Credit: Casey Lynch (writer), Rebecca Swanner (writer), David Yellen (photographer), Josh Robertson (writer), Jonah Bayer (writer), Travis Shinn (photographer), Jon Wiederhorn (writer), Wes Frazer (photographer), Jason Bergman (photographer), Paul Harries (Courtesy WBR) (photographer), Birte Filmer (photographer)
“As bad as things get, there’s always a positive way to look at your situation,” P.O.S. (a.k.a. Stefon Alexander) explains while on the road for his aptly titled Never Better Tour. And he knows firsthand that you create your own luck: While selling merch for Atmosphere on the 2004 Vans Warped Tour, he hustled his way onstage and signed with the legendary hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertain- ment shortly afterward.
That said, P.O.S. initially cut his teeth as a teenager in the punk rock scene—despite the fact that, as a black kid going to punk shows in the ’90s, he wasn’t exactly embraced by everyone. “I remember I saw Pennywise and Quicksand and got jumped in the pit until my friends realized what was going on,” he explains. “Then we had to fight all these guys because apparently some of the Pennywise fans in Minneapolis did not want me there.” However, P.O.S. maintains that such situations were exceptions, not constants. “Usually, even if people had shit to say about me they kind of kept it to themselves.”
P.O.S.’s punk pedigree clearly shines through on his latest full-length, Never Better—and whether he’s quoting Fugazi lyrics or singing alongside None More Black’s Jason Shevchuk, the album is able to reconcile P.O.S.’s seemingly disparate influences in a unique brand of music that has endeared him to fans of everyone from Gym Class Heroes to Underoath. “I didn’t want to make a pop record this time around; I wanted to make something that was not only challenging to myself but also challenging to my fans,” he says. “If people are going to get into what I’m doing, I want them to get into it for real.”
That seems to be exactly what’s happening these days, regardless of potential listeners’ musical preferences or preconceptions. “I’ve noticed that every crowd I’ve gotten a chanceto play for opens up if you’re straight up with them,” he explains. “I’m going to break a sweat and have the best time ever live, so you’re gonnahave a better time if you fucking go with it than if you sit around acting like you’re too cool,” he summarizes. “People come around.”
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