Greebo Press Interview

Greebo Issue 1 - Pilot

Greebo Issue 2 - Pride

Greebo Press 3 - Cryptid

By Morrigan Ivy

Greebo press is a small queer punk zine that has published work by dozens of talented creatives. I have found myself lucky enough to interview the minds behind Greebo.

Who are the people behind Greebo?

Greebo is curated by Oliver Shaw and Jimmi Darbyshire. We're two trans/queer friends who met in 2021 at Nottingham Trent University's Rock Society; Oli did Creative Writing and Jimmi did Fine Art, so we combined our passions with our love for music and queer culture to create Greebo. We both grew up watching channels like Scuzz and reading a lot of similar music publications. In Nottingham we found a growing community of other alternative queer people and we wanted to write about them and interview them. Greebo is our way of putting our community on display.

Why is it called Greebo?

This is something we’ve actually written about in our upcoming issue, Origins, as our own origin story. ‘Greebo’ was essentially a derogatory term used for any outcast under the alternative umbrella, mainly used between teenagers in the 90s and 00s. Apparently it was mainly used in the North, so as two alternative Northerners we thought it was a cool way to reclaim the word and make something that reflects both of us.

Why was it important for the both of you to create these zines?

The communities within queercore and how it has evolved over decades is important to us. Jimmi loves making art and graphics, but is passionate about history and culture too. We wanted the zine to achieve something, spreading awareness and education, so we always include an article of some sort. Also, as creatives we know how competitive the industry can be. We've worked with with some really talented writers, bands, artists and poets who deserve a platform in a community that will listen to them and respect their art.

What are some of your greatest influences?

Jimmi creates art in a range of mediums. He is primarily a painter but as graphic designer for Greebo he likes mixing media together, so collage and typography is influential in his designs. Barbara Kruger is one of my favourite designers and her work influenced many of the punk cut-out aesthetics used in earlier zines.

Oli is a writer creatively inspired by novelists and poets of the macabre from throughout the ages, from Lord Byron to Irvine Welsh. Their biggest influences come from bands they listened to as a teenager, but I think that's safe to say for both of us. We both listened to a lot of emo stuff growing up but that helped us find our community now. Every queercore kid used to listen to My Chemical Romance.

Are there any zines or other self-published work you find inspiring?

We mentioned G.B Jones and Bruce La Bruce in Issue 1, who made what is considered the first ever queercore zine, J.Ds, and we both love a lot of the classic punk zines like Sniffin' Glue. When we were making the first issue, we took some inspiration from the J.Ds vibe and aesthetic and made it our own. Through Greebo we find new and exciting self-pubkished works all the time! Our favourites are Snowflake, The Nottingham Horror Collective, 0121 Queercore Zine and Skull Head Comics.

Do either of you have a favourite issue?

Pride (#2) is both our favourites! It brings back good memories of finding our feet. We timed it so it would come out in June for Pride season and our friends at DirtyFilthySexy drag collective let us put on our first market at their event for Nottingham Pride! We had some really beautiful submissions and by this point we had started to explore different media and our own style was developing. Our new issue, Origins, might turn out to be the favourite though. It will be a much different vibe than the others and more refined, design-wise.

What are your hopes and dreams for the future of Greebo?

We'd love to go bigger and put on shows or readings to help artists get discovered. We want to uplift talented people in our community and let people discover them. We want to make something that’s important to people, be it functional, educational, relatable, or just entertaining. Ultimately, this is something community-based and we want people to be proud of being part of it

I look forward to seeing the future of Greebo and hope to keep supporting them. if you also want to support them you can find them on instagram at greebo_press or their website. All three issues of Greebo can currently be found in our store as well.