Time for the fifth Rock Pulse-Sugarcult interview! We visited the Stoke Sugarmill to catch up with Marko, and this time we asked him about his current views on 'Punk and Politics'. No band questions this time, just pure politics!

Suzi - How important do you think it is that young people get educated about politics?

Well, I wish I could measure that. Like, it's important, you know? It's important for young people and old people and just people in general to know about the world they live in and the society they live in, and to look at their own community, whether it's the punk community or a small microcosm version of a whole social system. It's important to know about it if you're in music, it's important to know what kind of guitar strings you like to play, but we're in this together. It doesn't really matter if you're American or British or from a 3rd World Country. People, especially from industrialised countries, have a kind of responsibility not only to coast through life and not let others make decisions for them, but also to get involved. As you saw with the most recent election in America, there were a lot of young people getting involved. Millions and millions of young voters turned out this year, more than there has been in the past. The "bad guy" stole one but at least apathy went out of style and now people have got their political and activist muscles going, they were working them out a little bit. And next time maybe we need to do a few push ups. It doesn't really matter who's in Office, it's more about how the majority of the people live their lives. That's what really determines the outcome of things. What people are willing to stand for and not stand for is a lot more important than whether there's person X or person Y in the Hot Seat.

Jess - What do you think about George Bush being reinstated?

I'm very disappointed, especially as a person who plays in a band which is kind of not the most realistic thing to do with your life. It's kind of an idealistic and romantic pursuit to leave the obvious and not get in line with everyone else and go out and do something creative with your friends. Me and a lot of other people were probably a bit too idealistic and too romantic about how good things could be, but you realise that social change and things like that take time. You've got to be happy for every little step that gets taken and I'm happy about so many people getting out to vote, as Bush got faced with almost half the country not voting for him. At this point, he doesn't stand to be re-elected and I just hope he's going to be running more of a campaign to protect his legacy, because he's got such a huge ego I imagine he's going to want to be remembered by a lot of people as someone who did some good. Whether you do good for self-centred egotistic reasons or humanitarian reasons, either way you're doing good, so I hope he'll do that even if it's just to inflate his ego. And make his Dad think he's not a loser.

Suzi - A lot of bands are now trying to educate their fans on politics and animal rights, but some people think they shouldn't use their status to influence young and impressionable people. What do you think?

I think people who like our band and those who we tour with, I give them credit to think for themselves. When I was a kid going to shows I thought for myself too, but if a band or anything you encounter in life, whether it's a band or an older person or an older relative or a friend or anything that might have an influence on you, if a band censors itself or it's opinions in order to not impose them on impressionable minds, I think it does more harm than good. I think our fans are smart enough to know they like our band because they like our songs and if they like our songs, then maybe they'll learn more about us as people and learn about where a band comes from, but as long as they like our music first that's fine. There's bands where I like their politics more than I like their music. I'd rather listen to an interview with Minor Threat than listen to their records. At this point, I'd rather sit there with my headphones on and listen to a modern electronica record that's really trippy and read the words of Ian McKay than sit there and listen to really loud 80s punk rock, even though I love that stuff. I don't think it's a problem at all, I don't think you're abusing your power, there's a difference between making things available to people so they can make a decision for themselves and shoving things down their throats.

Jess - What do you think of when I say the word, "punk"?

It is what it is; it's different things to different people. What punk rock means to me is so sacred to my life, to my particular history, but it might be completely meaningless to him (points at nearby roadie), to someone who grew up on the East Coast, with his own definition of what punk rock meant to him. Or to you, someone who's probably at least 10 years younger than me and who lives across the ocean. Punk rock is more about freedom than about enforcement of strict codes and rules and laws; that's what punk rock originally started out to break down. I think that's the beauty of it: it's up to you. There's kids out there who might think that punk rock is Blink 182, but 20 years ago you would never think that a punk rock band could play arenas. So, by those definitions, Blink 182 would be the farthest thing from a punk rock band. And there's bands that used to play arenas and are now playing tiny, little "punk rock" clubs, but it doesn't make them punk rock, it just makes them old has-beens that should pack it in! (Laughs)

I think punk is, mainly, people doing what they want to do, for instance, the band we're on tour with now, The Kinnison, has things about it. When I watch them play, they remind me of the 'spirit' of punk rock, but their music sounds like it's derived more from Led Zeppelin than Black Flag. But that's exactly one of the things that makes it punk rock to me; they're not in line, they're not just doing the obvious, and I think that the least punk rock thing you can do right now is get a mohawk and wear an Exploited T-shirt and pierce your nose, or whatever. It's like, you can go to the mall in America and buy that costume, it just doesn't mean anything anymore. It might look cool, which is fine, but it's not punk rock, I don't think. It's not subversive, it's not secret, it's not imaginative, it's the equivalent of going to see a cover band instead of going to see an original band. You're being a cover-person, you're not doing your own thing; you're copying something that was already done years ago, and that's not very creative.

Suzi - Do you ever talk about politics on stage or do you leave it up to things like interviews and websites to promote things like Punk Voter(.com)?

