I did my first fanzine. That was the way I got the photos…

Saah: Yeah.

Davis: …for at least the first issue if not the second.

Saah: Yeah.

Davis: I’m pretty sure you were credited.

Saah: Yeah, well, that’s good.

Davis: (laughs) Because, that’s funny, that’s the same method I used.

Saah Yeah, yeah, I think people did that. I did read, at the time-- now, I’m trying to think. Oh! Thrillseeker? I read that. Truly Needy.

Davis: Mm hmm. Did you contribute to any of those, at all?

Saah: Just photos, yeah, yeah. I had some photos in them. Those are the early ones that I remember seeing.

Davis: Right.

Saah: Oh, maybe it was a little later but that mag, that tabloid format. It started out as Whack and then became…

Davis: It began, it started as, Crack and then became Whack.

Saah: Oh! Ok, right, right. Sorry! It was Crack, right.

0:18:46

Davis: Which was--that was early ‘90s. What I was going to ask if, ‘cause they sort of seem somewhat similar in tone, or more, almost aesthetically--like, this was [designed] with desktop publishing software covering DC music but also having eyes elsewhere. So, that seemed like a peer at the time, even if they were more like a tabloid than a…

Saah: Mm hmm, yeah, yeah.

Davis: …magazine, whereas, Uno Mas felt more like a magazine.

Saah: Yeah, yeah, I think that’s fair. Yeah, I forgot they were…

Davis: And WDC Period was its own thing. Just a few years earlier.

Saah: Right.

Davis: …and [WDC Period] made kind of a funny, or interesting, sort of, evolution from the hand-drawn, sort of, you know, jokey thing and then that became slicker in design as well.

Saah: Mm hmm, yeah, that had a sort of humor bent, which I tried to do some in Uno Mas. Like I had a, I had an essay or a prose piece called “Sting Shits His Pants” (laughs) and it was a sort of from a…

Davis: Mm hmm. (chuckles)

Saah: … guy that, actually, he was in a studio when Sting was in the studio and kind of overheard him talking and stuff. And then he, sort of, imagined this situation where he comes into record and he shits his (laughs) pants!

0:20:17

Davis: Sure! (laughs) Were there any interviews from Uno Mas that stand out to you now that you remember, more than others?

Saah: Well, I did one as, you know, hundreds of other people in DC and from punkers around the country, with Ian MacKaye. It was pretty long and I guess I asked him questions that I don’t think he got from a lot of people. And he told me later that his--well, he didn’t tell me, actually, I got a card from his mother, saying that it was one of the best interviews she had ever read with him. That was kinda nice.

0:20:55

Davis: That’s high praise! Yeah.

Saah: Yeah, I mean, I asked him (laughs) questions that people normally don’t. Like, “Are you ever going to get married and have kids and stuff?” And you know, like Ian is, he answered them all, like, pretty honestly.

Davis: What inspired you to ask more personal questions like that? I mean, you’ve known him…

Saah: Yeah.

Davis: …at that point. That was what? Mid-90s, when you…

Saah: Yeah, I had known him for…

Davis: …did that interview?

Saah: …over ten years at that point. But, I don’t know, just interested in, not just the questions like, you know, “what’s your favorite band” or, you know, “what are your influences?”

Davis: Right, or “why straight edge?” Or any of those sort of things. But he was receptive to that?

Saah: Yeah, yeah. He was always, I mean, he was taken a little aback by the kids question. And he said, I remember, he said, something like, “Well, I don’t know, but, you know, I probably should do it soon, if I ever want to have anything in common with them.” You know, which is funny, ‘cause you know, he didn’t have a kid, ‘til, like, twenty-some years later! (laughs) And I’m sure he’s doing (laughs) fine, with being, having things in common.

0:22:23

Davis: Were there other interviews that, like--how often were you the one doing the interviewing? Especially as the zine went on, I, in my own experience of working on zines, it felt like the work kind of piled up with each issue and you start to farm out more (laughs) of the (laughs) writing to other people.

Saah: Definitely! Yeah.

Davis: Is that true for you?

Saah: Yeah. I did all the interviews in Zone V. And then I did a lot of them in Uno Mas, but I started covering things outside of DC so I didn’t have--I couldn’t travel that much, so, I would do phoners and we did a piece with this artist/photographer, Spencer Tunick, who got kind of

popular taking these photographs of huge groups of people naked in the street or in public. It started in New York and he would, you know, at like, five in the morning bring, you know, a hundred people out and they would just go somewhere, sometimes in the middle of the street, sometimes, and lay down as if they were, might be dead. And then, he would take a photo and, I think early on, I didn’t really, he didn’t really, talk about the political aspects of the photos or anything. But it was, it was sort of, some commentary about--I mean, I’m not doing it justice, but, about war and death and, and stuff. He actually continued on. He might still be doing it. I Google him every few years and see what’s going on and there’s usually new stuff. But the thing about that, the reason I brought it up, is I hired a writer in New York to do the interview and he ended up participating in a photo and then wrote about it that way. So, he posed nude in one of his photos in New York and then wrote about it, which I thought was interesting.

