We were lucky to catch up with Jason Hayes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Eric Vasquez, guitarist, and I, Jason Hayes, Lead Singer/Bassist, started Pinch Dogs because we were pissed off and didn’t know what else we could do to make anything better. We were angry at racists and bigots being given a platform, at the federal level, to be legitimized and that hatred put forward as something society should just accept as a “difference of opinion.” We felt powerless. So, we started a Punk band.

We strongly believe that being silent on issues of social justice/injustice is complacency and that many people are either uninformed, misinformed, unaware or some combination or the three. By creating music with purpose and meaning helped us feel productive and as though we were contributing positively to a society increasingly fraught with negativity. Creating music with purpose helped us express our anger, hurt, worry, and frustration in a way constructive to a greater good.

I do not, nor will I ever, know the challenges of walking this world as a person of color, as a woman, or with an identity in the LGBTQIA+ community. As such, I have no right or justification for speaking on behalf of any one of those communities. I do, I believe, have a responsibility to society to put forward the voices whose experiences have been marginalized or shut out. Eric, Chris Simental, our drummer, and I have talent and passion for music and creativity. Using that talent and passion as allyship is some of the most meaningful creative work I have helped to lead.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As our primary lyricist, I have been a public-school teacher for more than 23 years. In that time, I have witnessed gross injustices done to students and families, most of whom are lower income and families of color. I have seen school police brutalize students having mental health crises. I have been in 3 separate incidents involving guns on campus, one of which leading me to be held at gunpoint. I have disarmed students, peacefully, while police went ahead and tased them anyway. I have worked 1st hand with survivors of physical and sexual abuse. I have watched our systems of economics, education, and government destroy the lives of working families to benefit the 1% time and again. And, I have benefitted from privilege my whole life. To sit by, doing and saying nothing, is not an option. That doesn’t even touch the other 2 band members with their own experiences leading them to speaking up and speaking out!

Pinch Dogs doesn’t pretend to have the answers. We do have the privilege of creativity, opportunity, and knowledge. What are the options of dealing with hurt, anger, frustration, injustice? Get our mom to buy us guns so we can drive to another state and kill people we disagree with? Drive a car through peaceful protests and kill people we disagree with? Make laws allowing police to arrest and target people they disagree with? Those are choices people made as cowards unwilling to educate themselves. We choose to educate ourselves. We choose to speak out and put forward voices whose lived experience and knowledge surpasses our own. We choose to support social justice and community.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As creatives, our first objective when we get together is to have fun. Really. As serious as our work and our message may be, without joy in the creative process, there is no fulfillment. Creativity and being a creative isn’t just about making things/art/music/drama/whatever for others. Creativity and being a creative is about creating for yourself. I’ve been an actor for 40 years, a musician for 35 years, a painter on an off all my life, a teacher for 23+ years, a filmmaker for 20 years, and I’m not doing it FOR anyone. That others may benefit…bonus. That others enjoy my art/music/work…bonus. I create because I need to create. Eric and Chris feel the same about their creative efforts. If no one ever listened to a single song we ever wrote or recorded, we would still make music. Period. So, is there a mission driving our creative journey? No. We create because we need to create. Is there a mission within our work? Yes: to lift others, speak out against injustices, speak up with voices who have been marginalized, and to call out blatant hate and bigotry.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

To truly support artists, creatives, and a thriving creative ecosystem we have to stop treating being a creative like a hobby. This isn’t your weekend project or your “what I do when I’m bored.” Being a creative permeates every aspect of your life. It is a need, a passion, its own mission. Every creative reading this has had someone ask, “This is cool but what do you do to pay the bills?” Why do we have to continually justify our creative spirit and/or endeavors? Creatives in cultures throughout history have been honored, revered, pillars of their communities. Hokusai in Japan in the 18th century, Hun-Batz, the Mayan God and patron of the Arts, even the ornate beadwork of the Zulu, are but a few of the countless examples of art through human history as a means of our continued existence! Creatives provide meaning, purpose, definition, and expression of the human condition; without which our communities would have never prospered.

Parents need to support their child becoming a creative. Schools need to support their students using creativity to solve problems and not only treat Art based classes as part of the “core” curriculum, but support a culture of artistic appreciation and not one of an “also ran.” We all need to get out and see local bands and buy their merch and music, visit local art shows and buy their art, post and repost our friends’ creative projects and efforts, and stop treating our work like it’s the home improvement project on our “honey-do” list we are saving for the next 3-day weekend.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pinchdogs.com
• Instagram: @pinch_dogs
• Twitter: @pinch_dogs

Image Credits
Live show pictures credit Marcelo Solis Promo pictures credit Jason Hayes