Reminisce on Your Teen Punk Years with ‘Glory Guitars’

If, as a teenager, you ever stole cigarettes or liquor from your parents, if you ever ditched class, or if you just wish you had, Gogo Germaine’s new book Glory Guitars, Memoir of a `90s Teenage Punk Rock Grrrl is a memoir you’re going to relate to a lot. Denver-based author Gogo Germaine weaves a debaucherous tale of teen mayhem that explores the light and dark sides of her own youth, all set to a soundtrack of classic punk songs. We sat down with Germaine to talk about this amazing new book.

What made you want to write this book?

It was right before the pandemic; it felt like the world was just starting to get really terrible. And on top of that, just in my personal life, I just felt really burdened with responsibility, just the amount of work that you have to have to survive just to pay rent. And especially in a creative field, I’m a writer, and I have two kids, and at the time they were younger. And I was just fantasizing about the feeling of ditching class and running through the junior high field, and that liberation. 

And it’s really interesting because when I started writing it, it was all just to capture that feeling, and it was to talk about my group of friends. We were super precocious. We were so brave and stupid. And then, of course, when you’re looking back on your life, you’re like, “OK, there are some hard truths that I can’t leave out.” Like, I almost wanted to leave the hard parts out, and I was like, “That’s the dumbest thing ever. This is your memoir.” 

So I wanted to write about that, but not in this scary or intense way. It’s mostly a book about partying. Either you relate, if you went through that, and you’re like, “I got into trouble; here’s the things that I did.” Or I’ve had people read it and just be like, “I can’t believe you did any of that.’ But I hope there is something for everybody to get from it as well, even if they were perfect angels as teenagers.

I definitely grew up as a punk teenager, too, and I’m just reading it and I’m like, “I just do not have these colorful stories.” But I recognize all the music, at least. So, going into that dark stuff, if you are willing to talk about it, The Adam Acid chapter must have been hard to write. What was it that kept you grounded and helped you pull through writing that?

Writing about my own sexual assault, that was the part that I was originally going to keep out of the memoir. That’s just your brain playing tricks on you. I had just put this cover on it like “Nope, not going to write about it.” That’s like ugly and dirty. And then it’s like, no, that’s what writing is about, is exactly those things. The hardest part was the memory thing. I had actually blacked out a lot of it just because of trauma. I do remember the actual incident itself, but a lot of things surrounding it, like I think I put it in the book that I didn’t remember what the court case was like. 

Because I took him to court and actually testified on the stand, and that could have been a really powerful thing. So yeah, it’s really stupid to say it, like it’s such a writerly thing like, “I’m frustrated as a writer I missed that scene.” It was difficult to have objectivity, and it was difficult to get anybody’s real, critical response to that chapter. Because nobody wants to be like, “You know, you could have done this better in the rape chapter.” So I kept asking people “Could you please give me writerly feedback?” And they were like, “It’s your story; it’s great!”

You were saying there were some parts of it you were thinking of keeping out of the book. Was The Flames chapter, where you were involved with an older man in a band, one of those?

Yes. It’s really intimidating to write about other people, especially older men. So there’s the Flames chapter, and then there’s the bathroom graffiti beaux chapter where I was like, OK, I’m writing about real people, and I’m writing things that could potentially get them in trouble. And I was like, what if they read it? So all of the names are obscured so you don’t really know who it is, but people have tried to guess.

I am so curious. I know I’m not going to get it out of you, but I’m so curious.

(Laughs) But with the bathroom graffiti beaux chapter, it’s really interesting to me because the guy who was actually the bathroom graffiti beaux, I never thought I would ever see him again. And he actually got in touch with me and was like, “I heard you’ve got this memoir about all this time we were together,” and he was like, “Can I read it?’ And I was like, “Sure, I’ll send you a copy.” I kept putting it off, like, three times, and finally he was like, “I really want to read it!” And I was like, “OK, but you should know that you’re in it.” And that was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done, just based on what I wrote about him. And he read it, and he loved it. 

Oh wow.

Which was shocking. And he was like, “You handled this perfectly.” And he then admitted to the bad parts, too. And that was really, really a cool, healing thing for me. 

OK, since you have this whole punk book, I have to ask, favorite punk album?

Oh my gosh, that’s so hard!

Well, I was tempted to do a top five, but I thought that would be too challenging.

I’m such a single person. I’m all over the place.

[Interviewer’s Note: While Gogo was unable to answer this question for me during the interview, she was nice enough to finally give me an answer a few days later over Instagram. Here’s a snipett of that conversation.]

My favorite punk album is Misfits, Static Age. I had to really think about it. It has the highest quantity of songs I love.

Wow that’s a good choice. And unexpected. Absolutely my favorite Misfits album. But most people would rank Walk Among Us higher. So good choice!

Thank you! I feel like it’s nuanced, like it’s not the most Misfitsey they can get, but I like that. “She,” “Bullet,” “Hybrid Moments.”

I’m a little surprised though, because you pointed out in the book how anti-feminist Danzig is. I mean, I agree, I overlook that too because of how good his lyrics are.

Yes I know—it’s complicated, especially since punk can be so feminist. That’s more like my favorite songs that I enjoy listening to on a daily basis. I would say in terms of bad ass femme-led bands, The Avengers. I love Bikini Kill but can’t listen to it all the time.

I always preferred Le Tigre to Bikini Kill.

I love Le Tigre too! And yeah, it’s a bit more palatable all the time. Either way, Kathleen rules.

[Back to the interview]

I could go on all day because I really love this book, but I’ll just wrap up with, what was your favorite part of writing this book?

It’s really profound for me because writing this book and everything I’ve been doing surrounding Glory Guitars is kind of an expression and an embrace of my shadow self. These are all of the things that society has taught me to push away, to hide. These are the things that I’ve been punished for, being my authentic self. So being able to celebrate that in a joyful way (is really important). 

It’s still a very indie book at this stage, but (the fact that) some people really connect to that is really rewarding. I had a friend asking me, “Are you ready if you get bad reviews, and people are going to hate you?” And I was like, that would suck, but I would be more used to that. And subconsciously, I’m almost expecting that. What would be even more emotional for me would be to get a really great response, and then I’ll be like wow, I don’t know if I can handle this; I’m not used to this.

Gogo Germaine will be hosting a book launch and riot grrrl party at the Mutiny Information Café in Denver on November 19.

Photos by Glenn Ross