D.O.A frontman Joe Keithley was at the forefront of punk music in Canada and Vancouver in the ’70s, but after 35 years, is “retiring” the band to run for office. It isn’t the first time he has explored politics, he previously ran for the Green Party and for city council, but now has his eyes set on the NDP nomination for the Coquitlam - Burke Mountain riding for the B.C. legislature.
“Basically I’m running for the NDP nomination in suburban Vancouver — in a town called Coquitlam. So If I get in I won’t be able to tour,” said D.O.A frontman Joe Keithley.
“So I’m switching careers,” he summarized.
D.O.A brings their farewell tour to Studio 54, Feb. 20 with special guests the Scallywags and No More Moments.
Politics and D.O.A. have always been closely related. While they have written a variety of politically charged songs like “General Strike,” “World War Three” and “The Enemy,” just to name a few, they are also well known for performing at a variety of benefits for causes they believe in. They recently released their latest CD “We Come In Peace.”
“It fits like a glove. Some people might have a hard time seeing that, but I think it works fine. I’ve been politically active since I was about 16 years old. I went to SFU (Simon Fraser) University to become a civil rights lawyer and obviously I got sidetracked by music for 30 years or so, right, so, anyway I think this is a good way to make a difference,” continued Keithley, the sole original member of the band which has had a revolving line-up since their inception in 1977.
The early days of D.O.A. were marked by a lot of hard work — a strong do it yourself work ethic Keithley continues to have today.
“It was a pretty tumultuous time obviously when punk rock came along. we found out. We’d seen a little bit on TV and we’d heard about it and the Ramones came to town. And it was an incredible show that was in a big place and they didn’t sell any tickets. So they announced anybody who wanted to go could go in for free to see the show and there were about 100 of us who showed up. It was early ’77 and we went well okay, so that’s how you do that type of thing,” he related.
“We got going pretty quickly. One of the things I ’ve always been, is pretty much a self starter and big believer in the DIY ethic so we got little bit of money from some unemployment or like UI cheques or EI they call it now and used that to press our first EP, which was the the Disco Sucks EP. So what I did was I started mailing it to radio stations and magazines and we started getting pretty good reception from it so that kind of propelled us into travelling right away. I booked two shows in San Francisco for basically no money. One guys hitchhiked down and a couple guys took the bus and I took the train and we ended up and started making our reputation from there,” he said.
Keithley never expected their career to last 30 plus years.
“No, Absolutely not. I think someone asked me that at two years how long we’d go and I laughed and said, no well we won’t make it five. So I suppose we’ve added 30 on top of that. By the time we get to Lethbridge it will have been 35 years. Pretty well continuously. We broke up for about two years in 1991 and 1992 then got back together.
Other than the farewell tour, Keithley is focused on winning the nomination. He has always had a strong moral compass.
“One thing about being a Canadian is I think we all feel we that should help people that are less privileged and that need a hand and try get them started in the right direction. And us people in the middle class have always been doing that as far as the Canadian tradition. It’s getting a little bit lost over the last few years, but I think people still feel that way. Unfortunately now the middle class are also having to pay for the rich people as well as well as the underprivileged. I really think the middle class people need a break in what they pay. So my approach in entering politics is two pronged — Rich people should pay a little bit more and help out and we should get a better education system so we end up with a lot more jobs that are better than McJobs. It all fits together if you ask me,” he said.
He noted it is important for people to vote. He was pounding the pavement, knocking on doors in the fall for his nomination run, and discovered a lot of people who were so frustrated that they had stopped voting or had never voted at all.
“I ran into an awful lot of people while door knocking, I knocked on about 2,000 doors. I ran into a lot of people my age, middle aged people who said ‘no I’ve stopped voting’ or especially a lot of people under 30 who say ‘I’ve never voted,’” he said.
He estimated maybe 25 per cent of the people he talked to recognized him from D.O.A.
“A lot of people were really enthusiastic about it, right, and they weren’t necessarily D.O.A fans but they kind of knew what I was about. Like it wasn’t a matter of they weren’t fans of the music but they knew my stand on a variety of causes and topics and issues so that worked pretty well. And a lot of other people signed up just because I talked to them and they liked my message,” he said emphasizing education would be his priority if elected.
“My main message is trying to beef up the education system out here in B.C . It’s a neglected one and this one’s going to help us and build wealth and prosperity for everybody,” he summarized.
He will find out if he wins the nomination by March 3. He is confident about his chances and has no plans if he doesn’t win the nomination.
“I’m in good shape. I’ve signed up a lot of people and I think I have a really good chance of winning that and of winning the riding too.
He said having confidence is just as important as having a viable game plan when going into anything.
“ I really believe you’ve got to be confident when you go into things and obviously if you’re going to be confident obviously you have to have preparation and hard work to make that go in the first place so I have been doing that.”
“ I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll have to think about it. I run a record company Sudden Death Records www.suddendeath.com. So I do that and there lots of other opportunities too,” he said.
“ If I don’t get the nomination I’ll try to cross the bridge some time in March if I don’t win the election then we’ll see,” he said.
The show begins at 9 p.m., Feb. 20 at Studio 54 with special guests No More Moments and the Scallywags. Tickets are $15 in advance.
A version of this story appeared in the Feb. 13, 2013 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
