Interview with The Cretin (Murry Acton) Of The Day Glo Abortions
Interview By: Jeff Probst
Probsty did with The Cretin (Murray Acton). Make sure you catch Dayglo at least once as they swing through Ontario
Punk Globe: I was wondering if I could interview you for Punk Globe Magazine
Cretin: Yeah of course, I do that sort of thing all the time.
Punk Globe: Man, thank you so much. What got you into punk rock?
Cretin: When I was a teenager in the 70’s I was into the typical stuff like Black Sabbath and zeppelin, but I also liked the more complex stuff like Jazz fusion, and prog rock, and even classical music. Two of my teenage heroes were Frank Zappa and John Lennon. Both because of their political and social views, and how they used their music to make people aware of the issues that concerned them. Towards the end of the 70’s, mainstream music seemed to suddenly go bad. The bands I liked were replaced by idiots in spandex outfits playing shitty music that I couldn’t stand. I had been hearing about this punk rock thing and it struck me as a perfect platform to fight back against shitty music, and everything else that bothered me about the world. Funny thing was, I started playing what punk rock would be, without hearing very much of it. There wasn’t much punk rock to be found in Victoria in the 70’s. That is why the Dayglo’s are almost more of a metal band than a punk band, You can hear the musical influences of my teenage years in my music still to this day.
Punk Globe: What is it like bumping elbows with your heroes backstage, and who Is the biggest band you have opened for or played with?
Cretin: Bumping elbows with your heroes can go both ways. They often don’t turn out to be the people you assumed they were. I have never met any of the heroes from my teen years, They were essentially unapproachable anyway. I have met quite a few musicians that I have a great deal of respect for at festivals and backstage at gigs when we played with them, sometimes with very funny results. Some of the festivals have huge bands headline the big stages and smaller bands playing on various smaller stages. When we played at the Montebello rock fest, Rammstein were the headliners. There were over 200,000 people there. We didn’t get to meet them. We did, however, sit backstage and watch Reverend Horton Heat play, and Matt and I talked with him for about half an hour after his set, and he gave us both a big hug. That was pretty fucking awesome. I have a lot of friends from various bands after playing for over 40 years. Some of the best people I have ever met. The guys from Left Over Crack, Days Daze, Starving Wolves, Verbal Abuse, Dr Know, just to name a few. That’s not even getting into the local musicians.
I guess the biggest band we have backed up would be the Bad Brains. That was fun and they are fucking awesome people and talented musicians there is also Barney from Napalm Death. He came up and sang bedtime stories with me, and the guys from Municipal Waste came on stage and played Black Sabbath with us in Germany. Ryan Waste played guitar on it.
Punk Globe: How did the obscenity charge in the eighties affect your band?
Cretin: I’m not gonna kid anybody about that. It was the single biggest boost a band could ever dream of. I am eternally grateful to the Mayor of Nepean, Ontario, and their chief of police for being dumb enough to think that they could dictate the moral standards for the entire country. They had me on the national news within hours of the initial charges being laid against the record company. That was an interesting and educational experience for me. The people in the media, like Lloyd Robertson, the national news anchor, were very clear to me about being on my side. They told me they would edit what I said in real time. Take out any blank spots or stuttered words, and make me look smart and alert. So you see, if they are not on your side, they will do the opposite.
Punk Globe: What are your thoughts on record labels like Epitaph or Fat?
Cretin: Well, they are very successful business, but at the same time they fuck up creative progress and make it very hard for bands who aren’t on their labels to survive. When you go to a label like that, you lose artistic control of your music. They will force you to sound the way they want you to sound and even go as far as changing the lyrics to your songs. I have been offered recording deals with labels like that and when it got to their terms, I told them to get fucked.
Also, they manage to seal up most of the international booking and distribution so only their bands can play the majority of the good gigs
Punk Globe: I appreciate your time thanks so much for both the interview and also for being the raddest band from Canada and also for signing my fiance’s tits lol she talks about that night all the time When I saw you last you were telling me a story about a Lady who had a miscarriage at one of your shows, that is a pretty wild thing to happen do you have any stories that Trump that?
Cretin: Well, the miscarriage is hard to beat. There was one time. At a New Year’s show in Calgary. We were just about to start when this woman barged her way onto the side of the stage and yelled “I came from Texas to do this” then she whipped out her tits and started squirting milk at me with both barrels. I got down on my knees and let her hose me down. That was odd. There has been other things happen so fucked up that I don’t feel comfortable telling most people about them.
Punk Globe: How did you decide upon the name Dayglo Abortions
Cretin: That’s a good one, and it proves that god, or at least the creative force of the universe supports me in what I’m doing here.. Before the Dayglo’s I had another punk band called the Sickfucks (spelled a variety of different ways) We played what turned out to be our last gig at the old smiling Buddha Caparet on Main St. in Vancouver. It was supposedly a battle of the bands, with the winner getting free publicity for a year. At the end of the night, the promoter came up to me and gave me about half a box of Dayglo brand emergency orange spray paint, and said more or less…” here’s your free publicity, kid. Knock yourselves out.” The publicity didn’t get used on that band, though, because we broke up a few days later. I had a bunch of new songs and I wanted to get something else going on, so I got together with my friend Bonehead and told him we were going to start a band to play the new songs I had written. It was essentially a parody of a punk band. So, to cut a long story short. I had this half a box of spray paint, so and Bonehead I decided we would call the band …”The Dayglo” whatever the most frequently used word on the front page of the paper was. We walked over to his place to get the paper, and wow. It was like the heavens opened up and angelic music started playing and shit. As soon as we looked at the paper, the headlines I read said Montreal abortion clinic raided. And all over the page, you could see the word abortion. It was perfect. It is one topic that crosses all social lines. No matter which group of people you talk to, there will be people on both sides of the abortion issue. Also, it is probably the only thing that advertisers will not touch for any reason, which means it has zero corporate value. It is the perfect name for a band that wants absolutely nothing to do with the music industry.
Punk Globe: Thanks for the interview, Murray