Davis: And you worked with George Pelecanos, as well?

Saah: Mm hmm.

Davis: Did you interview him first or how did that relationship begin?

Saah: Well, it started--I met him through a bookstore in Takoma Park [Maryland] called Chuck and Dave’s, ‘cause--my girlfriend, at the time, lived in the Jawbox house.

Davis: OK. On Dale Drive [in Silver Spring, Maryland] somewhere?

Saah: So, I spent a lot of time over there. Actually, when I--this is a good story for this interview. I actually can credit Uno Mas in finding my wife, ‘cause I went into Chuck and Dave’s to sell it. And she started looking at it and she was like-- J. Robbins had some artwork in it and she was like, “Oh, I know him! I live with him!” You know, and (laughter) he’s in the back room ‘cause he worked at Chuck and Dave’s, too. And she knew Derek Bish, who did some art, and I’m surprised I had never met her. We had so many mutual friends but we placed ourselves at many shows but I never really met her. And that’s when we started hanging out, trying to sell my fanzine.

0:27:35

Davis: Were there other stores would you go sell, like locally, would you sell the zine at?

Saah: Vinyl Ink, Joe’s Record Paradise, Yesterday and Today, the Tower [Records] up in Rockville. The local [Tower location in Rockville] and the one in Foggy Bottom [neighborhood of Washington, DC], I would just go to. But, they started handling it through a central location, at some point, so I would--they had a magazine buyer that I would send X amount to, and then…

Davis: For Tower Records?

Saah: Yeah, and then, they would distribute them to the stores.

Davis: Go! Compact Discs is probably somewhere you would go later on?

Saah: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Davis: So, there were thirteen issues [of Uno Mas]. Is that right?

Saah: I think that’s correct.

Davis: Do you remember when that last issue was published? Late ‘90s?

Saah: Yeah, ’96.

Davis: Why did you stop?

Saah: Yeah, I actually went, from the last couple of issues, I went from Xeroxing to offset printing and I don’t remember how I funded it. I guess it was just out of my pocket, ‘cause it wasn’t cheap. Oh, I sold ads!

Davis: Mm hmm, yep!

Saah: But probably not enough to even make a dent in what it cost. I don’t know why! I mean, I never really got tired of it. I think I just-- I started working more as a photographer. Just had less time, I guess. I mean, I got married in ‘94 and

didn’t have a kid until ’97, but those things can really put a constraint on your time.

Davis: Sure! Did you feel beholden to any sort of publishing schedule when you were putting these out? Or did those, kind of…

Saah: I’d say it was quarterly. But, it was maybe three times a year.

Davis: And was it generally the same circulation all the way through?

Saah: It got better. Definitely, when it was offset and looked slicker, it might’ve been, I think I got to three-thousand on the last few issues. Well, that I printed, you know. I would get some returns back.

Davis: I wanted to ask if you had, as essentially a journalist within the music scene at that point, was there ever any tension between you and any of the people that you covered? Like, let’s say, locally, if they didn’t like a review or who were unhappy with how an interview came out?

Saah: Hmmm. That’s an interesting question. Hmmm.

Davis: Considering how prolific you were with Uno Mas and, like, thirteen issues and then earlier the couple [of] Zone V. I was just wondering if, along the way, how did it affect your relationship with the people you were seeing, you know, because you were going to these shows.

Saah: Yeah, hmmm. No, I can’t remember anyone getting angry about… (pauses) I mean, I wasn’t out to really diss anyone. And I liked most of the local bands. Maybe there was a bad review of, like, a New York hardcore band that we thought sucked or something.

Davis: Right.

Saah: But, not really. I’ll tell you, doing the film, “Salad Days” (laughs) that happened with that but, the fanzine, not so much.

0:31:59

Davis: Did you feel like the experience of working on the zines sort of braced you or prepared you somewhat for moving on to this career of making documentaries and, especially in this case, with documentaries about DC punk?

Saah: Um, not so much! I mean, I think that it might’ve given me, if anything, a false confidence that, ‘cause I know these people and I’m friends with them and--but, there’s something different about-- in a documentary there’s just, there’s more in the balance or whatever. Like, people feel, like if you don’t, if you talk about, let’s say if you do a DC scene report and you don’t mention a band, someone might be like, you know, ”Why don’t you mention my band?” Which is understandable, but, yeah. There was bands that we covered in the documentary and people still got angry that they weren’t covered enough. And I think until you make, you know, a ninety-minute movie, that covers ten years of time it’s hard to really see that if you’re given, you know, four or five minutes in that movie, it’s a lot of time.

