Harry Hunt is the kid who put together the Short Attention Span compilation of less than a minute long songs that I was so psyched on a few weeks ago, he is 17 and lives in Loughborough, which is here.

He also makes zines and puts out tapes, which I think is great because most 17 year olds (especially those who aren’t living in capital cities) watch T4 and listen to Pendulum. I’ve spoken to him quite a lot recently and I guess you could say we’re fledgling internet buddies.

Last week I asked him to take a bunch of photos on a disposable camera and answer a few questions, he answered the questions fine but the camera he sent in fucked up and only 18 shots came out and there were no actual photos of him even though he’d promised self portraits. I took one off his facebook instead:

He looks like fun doesn’t he? I’ve got that Minor Threat shirt too. My other favourite I found was this one:

Here are the questions:

How come you ended up putting out a compilation?
I’m not really sure, it kind of happened by accident. I wanted to do a limited edition tape comp or something to go with a zine, but getting Best Fwends to write KKKK (which I maintain is one of the best songs in the world) spurred me on to do a proper job of it. Then I just asked all my favourite bands (except for ones who don’t exist anymore) and they were like “COOL”, so it was cool. Cool.

Was it a tricky undertaking, trying to convince reasonably established bands to get on your comp with no previous experience?
I still have no idea how ‘the music business’ works, and I don’t care because there’s no fun in business. I just emailed a few people I knew already from playing in bands and doing zines and stuff and they are nice people, so were generous and stuff. Most of the bands on this comp are very nice people and were nice about it, so it was kind of easy to convince them they wanted to write us songs. Some people let us down, some people never contacted us back and that kind of thing, but I’m so happy with the balance of the comp and how it turned out so I think we did alright.

Did you start out with a concept for the thing or did it just start ending up with songs under a minute?
I wanted it to be a short song comp from the start because I’ve always listened to really short, fast music and I wouldn’t want to release anything that I would get bored of. For example, I get bored of Muse because their songs are about 17 minutes over my boredom threshold of about 2 minutes. Also because Muse are fucking shit.

Tell us about the zines you do.
We wanted to make journalistic zines about the music we like but soon realised that our tastes in music are old and uncool. Also we’re lazy. So now we make some dumb, picture-based stuff with not much writing which is basically glorified toilet literature and doesn’t take a great deal of concentration to digest. There are zines coming with subjects including ugly people, penises, making out, beards and death (and how fucking hilarious death is).

Why do you do them?
We have fun doing it and they will be fun for kids who think like us. They will piss off mature people too, which is a serious bonus.

Most 17 year olds are into Pendulum, what do you think made you get into what you’re into?
When I was an 11 year-old or something I listened to a lot of pretty crappy American pop punk like Isocracy and Screeching Weasel and stuff, which I still love, despite everyone else being in denial about the fact that they can remember all the words to most Lagwagon records. I suppose that was the start, and then I got into 80s hardcore bands like Jerry’s Kids, early D.R.I., Negative Approach, Threat etc and 90s power-violence like Spazz. I pretty much listen to that kind of stuff and more experimental / noisecore stuff nowadays. I like it because it is full of fun and anger and because people in hardcore are honest and unpretentious, they just want to have a good time shouting about what they think. Basically, I’m just seeking fun.

Then again, I also love Hall & Oates.

Who are your faves then?
Fat Day, Negative Approach, Gerty Farish, Charles Bronson, Minor Threat, Best Fwends, Screeching Weasel, Beastie Boys “Aglio y Olio” EP, Isocracy, Germs, Koji Kondo (R.I.P.), Lightning Bolt, Swallowing Shit, Nirvana and stuff.

Also, I fucking love Rocket for Ethiopia right now, who are a sloppy kid punk band from Texas. They are so fun and shambolic and noisy and never write songs over a minute. I think you can download their demos somewhere.

What’s the best idea for a zine you’ve had yet?
We made a zine called “Kill Noel Edmonds” where on every single page there was a picture we made up with biro and some photos of Noel Edmonds with a massive sword through his head and entrails hanging out of his neck.

How’s school for you?
I go to school in Loughborough. I pretty much like maths a lot. Everyone claims they hate school but I like it because once you realise that getting in trouble with middle-aged men with halitosis is actually entertaining in its own way, you can pretty much do what you want. Hot meals are good to.

What is the problem with Loughborough?
Everything is pretty stagnant and dried up. It is half way between Leicester (shit hole) and Nottingham (quite good), which means all the good stuff happens in Nottingham. The key amenities we have are a McDonald’s and the following charity shops: Loros, Scope, Barnardos, YMCA, Help the Aged and British Heart Foundation. Also, there is a huge racist voice around here because Leicester has a large British Asian population, which I totally love because you can get the best curries in the country and I have a bunch of asian friends. I don’t like racists.

What do you do for fun in Loughborough if you’re not a fan of Pendulum?
Watching cop shows with cheap wine and friends is a nice thing to do when you have no other plans. Other than that, we often ride old bikes out to empty places with tape players strapped to the back racks and have some fun (not group sex) or just, you know, ‘hang out’. Sometimes you can get on the train to Nottingham and some good bands play. Finally Punk played recently with the Sceptres (from somewhere in the south or something) and they were fun girls.

Who are your best friends?
My best friends are Isaac and Tom and Rory and Richard etc because they’re funny and cute and totally dreamy.

What’s the best time you have with them?
The most magical activity I have ever partaken in is watching Isaac draw pictures when he is drunk. He draws the ugliest people I’ve ever seen.

What are the worst and best things about being your age?
Worst - police stop you if you are riding a bike, assuming you are a petty thief or mugger or N-Dubz fan etc. Police here are FUCKING dumb.

Best - i am not one of the 40% over 40 years old who have Erectile Dysfunction.

Would you like to leave Loughborough?
I’ll be going to go do Maths at uni next year, unless I screw up all my A-Levels, so I’ll end up in London or Bristol or Glasgow. Can’t wait! (Yep, nerd).

Here is Harry’s website, check it out and download his comp if you haven’t already.