Words still spewing, knuckles still bleeding

“The walls kind of close in sometimes, if you know what I mean.”

Tim Henderson is talking about his North York office, “the bat cave.” It’s the home of Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles, commonly referred to by fans as BWBK. Unfortunately for Henderson and fans of the Canadian bi-monthly heavy metal magazine, the statement could easily refer to BWBK itself. The large amount of computer equipment can easily be ignored in the bat cave, with the assortment of rock memorabilia and posters collected over the years grabbing your attention. But those computers are now the publishing house of BWBK.

At the beginning of this year, the magazine closed its print edition, around the same time legendary American magazines Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs did, all of whom opted to go with an electronic only format. BWBK’s only major Canadian competition, Unrestrained!, folded after publisher Adrian Bromley died suddenly of pneumonia in December.

“Metal Tim,” as he’s commonly known as, says he’d rather be on a beach right now, noting how much he hates the weather on this unseasonably cold, rainy Friday in October. However, he’s busier than he’s ever been and choosing the route he has may be more cost effective, but can invoke more responsibility.

“It’s harder because we’ve made the commitment to report on news 24/7… Today, I posted three Slayer tracks. We would’ve never had the rights to put those songs on a CD, just because of all the label politics. We’re offering much more content and much more audio than we ever could have with the magazine. And it’s up to the minute,” says Henderson, “I don’t miss the fact when I was building the news, for example, it was so dated (by the time the issue was purchased). I’m building the news and by the time this magazine gets into some kid’s hands in Florida, it’s so old and dated.”

Henderson started the magazine in 1994. It was originally printed on photocopied paper and sold for $1.95. In a few short years, the magazine was in full colour and distributed around the world. The magazine would come wrapped in plastic and include promotional items like band stickers and condoms. Another popular gimmick was the free Knuckletracks sampler CD that came with each issue.

“From the get-go it really helped sales. It was a great package that worked in unison, like one helped sell the other. It was cool as hell. We were lucky enough to sell the space on the CD, so for the most part it did pay for itself,” says Henderson. “It probably helped with distribution around the world, especially the US, because when people would see that full package they would say, ‘Oh now I know why it’s $7.99.’”

Henderson thinks some fans might’ve seen the eventual sale price as too high toward the end, but serious BWBK fans continued to buy the magazine.

His experience in retail, as the buyer for the hard rock and heavy metal department at the HMV megastore on Yonge St. in Toronto was a major part of the magazine’s success. Seeing the success of the magazine at his store, HMV distributed the magazine to stores across Toronto and eventually across Canada. Henderson also made his department such a success it became a hangout among metal fans in Toronto, who bought large quantities of BWBK magazines.

“I remember in the heyday, it would double and triple Spin or Rolling Stone at my store. I’m not bullshitting you. There would be weeks when the magazine would come out and sell a couple hundred copies. Goddamn, it was crazy,” reminisces Henderson, who describes his age as too old to have fallen in love with grunge and too young to have owned 8-track tapes.

Henderson is still surprised, looking back at how successful his magazine was when the musical genre he covered struggled.

“God, how did it happen? It is pretty incredible to think, being in a small market like Canada in a genre that in itself is tiny … on the grand scheme of things. Especially in the 90s when we were doing it, it was pretty small. It was a fight, but there was a community out there,” says Henderson. “Maybe in hindsight it’s remarkable, but when you’re in the trenches trying to get the issue out, time doesn’t fly that
fast.”

David Gold became a fan of BWBK in 1999, when working at an HMV store in Windsor. His metal band Woods of Ypres, bought space on the Knuckletracks CDs. He was disappointed in the demise of the print version of BWBK, but believes fans could’ve supported it more.

“Well it was sad. Especially with Metal Maniacs and Unrestrained!, and others all coming to an end at the same time. … But I understand their situation. People generally just haven't been as supportive of the magazine itself, which was really the most crucial part. There are hundreds of people who visit the Braveboard (online) forum on a daily basis who haven't bought a magazine in years, if ever. If you love something, you must do your job to show your love and keep it alive. Do your part,” says Gold from his rural cabin outside of North Bay, Ontario. He also feels a quantity of magazines going electronic-only will help fans realize times have changed and it’s time to move forward.

Henderson graduated from McMaster University with a degree in political science and economics in the early 90s. He dreamed of starting his own heavy metal magazine having been a longtime fan of international magazines like Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs, Japan’s Burrn! And the UK’s Kerrang! And Terrorizer. While working at HMV, he wrote for the long defunct M.E.A.T. Magazine, where he met Carl Begai. After moving to Germany in 1995, Begai later convinced Henderson he needed a European correspondent and has been such since 1997. He had great disappointment in the news of the print
edition folding.

“Me, Tim, we were devastated. Tim phoned me with the news, but I’d seen it coming for about a year,” says Begai from his current home in Nuremburg. “Tim works so hard at this. This is his baby and everyone knows it,” Says Begai.

In 2008, Henderson says the struggles for the print magazine really began.

“Although I’ll say our last issue, the Metallica issue was the most successful one in terms of revenues. We really went off on a high. But when we started to work on issue 114 it was just like, ‘this is hopeless. This isn’t going to happen.’ This year everyone slashed their print budgets and we just couldn’t keep it going.”

Begai says metal magazines survive in Europe because, while the Internet is used, there is more respect for print media. Companies not specifically related to the genre, such as breweries, will still buy advertising space, and see more value in the medium. He also says record companies are more respectful to the print medium.

“A label (in North America) might’ve advertised in a magazine for 20 years, but a lot of the people with the label might not have been there that long and they say, ‘it has to be online. We want up to the minute,’” says Begai.

He and Henderson both say it was the passion of the metal genre held by the staff that kept BWBK going through its struggles. Both believe BWBK will be back in print again, at the very least, on a special edition basis.