Yeah, we talk enough on stage as it is (laughs), we try to use most of the time on stage to play our songs, not use it as a soap box to preach our views. One of the things we did in America on our most recent tour with Green Day, because it was in October, right before the elections, was we did make a point to mention it, like, "Hey, make sure you get out on Tuesday and vote, because it's really important". We're not preaching, we're just reminding people to go out and vote. That's part of being an artist, you're also a reflection of current events in society, you're not just regurgitating some songs you wrote three years ago. It's just like when you listen to the radio; they don't just play songs, they also tell you how the weather is and whether there's traffic and what's going on that week. When you're on stage and there's something so big that's happening in your life, and that everyone else has in common, you're going to mention it. You're going to bring that up and remind people to go out and vote. Just like if there was a really cool party going on somewhere, with all you can drink for free, and free pizza, and we were playing a show right next door to it, we'd probably tell them that too. It's just something to let people know about.

Jess - If there was one message you could give to your fans about political issues, what would it be?

What I would say is, think for yourself. Make your own decisions about things; don't just follow the bandwagon of what all your friends are saying. There's people within my own band that have different opinions on different issues. Get involved, it's important. It's the world you live in and it's really fascinating. It stirs up your passion, it stirs up your anger too and it can make you passionate. It can drive you, like when you're in love. You'll do crazy things when you're in love with someone; you'll drive over to someone's house at four in the morning and play your ghetto blaster outside their window with some song. People do some stupid things when they're passionate about something. If you're in a band and you're passionate about your band you'll tour across the country in the back of a beat-up car and live on peanut butter sandwiches just to get your music out to people. The same thing can happen with politics: when you start learning about these things and you get involved, just on a local level where you can do things in your community, it stirs your fire, it gets you going, it's good to know about these things. It's disappointing a lot of the time, you can get disillusioned about how f***ed up things are, and it gets you pissed off, but it's still better than going through life with your head stuck in the sand, pretending everything's going to get taken care of by your mom and dad, or your Prime Minister or your President or whatever.

Suzi - Do you think the association that punk and rock music now has with things like animal rights makes it more credible to the people who used to have very narrow-minded views on the whole music scene?

It's interesting you say that. I remember being in high school in the late 80s and it wasn't until I started hanging out with people from 'the punk scene' that I really heard about vegetarianism and alternative sources of media rather than just the mainstream media. There were loads of fanzines, and I'm sure now there are loads of interesting websites. Just like Hip Hop doesn't only encompass rap songs, it also encompasses the whole culture; it embodies graffiti, the style of dress, and there are different styles of hip hop within that genre. Punk rock is a similar thing; it's a whole world. You don't just go to a show to sing along to the songs of whatever band you like, you're also going there to be part of the community. It's kind of like a congregation, it's almost like a religion; it's a place you can go where you have things in common with other people, and you might make some new friends, you might discover some new bands, you might pick up a fanzine and learn something new or get directed to a website.

You might feel like a total misfit and then you walk into a room and there's 300 other misfits and suddenly that empowers you; it makes you feel like, "Hey, ok, I'm not the only one who feels this way or looks this way". It's cool, it's good to have that. I think if you like a band a lot and they happen to be straight-edge, and you decide that you want to be straight-edge too because you like that band so much, maybe that's not the most healthy reason to make that choice, but maybe you respect that band enough to at least look into what straight-edge is all about, and then you decide whether that fits with how you want to live your life or not. Then again, if that band had never voiced that they were straight-edge, you might not even know that something like straight-edge exists. It just gives you more options when you're enlightened to different ways of living your life. That's the cool thing about when bands actually open up a little bit and don't just pretend that all they are are catchy choruses and a couple bar chords, we're also human beings and we're also interested people, and one thing most bands have in common is that they're all kind of renegades, rebels in a way.

They've all chosen to follow a "dream" rather than just be cynical about life and jump into a miserable job they hate and stay in it for however long they have to do it just to make ends meet. This way, you're diving into the unknown, and you go into it knowing that it may or may not pan out financially, or people may or may not like your band, and the band may or may not like each other, once you get out on the road you may not want to continue (laughs). That's why I have unconditional respect for anyone who goes out there in a touring band, no matter what kind of music they play. It's pretty organized now, no one's taking that big a risk by being in a band; there's proper forms of transportation to the venue, it's not like you're hot-wiring some broken down car to try and lug your stuff to the show, you can play a show and it's not going to get broken up like it used to, but you're still taking a chance and bringing something to people. You're giving people a canvas which they can project their feelings onto, whether they're going to laugh at the jokes that Blink 182 tell, or they're going to lose their minds at the instrumental jams that the Mars Volta does, or they're going to pound their fists in the air when they see Lamb Of God play, or they're going to scream at how cute Benji and Joel are at the Good Charlotte concert. However people get their kicks, it's just cool that it's out there, and it's not government regulated for the most part; it's mostly just kids with imaginations that have put something together, and they go out there and do it.

Thanks so much to Marko for taking the time out to answer our questions! As ever, you can find out what's going on in the world of Sugarcult by checking out their site, www.sugarcult.com. If you're interested in the whole politics side of punk, check out www.punkvoter.com and www.conservativepunk.com!