Walter Schreifels of Quicksand, Rival Schools, Gorilla Biscuits, and more has done a solo acoustic cover of My Bloody Valentine‘s “Don’t Ask Why” for music and mental health organization Sound of Saving and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s “Song That Found Me At The Right Time” series. It comes at the end of a nine-minute video, which also features Walter speaking about mental health and how important the hardcore/punk community has been to him, as well as a solo acoustic rendition of Gorilla Biscuits’ “High Hopes.” Walter says via press release:
I’m honored and thrilled to be included in Sounds Of Saving’s fantastic video series and to be a part of their mission to ease mental suffering through the connecting power of music. As a musician playing guitar helps me to process negative emotion at the same time that it draws me closer to like minded and supportive people, it doesn’t solve my problems but it reminds me that I’m not alone and there is hope beyond the feeling of a passing moment. The good news is you don’t need to play guitar, music is everywhere if you open yourself to it.
He also had this to say in the video about the hardcore scene:
It wasn’t just being rude and spitting, I found out quickly, you know what I mean? It was about really great friendships and there was people within that community that, a lot of ’em didn’t make out. They were never able to outrun whatever their trauma was that kind of got them in the first place. The beauty of this hardcore scene, this community is if you ever see a show, there’s the band on the stage, there’s their crew, like on the side of the stage. Then there’s just like photographers, extended guests all on the stage. And then the audience is like jumping on the stage, jumping off the stage. And within the audience, there’s people that are like writing fanzines or booking shows, are involved in all these different things. So it’s sort of like an all hands on deck.
It’s like everyone has a role in this thing happening. Some people are gonna fall down and pick them up and someone might get off and then a fight starts and it’s the community’s responsibility to like police that behavior too, but without assigned hierarchies, you know what I mean? And those hierarchies are very marginal. And I think that that is inspiring.
Watch below.
Walter’s pulling triple duty at Riot Fest this year, with sets by Rival Schools, Quicksand, and Gorilla Biscuits. GB also play two Brooklyn shows this September.
Listen to our recent podcast episode with Walter for more:
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