Mike Applestein is interviewed by Juan de Ribera Berenguer

First question, the name. Your zine is called Caught in flux and "Caught in flux" is a marvellous Eyeless in Gaza song... Are you a Eyeless in Gaza fan?

Yes, very much so, and I love the Caught In Flux album, although isn't my absolute favorite Eyeless In Gaza album -- that would be Photographs As Memories or perhaps Rust Red September. I named the zine at a moment when a lot of changes were happening in my life (new job, move to NYC from suburban NJ, recently broken up with girlfriend-at-the-time) and a lot of my friends were moving. Those had a lot to do with my choice of zine title. I almost named it "Transience Blues" instead, except I figured clueless people would mistake it for a blues magazine.

How would you describe your zine for a person that never had seen it?

A magazine mostly about music, focusing on both current favorites and older bands/musicians whom I don't think got their due the first time, or for whom information isn't readily available. There's also the odd travelogue or personal digression. I try to make it as readable and approachable as I can.

Why are you doing a zine?

Mostly because I like music, I like records, and because I'm constantly coming across things that I absolutely *need* to write about. I also like making connections with people, possibly introducing them to things they haven't already heard or confirming that they aren't alone in their obsessions.
Getting free records is nice when they aren't typical major-label promo slop, and getting interesting mail is always great.

People say that pop journalists/zine writers are frustraded musicians... but you are a musician too!

Well, I was a frustrated musician for most of my life. In most ways I still am. I'd been playing guitar in my bedroom since I was 14, and only in 1997 (at age 30) did I form my first real band, and that's only because my ex-roommate Tami literally pushed me into being in the Poconos with her. I doubt I would have ever tried it without a strong personality to force me into it.
Now that the Poconos have broken up, I hope I'll continue making music in some low-key form or other. Mostly I'm glad to have finally emerged from the bedroom with it, and I have nothing but empathy and respect for other frustrated musicians.

Lately you seem to be more interested in The Poconos than in your zine... What do you prefer, the zine or the band?

They're different. The Poconos took up almost all my spare time in 1997. We played a lot of shows (mostly in the NYC area, but also in Boston, New Haven, Toronto and Seattle), and recorded some songs. Like I said, I'd never been in a band before, so I felt constantly flooded with new stimuli, new experiences.
I liked the feeling of actually creating my own songs, performing them in front of people (although I don't think I've ever not had stage fright), and recording them. It was a great learning experience, and I hope that helps me in my music writing. But I don't feel as driven or fulfilled about music as I do about CIF. I feel like I'm contributing more to the world through the zine than through yet another band...

Your fave pop heroes

Geoff Travis, Stephin Merritt, David Nichols, Pat Maley, Alan Horne, Stereolab, the Raincoats, Stephen Pastel, various arrangers and anonymous session musicians from the 1960s.

Fave magazines and fanzines

Beikoku-Ongaku (makes me want to learn Japanese so I can fully enjoy it), Oh Oh Cheri, Kitpaw, Roctober, Kelp, Scram, Boa, Power Toot, Cometbus, Catch That Beat!, Tape Op, Puncture, Beer Frame, Kickstand, Restaurant Fuel, Chickfactor.

Fave pop journalists

See question #7, especially with regards to Roctober, Puncture Scram, both of which do great in-depth articles.

Do you read major pop press too?

Yes, although I don't take it all that seriously. Time Out NY and CMJ have good, informed articles every now and then.

Who do you buy Caught in flux? How are your readers?

Most of the readers seem nice, at least the ones whom I've met or who've written to me. They seem pretty gentle, and either informed about music or curious to learn more. No stalkers or anything.

What is the funniest thing of doing a zine? And what is the worst? Is it a ungrateful labour?

Best: getting mail from people as far away as Europe and Japan, helping musicians or bands I really like, feeling like I'm making a tiny dent in "independent" culture at large, randomly seeing CIF in stores or otherwise mentioned.

Worst: the business aspects of doing the zine. I hate trying to get new shops or distributors to carry CIF and feeling like I have to "sell" myself, and I hate trying to get paid by distributors (most of whom pay late or not at all).

Is the zine a vehicle to meet your heroes? Do you think it´s a good idea to meet one´s heroes? Tell me some dissapointment...

Luckily, almost all the heroes I've met have been wonderful. In particular, the early-80s folks I've interviewed (Stuart Moxham, the Raincoats, Dolly Mixture, Delta 5, Jane Fox) have been uniformly friendly and indulgent, and I think you can tell from the interviews. I haven't had any real disappointments so far, fingers crossed.

I can tell you the biggest surprise, though: tracking down Palmolive, former drummer for the Slits and Raincoats. By the time we met her, she'd moved to Massachusetts, become a born-again Christian, and was playing in a Christian band at her weekly church coffeehouse! They actually performed a revamped version of the Slits' "FM" ("Jesus is the answer/Why don't you let him in?").

Tell me the contents and the cover-star of an ideal/utopian Caught in Flux issue?

That would be the "live from Britain" issue, published by my girlfriend Callie and me from our Glasgow flat. It would include interviews with our favorite local bands (both modern-day and older -- look for the 5-part Shop Assistants retrospective!), live shows at the 13th Note and Nice & Sleazy, and travelogues of our trips throughout Europe.

There would be no "cover star," keeping with CIF tradition of not printing pictures on the front cover; instead there would be a shot of a scenic part of Scotland. Maybe the ScotRail train station in Edinburgh, or perhaps Kelvingrove Park

Your fave last top records

At the moment I'm crazy about the Free Design reissue on Siesta. I'd been looking for their original records for years, but the compilation should be enough to tide me over for the time being. I've recently been listening to the Best Wishes, Bella Vista, Cornelius, Belle & Sebastian, Nick Drake, the Magnetic Fields, The I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout, and whatever's on WFMU while I'm at work.

Tell me your next the Poconos/Caught in Flux projects

Yay, promotional time! There will be a new CIF out later this year (the summer, I hope). The Poconos are going to release a posthumous 7" single on Jigsaw Records. We just have to finish up the artwork; it should be out this summer. It'll have five originals and a cover of Trixie's Big Red Motorbike's "That's The End of That".

We're also appearing on at least two compilation cassettes (a comp. of East Coast band that Tami's putting together, and a Marine Girls tribute cassette). That should pretty much clean out the Poconos vaults. On the solo tip, I have a song, "Central Station," on a compilation CD called Oda King Made This Dress released by Tina and Jeff of Restaurant Fuel zine, and I'm going to be on a Toronto tape compilation called The 25-Cent Soul Project. I sent them a couple of tracks of guitar, and they're going to build songs around my contributions. I played a solo show at Bard College in upstate New York in mid-April, and hope to do more in the future.
I'd like to do another band someday, perhaps with Callie.