Butter me up a bit and I might brag about having met, befriended and occasionally alienated more than my fair share of rock-stars, celebrity artists and popular musicians, yet the only one that’s left me some form of starstruck is Justin Pearson. Which is funny, since he’s actually a true punk lifer with zero pop ambitions! Perhaps the timing was perfect for me to be swept away by The Locust the first time they came to town – I distinctly remember waiting behind them in line at a Dunkin Donuts before my band got to open their show with Jenny Piccolo at an Allentown VFW hall in 1998, thinking how are these dudes even real – but the man is directly and indirectly responsible for so many inventive, prescient hardcore styles that I’m not sure how things would’ve shaken out without his involvement. And how underrated is The Crimson Curse, your feelings on random naked guys in the pit notwithstanding? Justin remains busier than ever, mostly touring with his band Deaf Club, but also doing a podcast, playing Swing Kids reunion gigs and presiding over at least half a dozen other projects I need to dig further into. His edition of Worst Song is the only one so far where the interviewee actually wrote a damn book about the experience… you can listen to his pick here.

JP: Man, my brain immediately went into panic mode trying to figure out which is in fact the worst, as there are quite a lot of bad ones. I have pondered this idea and I think I landed on a song. It was a collaboration with Designer Drugs called “Dead Meat”. It was so bad that I wrote a book about it called How To Lose Friends And Irritate People. I suppose that would be the song to pick, but there are so many to choose from that are total bullshit.

YGR: Is your dissatisfaction with “Dead Meat” solely a personal thing? For my ears, the beat is fairly typical EDM for its era, but your vocals bring the manic energy I think we’ve all come to expect from a Justin Pearson vocal track. Is it wrong that I think I like it?

JP: Well, first off, thank you. I respect you and your resumé. But I think you may have nailed it, specifically with the point of it being “fairly typical EDM”. That is the first issue. I had also written a few verses, and a “chorus” which was scrapped. I assumed I was tracking vocals on a demo, or a version which would be built upon, but nope, it was just farted out there as such. With EDM, I have high(er) standards for what I consider good. Artists like Panicker, Otto von Schirach and MSTRKRFT are more in my realm. But using that criticism there as a departure point, I ended up writing that book partially based on my experience with Designer Drugs. As much as I assume I talked shit, I really wanted to point the finger at myself for being a dumbass and doing that collaboration. I should have stayed in my lane.

YGR: What do you consider to be ‘your lane’, exactly? I feel like you’ve successfully ventured in, out of and around hardcore for many years now… the opposite of a purist.

JP: I’d say my lane would be a bit less conventional, and maybe more creative, which does not translate to “good”, or “talented”, or certainly “successful”. But, if you consider the stuff I am known for, The Locust, Deaf Club, Dead Cross, etc., it’s not in the realm of, say, subpar EDM. I ventured into the EDM lane with a band called All Leather, and that seems more adjacent to the stuff I rambled off, as opposed to your average dance music.

YGR: Hypothetically, let’s say you are invited to contribute vocals to some other straight-up dance project of your choice. Is there a dream collab that comes to mind? Or are you just totally burned on the idea of main-stage EDM from “Dead Meat”?

JP: Oh, I’m not burned on the idea at all. I love a lot of EDM, but I do have “musical standards” for the most part. The artists I listed – Panicker, MSTRKRFT, Otto Von Schirach – are all people who I’d love to collaborate with. I grew up obsessing over bands like Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Wall of Voodoo, and I’m a big fan of a lot of electronic cumbia-based music, too.