Virus Zine was cooked up in the summer of 1998, the first
issue was released in September of 1998. Proof, you say? Well, here's an article
in Eye Weekly about a really great guy by the name of Bruce Lynn, who at one
point was in a band called Decoy, and was awesome enough to mention Virus Zine
during his interview with them. You can read it here. viruszine.com
was launched on January 22, 2002.
We want this site to bring together aspects of independent culture, without the whole 'indier-than-thou' bullshit. Our little family is slowly growing with the addition of Bobby and Alan as columnists and right now we're collaborating with other independent projects on stuff like music videos and podcasting. We're always up for a new project, get in touch if you have an idea.
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Editor/First in Command/Distro Gal - general answerer of emails/some content/distro gal/crafty
goddess (Toronto, Ontario)
The Little Bio: Little sister to Maytina, she is often mistaken
as the older one, something they both have mixed feelings about. Nikki
was reading zines when her friends were mastering 'chapter books',
and she'd stay up late in to the night thinking up interview questions
to be used for various zines Maytina did as a teenager. She's certainty
grown up a lot since then, developing a much different taste in both
music and literature from what was forced on her by her sister as a
kid. She's into knitting, sleeping, streetcars, and weird boys who
wear makeup.
Deals with... Nikki is hard at work setting up the Virus distro. Still in it's early stages, Nikki is the one all the submission reviewing falls on, and the general organization and coming together of the distro. She's also doing interviews, reviews and columns. All distro related questions should be directed this way.
The Other Stuff: Nikki is a very crafty gal. She's always making creations, mainly jewelry lately, though also knitted and sewn items too. Then there are things like the playing card purse. See? Very crafty. She's putting all this towards her own line of wonderful creations. She's also working on setting up a craft collective in Toronto.
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Columnist - monthly column writer/photographer/inspiration (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Bobby has been putting out his zine, Paranoize, for 13 years. Bobby is all about independent, loud, noisy music, and getting this info out to as many people as possible. Bobby and May can't remember how they met, but they agree it was at least three years ago, and they've been bouncing ideas off each other since. Bobby writes a monthly column for Virus about what's going on in New Orleans.
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Columnist - monthly column writer/collaborator/overall witty
guy (Chicago, Illinois)
Alan owns the Fall of Autumn, an independent publishing resource and distribution site. Alan met May and Virus zine on MySpace (insert heckling noise here) and with them both finding too many things in common to ignore, began looking for excuses to contribute to each other's projects. Alan writes a monthly column for Virus in which he delves into whatever may be on his mind at the moment, from his roommate to his job to the culture happening around him, check back each month for a new submission.
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Contributer/Collaborator - writer/collaborator/generally helpful friend (Toronto, Ontario)
Marc is a creative, engaging guy with a whole lot of passion for being independent, and working within the independent community. He is a singer and a songwriter, honing his craft through his latest undertaking, The Neil Astronaut Project. He's wonderful help when brainstorming, and has offered to officially brainstorm with us and generally play a part of Virus' well being.
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Columnist - monthly column writer/collaborator (Toronto, Ontario)
Brad is the man behind Cyclone Records, a label that honestly cares more about the quality of the releases than hype, and is full of passion about all their releases, regardless of genre. He has been working in the independent music community all across Canada both as a musician and behind the scenes for many, many years. This is one dedicated guy. Brad and May met online and started collaborating right away, May has become notorious for missing Brad's shows, but it's never on purpose! Virus Zine and Cyclone Records support each other's indepednent projects, and Brad writes a column for Virus.
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Columnist - monthly column writer (Toronto, Ontario)
Carolina Smart is originally from Wiarton, Ontario, Canada and needing to escape the shadow of Wiarton Willie, she ran away to Toronto and has lived there for the last twenty years. Carolina is also the creator of Shebytches.com and always biting off more than she can chew she is in the middle of writing her first book of 'Dark Tales' as well a book of short stories with Anna Fletcher and Viki Ackland. But if writing and running Shebytches wasn't enough, she is also the co-authour of a web site about a documentary on death (www.twocreepygirls.com) with fellow writer Anna Fletcher and is creating a line of products based on her alter ego lizzie violet (lizzieviolet.com), and writes her daily blog @ shebytches.blogspot.com. Carolina is also working on a book of poetry and short stories entitled ‘The Melancholy of Me’. This book will contain poetry and short stories about the things that really go on in her head.
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Contributer - general content writer/photographer (Chatham, Ontario)
Julie has been an avid writer since she was a child. Attending college for Graphic Advertising and Design she has been in charge of a variety of Enrollment books to advertisements for local businesses. She has an array of accomplishments under her belt: Promotional work, CD cover designs, band biographies, logo designs and labels, street teams, swag design, all artwork for various bands and yes even a tattoo artist. She lives by the moto 'Life isn't about finding yourself it is about creating yourself'. Julie is all about just being who you truley are. Julie manages a band May interviewed and when they learned they both had the same general outlook, there was no way they couldn't work together!
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Reviews - music reviews (Calgary, Alberta / Austin, Texas)
Eddie has spent the last 4 years touring Canada and the States, playing with names bigger than I'm willing to drop here, and he didn't get to that point sitting around waiting for it to happen. Eddie is driven. When he offered to help us out with music reviews, we jumped at the chance to have someone as experiened as Eddie come on board with us.
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Contributer - general content writer/photographer (Thunder Bay, Ontario)
We are really excited to have Angie join the family. She is the founding editor of ROCKIT a site dedicated to independent music in Thunder Bay, much like Virus, and also much like Virus, they have been around for years and show no signs of stopping, just the opposite, Angie and her crew are just as dedicated to their site as they always have been. She is majoring in English up in Thunder Bay, and makes fairly frequent trips down to Southern Ontario to check out shows. She writes for two local publication as well as the student newspaper at her school. She's at every rad show that hits Thunder Bay, interviewing bands and taking pics galore.
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Columnist/Contributer - general content writer/columns (Toronto, Ontario)
Mike runs the Etobicoke Music Scene, is the guiratist for the Toronto based band Len's Haulage, helps out with booking and promo for the Sound Lounge show, he's also a junior high teacher and a general all around rad guy. He's joining Virus by helping out with writing a column and contributing articles, and who knows what else.
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