Authority Zero's Jason DeVore on Playing the Punk in Drublic Festival

NOFX’s Punk in Drublic is widely considered a seminal album of the genre it name-checks. The 1994 record was certified gold, and it’s cited as an influence for many punk bands that followed. Like a lot of punk albums, it was fast-paced and to the point, all the way down to its title.

Twenty-three years later, the name carries on with the Punk in Drublic Festival, a West Coast tour with a stop at Phoenix’s Fear Farm Festival Grounds on Saturday, October 21.

It’s an all-day celebration of punk rock and craft beer, with complimentary tastings from more than 100 breweries until 4 p.m. and music through the evening. NOFX will headline the event alongside punk stalwarts Bad Religion, Goldfinger, and Guttermouth.

Also on the bill are Arizona’s own Authority Zero, who have been friends and occasional tour mates with NOFX over the years, dating back to the Rock Against Bush Tour in 2004.

“I’ve been listening to NOFX since I was 13. My friends and I would skate to them,” singer Jason DeVore says. “They were a huge part of my teenage youth and angst — and into my adult years.”
The festival will kick off the next leg of Authority Zero’s extensive touring in support of their latest album, Broadcasting the Nations, which was released in June. And they will film a live music video at the festival to capture the energy of the band’s hometown crowd. It will be for the first song on the album, titled “First One in the Pit.”

Although the band started writing the album three years ago, it didn’t come together right away.

“It was actually all an arrangement of abstract riffs and ideas with members Brandon Landelius and Sean Sellars, who have since moved on,” explains DeVore. “Things weren’t cementing or really clicking the way we had hoped naturally so it put things at a bit of a stand still.”

From there, DeVore and bassist Mike Spero basically started from scratch, eventually enlisting guitarist Dan Aid and drummer Chris Dalley. They recorded their demos at Underdog Studios in Mesa and later brought in producer Bill Stevenson (from The Descendents) to work with his team at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“We went in there pouring ourselves into every instrument, melody, beat, and lyric to the point of exhaustion,” he says, “It almost seemed like it was a dream when we reached the end.”

Punk in Drublic Festival featuring NOFX, Bad Religion, Goldfinger, Authority Zero, and Guttermouth is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 21, at Fear Farm Festival Grounds. Tickets for general admission, early entry, and VIP Lounge are available online.