Direct from the mouth of the have-not

What does it say when the politically charged punk band X still continues to tour to packed houses more than 25 years after its inception?

"It could say that we're foolish, for one, or that we're committed," joked X frontman John Doe.

Doe cites a number of reasons X continues to hit the road, including a steady demand from audiences and venues, and because it is still fun and profitable.

The pressure to write new music or tour to support a new album are gone. They have the luxury of trotting out their greatest hits, and enjoy doing it.

However, it is not all fun and games. Doe takes the activist political messages of X's songs just as seriously as the music itself.

"Artists have a duty and right to voice their opinion so that there is a balance," he said. "People in government are always going to be saying, 'Let's go to war.' Artists are going to say, 'That's bullshit.'

"I'm shocked and dismayed that people are surprised by that," he continued. "It's been that way, probably, since the [ancient] Greeks. The Greek artists didn't stop writing plays and decide to go to war. That's the role that artists play."

As an artist, Doe wears many hats. When he is not on tour with X, he tours with his band The John Doe Thing. Their latest album, Dim Stars, Bright Sky, was released by the label Artist Direct last year. In addition, Doe has had a recurring role in the television show Roswell, and has appeared in more than 40 movies, including The Good Girl, Boogie Nights,and Roadside Prophets. He is also currently working on an HBO series called arnivàle, which he says is about a traveling carnival in the era of the Dust Bowl.

He says he finds himself switching constantly from the set to the stage, also from punk rock venues to quieter, more intimate settings for his solo material.

"I once heard a great quote from Kristin Hersh [of the band Throwing Muses] that 'Quiet is the new loud,'" he said.

Doe, like so many musicians who came before him, has followed suit as his interests led him to form The Knitters, which he describes as an old-time country tribute band in the mid-1980s, and more recently with his roots-rock solo project, The John Doe Thing.

Since he first made the switch from writing politically motivated, loud and angst-ridden punk to mellow, acoustic-driven songs with folk leanings, numerous prominent musicians in the independent scene have followed suit. Punk acts such as Hot Water Music’s side project Rumbleseat and Blake Schwarzenbach’s Jets to Brazil — which evolved from the seminal punk outfit Jawbreaker — have cited Doe as a reason for turning the amps way down.

"It's the yin and yang of music," said Doe. "As long as you have loud, people will also make quiet. As long as there is shitty rap/rock, there will be people out there who continue to make good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll."

In John Doe’s world, balance is everything. Art, activism, the loud and quiet dynamic, punk, and country all need to be carefully calibrated.

This article was originally published in the Colorado Daily in 2002.