Mind Compression

Mind Compression.(Manifestation of a High school drama project.)

One of my dreams as a kid was to be a rockstar. This would prove to be difficult considering I was not a musician. I got my chance to prove I was an industry expert one day when I was hauled into my grade 11 Drama class by Miss Maria Kortes.She taught me Drama, FineArts several religion classes and more than a few life lessons at St. Francis Xavier. I had been skipping school to go smoke weed with my friends behind the church. Kortes had a way of finding us (she could probably smell the weed lol)and making sure we attended her classes. I was not prepared to be some type of industry expert and give a monologue on some industry or profession that I was”. The expert” in. I was cornered and ready to be a rebellious punk to get out of the assignment. She asked me what I needed and who I was? Then it occured to me I could grab my Ghetto blaster out of my locker and play a few different parts of a few different Metal songs and just sort of fake my way through it( in theatre faking it is called Improv) I would play a song by WASP then talk a little bit about it in comparison to a song from “Kill Em All by Metallica

I cranked Cliff Burton’s Bass solo,Pulling Teeth Anesthesia On my Ghetto Blaster, seriously that's what we called Boom Boxes in the 80s)I told Kortes and my class as I plugged in the stereo and cranked the volume to 11, I am Metal John, I am an expert in the genre of music known as Heavy Metal. And this is Hellion by WASP, which stands for WE Are Sex Perverts. My Catholic school was very conservative and affluent but there were a few characters from the neighbourhood that didn't fall in line of conformity. They were my tribe, the long haired kids becoming Head Bangers, the punk girls dying their hair to look like Cyndi Lauper, the freaks who were already going to underground punk gigs, you couldn't fill a classroom with all of us, but we owned the “Pit” our designated smoking room inside the school, I’m sure we all gave each other cancer, in that little room.

The 80s were an incredible time for music for me because the genre of Heavy Metal was becoming more dominant in mainstream media. I had grown up on Heart, Kiss and Led Zeppelin, but my mind was opened to a new level of thinking the day I heard Crazy Train, by Ozzy. I was stunned by the power of his voice and the absolute genius of the guitar. I was irrevocably baptized in the heaviness that was washing over me, in my friend Chris’ room as he not only cranked Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Oz to 11, but also proceeded to play his drums with precision to the album. We were 13. I was a Head Banger in that moment and would remain one for life.

however the more obscure and underground stuff that was emerging was what called me. I left Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot behind as I stepped out of the light and into the darkness of Thrash, discovering Metallica and Slayer, Anthrax ,Testament, Metal Church, VoiVod, Venom, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles , Corrosion of Conformity and Death Angel. The best discovery though was in my own backyard, the band that would turn out to be the most influential punk band in the world for me and everyone else in Edmonton’s punk scene. Edmonton’s SNFU.

They truly are an amazing and legendary underground band that defied mainstream stardom thankfully.

I was well versed in the Holy Trinity of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest but I was still looking for more bands like Motorhead and Sepultura. I found them all and more on Mind Compression. Mind Compression is a Heavy Metal radio show that began in 1984 on cjsr fm in Edmonton. It is a community supported volunteer run radio station located in the University of Alberta. I was a huge fan of the show’s host from New Zealand, Mike Berry. Mike was the guru of the Edmonton metal community and host to the most legendary parties in Edmonton.

I only made it to one of his parties, his goodbye party , but it was the one Mike announced he was moving to Korea to teach, and that I was going to take over Mind Compression. It was about 10 years after that Drama class when I had boldly declared that I was MetalJohn an expert in Heavy Metal, that now I was being asked by my childhood hero, to take up the torch, wave the banner high and become the new host and producer of Canada’s longest running Heavy Metal radio program. It was an extremely bittersweet moment in my life. I was saying goodbye to my Idol and was being asked at the same time to fill some extremely large boots.

I was at odds with other programmers who thought I shouldn't be the new host, I received death threats from fans of Mike’s, I had no clue how demanding and aggressive my fans were going to be but yeah, I had fans, I was literally asked for autographs on occasion, often people heard my voice and asked if I was Metal John It was fucking awesome. I had arrived I was a legend in my own mind, I was a Rock star, I was an expert in my field , I was the host of the coolest fucking radio show on the planet, I pushed the on air microphone and said for 25 years “ Hey kids hows it going? You are listening to CJSR FM 88.5 . This is Mind Compression and I am … Metal John.