Henderson made an attempt in 2008 to access grants available to Canadian publishers, but it was in a time of budget cutbacks and he may have been too late.

“It was all self-financed by myself and the ad revenue… I can proudly say that every magazine, we paid for and the Canadian public didn’t pay a bloody cent,” says Henderson.

Though he recognized it was time for him to move on, closing the print magazine was a heartbreak.

“It’s a shame, but at the end of the day I’m not this rich publisher sitting in an ivory tower. We just worked from issue to issue. We had a pretty good run, man. But there’s no way I would suggest anybody do this.”

Blogging in the new year

So it's my first post of the new year. You might think since I'm done school for the semester, I'd be able to write more, etc. You are wrong. I am busy with work while trying to write a lot of poetry, etc. My next blog will be from a class assignment last year, my profile of Tim Henderson of BWBK fame.

More of writing for the sake of writing

So I'm taking a short break from studying for finals week. That studying isn't going so well, but I'm sure I will be fine.

So I am now the copyeditor for the Centennial Courier, the campus newspaper. This should be interesting, i.e. juggling school, my sucky job and this role.

In a few days I'll probably post the profile I wrote on Tim Henderson of BWBK fame for a class assignment. It was a great story, I think.

Writing for the sake of writing

I've been busy with school work and getting out to promote RDRR (Dec. 3 at The Regal Beagle with Sachiko Murakami, Myna Wallin and Allan Briesmaster). I've studied a lot on the history of heavy metal magazines and have done a lot of work on this. Fun times.

It's about bloody time I wrote something on this blog. What I'm about to say next is controversial, but I'm not too sure anyone reads this blog.

I was at the Toronto Poetry Slam last night to see the return of Electric Jon as the feature. I'm just going to come out and speak my mind and say TPS has lost a step or three. In the last few months it's become overrun with aspiring rappers delivering the same thing over and over. I can't believe I'm saying this. A year and a half ago I got into a nasty online debate (I wasn't alone) with local poet Paul Vermeersch over the value of spoken word to poetry. He argued slam was full of failed rappers with big egos pretending to be poets. I told him to write about what he knew about; otherwise, shut up. At the time I don't believe he knew what he was talking about. Lately the major slam here in Toronto has become more like his description. It's probably because there is an influx of new people into the scene who have the idea it's nothing more than an a cappella rap off. I'm not putting down everyone who wants to rap their poetry. I thought a few of the more rap style poets (Relevant, in particular) were very good. But just rapping off the same cliches over and over gets tiresome after awhile. There's been a lack of originality in recent months.

Don't get me wrong. I'll continue to attend slams and support the scene. I'm not griping that I didn't make it to the second round last night. This isn't a case of sour grapes. I just feel the shows are starting to become stale. Last night some of the old guard I was hoping to see were eliminated before the show (eliminated by the draw), which was disappointing, though it's good to know nothing is fixed in the slam.

Metal!

Late last week I had the opportunity to interview Tim Henderson, most famous for being the publisher behind Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles. From the time I discovered it in 1997, BWBK was my favourite magazine. It was a metal magazine that stayed true to its roots and just didn't cover the flavour of the week. It started out as a black and white magazine on gray stock paper and eventually developed into a full colour glossy magazine that was internationally respected and distributed. It came wrapped in plastic and included Knuckletracks, a sampler CD, in every issue. In the early days it often included other promotional items like other sampler CDs, stickers, cassette tapes, folded posters, etc.

Henderson was able to gain nationwide distribution through HMV, as he was the buyer for the hard rock/metal section at the Megastore on Yonge Street. That section of the store became THE place (I'm editorializing) to buy metal CDs. When I visited Toronto from the Peterborough area, the first place I was interested in going was the third floor of 333 Yonge St.

The magazine no longer exists in print, with its last issue coming out at the end of 2008. But BWBK still exists as an online magazine. Unfortunately, this is a trend with metal magazines, as American magazines Metal Maniacs and Metal Edge went out of print this year as well.

I'm writing the story for a Book and Magazine Publishing class. The program is going well. We are in career week. Today we met with magazine professionals and watched The September Issue. Tomorrow is a day for meeting with book professionals. Yes, talking about magazines going out of print when I'm studying in this type of program is depressing.

Silly, silly, silly

I read in the Toronto Star today Michael Jackson has been nominated for five American Music Awards, including artist of the year. I know now that he's dead everyone wants to honour him and pretend they never thought he was a joke. I know those award shows are lame-brained, but he didn't put out a proper album in the last five years. He just put out some posthumous single. He's not artist of the year. Bestow some honour on him like artist of the century or artist of the last 25 years. Award shows are meaningless anyway. They're a way for artists to celebrate being total sell-outs and not feel bad about it.

In other funny news, I got a haircut today that looks pretty bad. I can wear a hat and I'm a guy so it will grow soon enough. I don't care. But I end up having to wear a hat because it looks funny, and it's so damn cold!

Time for an Update

It's time for an update.

I've been in school for over a month. Admittedly, I was a little intimidated as most other students had university degrees, and in some cases, masters degrees. So far I am happy to say I am holding my own and doing fairly well. I am happy to be back in school. Money is tight, but I'm used to that anyway.

It's unfortunate my time for poetry readings and time to promote RDRR is lagging. I'll really have to work on this as much as I can, even though I go to school full-time and also have a job.

I'm on my way to Peterborough this weekend. That's my hometown. Other than a one-day visit in late July, I've made a trip in mid-March and early June. That's it for this year. I'm excited to be headed home for Thanksgiving. I'm also excited to check out the debut of my good buddy Paul Longhurst's band... I think they're called Revival or something. The band features most of the original members of the now departed Shitreign, who I believe I've discussed somewhere on this blog before.