I didn't know who in heck would be interested in reading what I had to say so I never pursued it, which I'd regret as time and getting a job and supposedly growing up took over. That was until the last couple of years, really, by which time I'd begun posting on various internet message boards, gradually making contact with like-minded folk who dug all this good stuff that I dug and discovering that you could message bands and labels and that there was this general feeling of goodwill and people helping each other out and giving a hoot. All of that was important. Ultimately a very old, seemingly dormant feeling took over; an urgent itchy need to participate and do.

LOUISE (SAPRICOT): My basic reason for making a zine is because it's basically the only thing I can do. It's relatively cheap and teenagers have been doing it for ages. There's not much of an indiepop scene in DC anymore as far as I can tell, so it's a way of connecting with other indiepop people. I kind of feel like if I'm not doing anything, I'll die or at very least get depressed and start listening to the Smiths too much and crying and cutting myself. I like the feeling of control, because I can publish whatever the hell I want and I don't have to edit it and people can tell me it's bad but it doesn't matter because I don't rely on them to publish or distribute it, because apart from Caramel, I'm basically just selling it to my friends who will buy it no matter what. So even if I can't change anything in the long run and my plans don't work out, I at least have the feeling that I'm doing something and it helps me stop feeling so trapped by geography.

Also another motivation is so that I have a reason to ask whatever I want to popstars whenever I want and email them or phone them if they decided to put their number up. You post your email or address or phone number on the internet, and you are fair game!

ANDY: When you put together your first fanzine was it just for you? Did you have people in mind to write it for? Did you give yourself a deadline at all? I tried to give myself as little a time as possible so I wouldn't get distracted or discouraged. I know how many other projects I've set for myself have faded off into nothing because it was this open-ended thing I was 'working on' (but never finishing or, indeed, starting). Knowing I'd have to pay for the printing also meant I was conscious of how much copying I'd have to do and then how many pages I'd have in the final thing. I surprised myself with how practical I could be.

I think one of the key aspects of fanzine writing for me goes back to that DIY thing; which makes the whole process sort of 'political'; that feeling, however inconsequential it might be, of 'I can do this for myself, I don't need anybody's approval or patronage' (outside of a few people wanting to read it and maybe engage with it, that is- but that was an afterthought, I guess what I wanted more was for the bands I interviewed and wrote about to not feel let down).

LOUISE: I do have a deadline. I do one every other month, but the first one was put out in a month. When I met Katy she was like "You should do a zine!" and then I was like "Okay!" and then I had a zine out by the end of February. Mostly I was writing it for my friends. I didn't really expect there to be a distro, so I was anticipating just selling it to people I know from forums or the indiepop list and whatnot. My time frame for things is usually "as fast as possible".

I'm not really understanding how just doing something yourself is political. Maybe in England you aren't allowed to do things yourself and they watch you with cameras and don't let you smack your children, but in America, it's kind of expected and people have been circulating small newsletters forever (American Indians (feathers) actually invented a very sophisticated machine that laser printed words on corn cobs for this very purpose, because you could easily throw your writing at the next tribe over without having to get too close, but when the Indians tried to show Europeans, the Europeans just made hominy grits out of the corn cobs and thus, the writing was lost. American history right here!). I think I'm doing a zine because it's the only thing that I can do at this point to be active in the indiepop community. I've never really gotten anyone's approval for any writing I've done, so maybe I'm missing the novelty of that, but I do enjoy not having to edit anything as one normally would for an essay for school or something.

For a story, either we could both tell from the same perspective, but then the person would have two very different voices, which could turn out funny, we could be two collaborators on a zine, or one could be a zine writer, and the other person could be a boy or girlfriend/mother/friend/coworker who is observing the peculiar behavior of the zine writer.

ANDY: The whole small print/pamphleteer thing has a long tradition here too... I think the DIY thing and the sense that it is somehow political comes from punk and what came after: a sort of small defiant act unencumbered by editorial control and advertisers and all that hoopla that makes the mainstream music press (what's left of it) so unappealling... It should be viewed, I guess, as an activity borne out of necessity. A need to communicate propelled by enthusiasm, need and desire. It's fast and it's cheap. But I may be romancifying it all.

What are our personal dos and don'ts for contacting bands and labels?

LOUISE: Personal dos and don'ts? I WILL NOT contact a band if I have to email their press person or manager or whatever. If you're in indiepop and have a manager, you're kind of a pompous asshole putting on airs. I guess some bands are justifiably big enough that they need a manager, but it still should be easy to talk directly to the band if you would like that.

A "do" is ask all your friends for interviews. If you know someone (and it's indiepop, so everyone does) use that! Also, ask strangers. It's always a good idea to carry your tape recorder to shows and ask the bands before the show, because they might be like "Yeah, cool! We can do it after the show!" Basically contact bands you want to do using any means available to you. If they're local, I would not be opposed to pulling out the phone book and looking them up and calling them, or if you know someone who has access to a phone book in their city, etc. Do whatever you need to. It's not stalking. It's INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM. Note that this method has landed me a few restraining orders.*

*actually, nobody who I've called has minded at all.

How do you approach writing your zine? Do you do it all yourself? What are your thoughts on having other people write for your zine? How would that work, does one person control it or is it a small anarchist group?

ANDY: We're a dadaist collective and it's written by ants dressed as miniature popes crawling out of a nun's nose who's submerged in a giant fur-lined cup filled with egg custard.

It's written just by me... I contact bands by e-mail or via myspace and have yet to come up against managers and publicists, that would freak me out and be depressing... Contacting bands has been a mostly positive experience, the most negative experience I've had is to have my overtures roundly ignored but I don't tend to dwell on that... Every band I've contacted and heard back from have been charming and clearly taken time to respond- which is very gratifying- those that haven't I presume to be superbusy or Stephen Pastel and I can forgive both.

Whether the zine becomes a collaborative effort in future or not, I don't know. I'm going to to do another 'A Fog of Ideas' and may or may not continue with it beyond that (at which point I may look for other people to contribute... or not), it's all about maintaining a momentum for now- I may do something else using the same DIY multiple photocopy approach (but maybe more illustration-based than text-based) because of the ease of that approach and the fact it's cheap (or if I'm prepared to be cheeky at work... free!)... Putting together a blog just doesn't appeal but making something and having something 'actual' in the real world is rather nice.

Do you expect to change the world with your fanzine?

LOUISE: Yeah, if someone leaves it on the metro or something, it might be perceived as a bomb threat. Otherwise, no. I guess I'm just trying to change my world with it.

Do you format on a computer, or by cut-and-paste?

ANDY: On computer, I wanted to do it cut and paste and even handwritten but I was running out of time and it was so quick and easy to do it on the PC (even though I was using some primitive shonky MS Wordpad program) but I may approach it completely differently next time. A lot of old, old fanzines I have seem to be screenprinted, I think that's more effort than I can invest right now but they looked and smelled different... I do really like photocopies though, it's a kind of sickness. One of the 'accidents' that occurred was that this program I was using put in huge margins at the top and bottom of the page, which I couldn't seem to adjust and it looked not quite right so- once photocopied- I guillotined them all down so they looked better and most people who've seen it commented on this weird sizing (slightly smaller than A5- sort of purse size), I was just covering up .my lack of computer skills/hamfistedness and it worked out for the best... which is nice.

Can people contact you direct to get your zine? Do you have paypal or something similar? Was that easy to do if you do?

LOUISE: Yeah, most people contact me directly to get my zine. I didn't even consider having a distro do anything until Marianthi contacted me, and at that point I was like, "Okay, cool!" so other than Caramel, I just use paypal. It's not hard at all.