0:33:38

Davis So, There were bands that sort of felt, what? Under- represented or something? And this…

Saah: Yeah. They felt slighted.

Davis: And this was the movie that is sort of helping establish the story. So, they had complained about that?

Saah: Yeah.

Davis: So, it was less so an issue when you were doing a zine and more so with this newer thing that you were running into. That kinda--‘cause I’m always just sort of interested in…

Saah: That’s correct.

Davis: …people who, especially if--because as far as I know, you didn’t play in bands?

Saah: I didn’t. So, you know, I kind of regret not. I do play music, but I never--I was always into photography and documenting the bands. I never really--I was drawn to play music just ‘cause I loved it. I definitely excel in the visual arts rather than-- you know, I goof around with it but I

don’t--I’m not really gifted in music. But, yeah, I never played in bands. I was always happy just documenting them and stuff.

Davis: Were there ever any bands that you had wanted to talk to, or document, that you didn’t get to?

Saah: Hmmm, yeah, I mean, I really would’ve loved to talk to The Clash. They were on, kind of, their downward--you know, by the time I was doing this stuff, ‘83, you know, I think, Mick Jones--they came through here in ‘83 and, without Mick Jones, that was, you know--and I just felt like I missed the boat on that one.

0:35:27

Davis: And, locally, was there anyone who sort of came and went so quickly that you never really had the chance or…?

Saah: Yeah, totally! A bunch of those. I stopped doing it just before, like, Revolution Summer? Maybe not just before. When was Revolution Summer? ’85, wasn’t it?

Dais: ‘85.

0:35:51

Saah: No, I stopped doing Zone V and hadn’t started Uno Mas yet. After the fact, looking back, I wish I would’ve, was doing something at the time because there were bands, like Rites of Spring, which I never photographed and I never interviewed. And there were some other bands in there-- Beefeater, I never photographed. And I wasn’t doing--not that I needed to do a fanzine to go to a show and take pictures ‘cause I started way before I ever had the idea of doing a fanzine. But, it definitely made the work ethic more, if I had something to do it for. And then, a combination of Minor Threat breaking up in ’83 and then some other bands breaking up and just getting less in the hardcore and more into stuff like Elvis Costello and, you know, discovering even though it was already kind of old at that point but, like, working backwards and discovering New York. I was listening to a lot of Talking Heads and stuff, at that point. So, there were some bands like that that I would’ve have covered, but didn’t.

0:37:39

Davis: Did you feel pressure when you were doing the zine, that, if you were going to a show, you had to be shooting?

Saah: Absolutely, yeah.

Davis: So, was there relief, when you were done?

Saah: Maybe …a little bit. Although, you know, my friends would say, “Oh, you know, just, you know, enjoy the show. Just leave your camera at home.” And then when I would do that, I wouldn’t enjoy it because I’d see crazy shit that I would’ve wanted to photograph.

Davis: Right, right! (chuckles)

Saah: And, you know, “Aw, the light is never this good as this,” you know? And someone’s doing something…

Davis: (laughs) Mm hmm.

Saah: …with the lights, you know? (laughs) So, I would just be (laughs) … be frustrated (laughter). So, I usually will just take my camera to shows.

Davis: How physical was that, when you were shooting, especially in the early--like, the first few years of that? I mean, were you being jostled? Was equipment being damaged? I mean, how often were you in the way? (laughs)

Saah: Yeah, very physical, and (sigh) I would usually be right up front, you know, because I didn’t have long lenses. I had, probably--most of those photographs I had taken back then were with a fifty-millimeter lens. Like, I had one lens. Maybe I ended up getting a wide one, I think, maybe. But, to be pretty up-close--and you’d have to, when people would stage dive, you would have to duck. And I would always, just hold my camera and bend over it. You know, to protect it. I’d get boots in the head and on my back and stuff, but I don’t remember ever busting any gear, which is remarkable. Or getting hurt that badly, other than just a bruise here and there and maybe a little, you know, bloody nose.

Davis: Was it still that intense, even by, like, say, Fugazi, when you went shooting them? Had that, sort of, element of danger decreased a bit? Yeah?

Saah: It subsided more by then, because they, initially, you know, I don’t want to put any words in their mouth, but, they seemed not to be against the slam dancing early on and then it became more like, “Hey, why are you guys kicking these people in the head and stuff?’ And they would stop shows if that was going on and so, yeah, I felt a lot safer. Plus, they would play bigger places with bigger stages and I would actually get on the stage and I was safer up there.

Davis: So, was there ever any urge again to make another print magazine, or, you know, was your photography already being published in enough other places that you didn’t feel the need to run an entire publication anymore?

