Young musicians are embracing the art of punk rock posters

Maddie Ryan · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 14, 2025 6:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 14

The telephone poles scattered crossed downtown St. John's marque up a depository of the city's philharmonic past. Every furniture of insubstantial posters reveals different month, different fistful of section bands.

The young punk stone country is keeping the do-it-yourself contented alive— astatine a clip erstwhile artificial quality tin nutrient a graphic with a elemental prompt.

Caleb Butt is 1 of the artists going backmost to the subculture's roots. 

"I similar to assistance retired successful immoderate mode successful the euphony country due to the fact that I emotion it truthful overmuch here," helium said, sitting connected a Bannerman Park bench.

"One of those ways is making posters, which I've precocious gotten into," said Butt.

He started by making posters to advertise shows his band, Twin Rinks, is playing. Butt likes to experimentation with collages anyway, truthful helium decided to bring the mean to a wider audience.

"It's 1 of the things I'm truly passionate about," helium said. 

It's casual to usage the net for marketing, says Butt, but alternate euphony is astir pushing backmost against the norm. 

Young radical are much drawn to carnal media these days, helium said. It's easier to look backmost to philharmonic memories that way.

"It doesn't get, like, mislaid successful each the contented radical person been putting out," helium added. 

Stephen Chislett of Paradise appreciates the work.

A drummer for hardcore bands himself, Chislett digitally archives posters from shows he's been to.

"There's ever a root of pridefulness whenever you benignant of spot your band's sanction connected a poster," helium told CBC implicit the telephone connected Thursday.

"I deliberation that radical who instrumentality the clip to actually, you know, plan and marque a bully looking poster to bespeak what benignant of euphony is going to beryllium played, I deliberation that matters a lot," said Chislett.

The drummer's favourite posters are the ones wherever the creator evidently had amusive creating it, wherever the pen scratches and marker lines are visible. 

Chislett says it is important to usage societal media arsenic a selling tool, but it's much amusive erstwhile musicians permission a hint astir town.

"I truly bash similar to spot [posters] being printed retired and benignant of taped astir poles astir town," helium said. "I'll spot aged ones from months agone that are inactive up and possibly determination was 1 that I went to, and I get to deliberation backmost fondly connected that show."

The mean is oftentimes an accidental for radical to flex their originative muscles, adjacent conscionable starting out. 

That was the lawsuit for Mike Feehan, a St. John's illustrator known for his artwork successful Star Trek comic books and the award-winning Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles.

But it each started implicit a decennary agone successful his DIY days.

"I retrieve 1 of the archetypal shows I went to, idiosyncratic said to different radical that I could draw," Feehan said. "Someone gave maine a Sharpie and radical started asking maine to gully pictures connected their arms and things similar that."

"I benignant of made a sanction for myself arsenic the kid who drew," helium said.

That kid who drew utilized posters arsenic a mode to germinate his benignant portion helping retired his friends who were successful bands astatine the time. 

Then helium started doing enactment for touring bands, and it spiralled from there.

Some of Feehan's favourite designs included a surfing mummy, and different 1 with a elephantine robot hanging retired with punks successful a junkyard.

"[A bully poster has] things that'll drawback people's attention, particularly erstwhile they're walking down the street," helium said.

Feehan is blessed to spot that radical are inactive drafting and designing posters by hand, saying that's what it's each about.

"I conscionable deliberation that creation and punk stone and hardcore, truly spell manus successful hand," said Feehan.

"It's not thing to beryllium dismissed," helium said. "It's decidedly thing that should beryllium embraced."

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