Saah: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I started in 1986. I had my first photo published in The Washington Post and then, 0:40:40 I just started working as a professional photographer and that’s all I’ve done with my adult life as only career I’ve done. You know, I’ve worked for the [Washington] City Paper and The Washington Post and Washingtonian and other rock magazines from real small ones, like my friend Scott [Crawford]’s Bent to getting stuff in Rolling Stone and--you know, none of it paid really well. I would only make it sound like I was doing great but I was getting published a lot. And I just felt I needed to work on my photo career and didn’t have the time to do another print magazine. Uno Mas did live on for quite a while after the print edition went away as a website.

Davis: Hmm! And was it new content that was showing up on there?

Saah: Yeah, we would do--we posted all the old stuff that we had and then there would occasionally be new stuff added. It was mainly just a place to keep the old stuff alive.

Davis: Yeah, but, when did you shut that down?

Saah: Hmmm.

Davis: And why?

0:42:25

Saah: I don’t know! The guy that was doing Uno Mas with me, a guy named Greg Pierce. He was kind of a computer whiz and he took over a lot of the computer stuff--you know, desktop publishing. And I still did some, too, but probably like early ‘00s? You know, probably 2003 or something?

Davis: Do you still feel connected to the music scene?

Saah: Very much so! Yeah, my kids are part of it now, so that helps and I follow local bands and still go to shows. I go to Fort Reno--the famous summer, free concert series, that has been going on for decades. And one of my son’s bands are playing that this year. But, yeah, I feel very connected to the music scene.

0:43:39

Davis: If you were still doing a zine, like, who would you want to interview from who’s around now? Anyone, sort of, interest you in that same way, where you want to actually speak to them and hear what they have to say?

Saah: Yeah, there’s a lot of bands that, like, just high school bands, that I’ll go see cause my kid’s playing a show. But, they’ll be really good. And, there’s a lot of innovative stuff going on. There was this hardcore band that broke up recently called Bust Off that I saw in the basement of St. Stephen’s last year, where my kids put on a daylong concert. It’s the fourth annual one this August and I just felt like I was beamed back to 1982 (laughs). Like, they were very traditional hardcore and they can really play, just like the bands back then.

Davis: (laughs)

Saah: Yeah, you know, they were really tight and they were--so, that was kind of fun, but there’s big bands like Priests and stuff. But, from where I stand now, I’d probably say, “Oh, I don’t want to talk to the bands that are all hyped up and stuff”.

Davis: Mm hmm (laughs).

Saah: But, you know, I wanted to talk to Minor Threat back in the day, and they definitely had a lot of hype and stuff. So, I don’t know! Yeah, there’s a lot of--I’d probably talk to people that, like, have their own little recording studios and talk to them and find out who they’ve recorded and who they find interesting. Stuff like that. Kind of below the surface stuff.

Davis: When you were at that show and, like you said, you felt transported back, what was that feeling like? Was it wholly positive or sort of mixed or, you know--what is it kind of like for you to reconnect with that?

Saah: Yeah, it was pretty positive. It could’ve been like, “oh, you know, been here, done that!” But, it was total—like, I felt the joy, you know, of them. The one lead singer guy, he was just raging. Like, he was just doing stuff that Void would do. Like, he was just jumping and then he stood up and the trash can had trash in it and, you know, it was just all the trash came out and then, you know, he was kind of terrorizing the audience (laughs) a little bit, you know (laughter). But, you know, everyone was having a good time. No one was getting hurt.

Davis: Good! I don’t have any other questions. Is there anything else you think we should talk about that has not been covered?

Saah: Well, no. I just feel that--you asked me, if I still feel connected to the DC music scene and I think, a lot of it is because I had kids and they ended up playing music. I mean, one, Jasper, plays music and is passionate about it. But, he does a--you know, he’s very academic and very artistic in visual mediums, too. My other son is going to make a career out of music. I mean, he’s been playing drums since he was, like, five and, so, seeing them get involved and do DIY shows and stuff--it’s very heartwarming for me. And I go to their shows. And Jasper also started an arts collective called Twin Moon, which is sort of--before it was Twin Moon, it was [called] Uno Mas, because he took the domain I still own. So, they just took over Uno Mas and it was very much like Uno Mas. It had, you know, poetry and fiction and art, paintings and photography and then they had a whole--they took it to another level of a roster of bands. So, they’re kind of like a record label or kind of like a magazine and they’re an arts

collective and it’s totally in with the DIY attitude. And they do this big concert every year and, you know, they hooked up Positive Force last year. They did it at St. Stephen’s [Church in Washington, D.C.] and--so, it’s all very much continuing on for me and feels very holistic. A natural progression.

Davis: Not in the past but a part of the present.

Saah: Very much in the now.

Davis: Cool! Well, I don’t have any other questions, so thank you very much!

Saah: OK! Sure! My pleasure!

0:49:45

(End of recording)