What’s the most punk rock occupation you can think of? Like, outside of the actual pursuit of being a rock star, how do you imagine punks making their living? Record store/dive bar owner? Tour bus mechanic? Professional mohawk spiker?
For Nishant Joshi, the perhaps surprising answer is….doctor. Not the first thing you think of when you think of anti-authority spiky haired ruffians but then, I’ve always been of the persuasion that punk encourages community mindedness and compassion above all else so actually, it kind of fits. But there’s still an element of regimen associated with the role which seems to fly in the face of what we associate with punk. In this respect, Dr Nishant Joshi is perhaps a surprising frontman of an incredibly outspoken and bombastic punk outfit but difficult circumstances can motivate us to go down surprising paths. And for Joshi, that path led to taking on the UK government in court:
“As a competent Dr, following orders was my job. Not a huge amount of creativity is allowed. If you step out of line you are known as a troublemaker but if you don’t follow protocols and something happens, you get hammered for it.”
But as a doctor working in emergency medicine just as the pandemic was starting to come over the horizon- and seeing how unprepared the country was for what was coming- Nishant became increasingly aware of the consequences of governmental apathy and incompetence:
“It was around that time [of the pandemic] that I started to think about systems and the fact that really our whole lives are designed by systems that are inefficient, systems that essentially ask us to work in perfect ways when the systems themselves are flawed. Everyone else around me is just following orders. That kept on cropping up whenever I said anything- ‘oh but we’re just following guidelines, just following orders, the PM said it’s ok…’ I have always been a normal law-abiding citizen but something clicked with me like ‘we need to do something, we need to raise some hell and make some urgent change”.
And that is what he did. Dr Joshi and his partner Dr Meenal Viz took the government to court in 2020 over their failure to provide adequate (or sometimes any at all) PPE, forcing the government and the public to acknowledge what was going on behind closed doors- frontline workers were being left to face the brunt of a potentially deadly virus with little support or protection. Sounds very punk all this- sticking it to the man, fighting for justice and that but the toll it took was significant. There’s a human with a family behind the activism. But it goes to show how ordinary people can be pushed to the brink of what they will endure and that they can take on the goliaths of the state and actually win.
“My whole life, I haven’t been much of a troublemaker, I think I’ve been pretty middle of the road. And those few days [after speaking out] when I wondered what I could do, it felt it was 1 person against 60m people. For those few days, my wife was pregnant with our first, it was me putting my entire career on the line.”
For doctors like Nishant- and in fact any frontline or community-based workers- politics is not something that happens in the corridors of Westminster only but in fact has tangible and often devastating impacts on real people’s lives. If that’s not enough to radicalise you under a Tory government, I don’t know what will.
“Being a doctor in the UK, you are essentially being tasked with dealing with all the negative outcomes of negative political decisions, but you’re not given enough tools to do it. People are only starting to understand… we are on the sharp end of everything, we see it all. The mental health crisis, the housing crisis…. And I don’t see enough doctors doing anything approaching what I have done, entering politics or becoming interested in making systemic change.
We see the whole breadth of society, richest and poorest, the difference between the top 1% and bottom 1%. We see the outcome of political decisions and we are being gaslit on an industrial scale that the bottom 1% are just not working as hard as the top 1%. Having dealt with politicians first hand and seeing the under carriage of the giant political system of Downing Street I have seen just how malicious a lot of people in govt have been. Being able to relate that back to patients I see as a doctor, that has really made me appreciate the impact of politics and politicians on society.”
Although his experience working for the NHS and supporting people at some of the most difficult times of their lives in one of the most challenging environments (Nishant was based in A&E) was formative in many ways, his love of punk and interest in politics did not start at the Covid pandemic: “I was always politically inclined but rather lazy about it and it was low on list of priorities. But I have always been a punk fan! I was a fan of The Stooges and The Clash in particular and then new wave like B52s- I love that whole era”
What the pandemic did do, was fuse together the idea of punk as activism, and music as a way to make a change. It was then that Nishant started Kill, The Icon- a synth driven, protest punk musical outfit with drummer Florin Pascu and synth player/producer Ian Flynn that tackles heavy hitting topics from racism to corruption, from protest to capitalism. And Nishant truly believes that music can bring people together to make a difference:
“In 2020, after I took the government to court, I realised there were two ways to make change… One way is the legal approach-applying political pressure via the system. But the other way is cultural pressure. I felt that we really needed to soundtrack what was happening, it was an act of desperation and frustration actually. I was always into Death From Above 1979, I had loved them for years and they are a bass guitar and drum duo and I wanted to try something similar but a bit more minimalist. We wanted to sing fast thrashy punk songs with a political edge. And also use that as a potential tool to try and change people and convince them that the system is really getting us all down.”
It seems like almost a ‘double life’ – straight laced doctor by day, incendiary punk frontman by night. Nishant is a comic book hero waiting to be trademarked by Marvel surely?
“As a doctor I have to be straight laced. Kill, The Icon is a cool way to express myself and find my voice. I never thought of being a frontman or singer, but speaking to so many people over the years who inspired me to speak up and being on stage.. I feel like what I’m saying is pretty profound and can be quite jarring as well. I take months and sometimes years to write lyrics, they are intended to have depth to them and be quite subversive as well.
The most out and out thrash song we have is called ‘Death Wish’ and the lyrics say ‘no blacks, no Irish, no dogs’ so on stage I am singing that to a crowd of potential John Lydon types and it feels like I’m singing to their soul sometimes. For me it is an absolutely fascinating way to express myself and confront people.”
And sometimes confrontation is inevitable- these are polarised times and not everyone- including some corners of the punk scene- want to be faced with the reality of racism and inequality in the UK. The bloody oppression in Gaza has also proven to be somewhat of a catalyst for disagreement in the scene. Some acts such as Lambrini Girls and Menstrual Cramps have been consistently clear in their support for Palestine and have supported boycotts of festivals such as The Great Escape or South by Southwest for ideological reasons. Other bands have either been slow to respond or vague about where their values lie and so who you share a stage with or which events you perform at can be under scrutiny as people try and unpick an act’s ethics. This is something Kill, The Icon are aware of and take their part in seriously:
“We need to be open about stuff….by being invited onto a band’s stage you are supporting them and by inference you are supporting at least the part of their being as a band, their meaning as an artist and it could be seen to be endorsing actions, lyrics and songs. We are always careful about who we play with. We have booked a headline show for the summer and I am choosing support. Money wise we insist on splitting it down the middle, I mean the money we’re talking about barely covers costs these days but it’s the gesture. That’s part of fighting for equity particularly in the grassroots.”
And what about the people that say, ‘enough of the politics…music should be escapism so stick to writing catchy songs and leave people’s political views as something for private expression’?
“The last decade has been absolutely horrid for most people. Right now, you dream of taking a child to a local library or a dentist- these are luxuries that we didn’t think were luxuries when we were kids. It is more important than ever to keep applying pressures. There’s a time for singing about your broken heart and for the last few years that has not resonated with me, we need more bands to be speaking the truth about what has been happening. What we write about has an impact on society. If more bands are writing political songs then the big radio stations will be faced with 100 songs to pick from for a playlist and instead of 5 political songs, if there were more, they would have to start thinking this is a cultural thing.”
Of course, this is part of the appeal of punk- it is a home for the political and the radical. And Nishant takes inspiration from figures such as Jello Biafra and his enthusiastically thought provoking and challenging persona as a political frontman:
“Songs like ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ are so catchy and then actually unpacking the lyrics over years and years, listening to them in different environments and stages of my life and now listening to them with the backdrop of these vents in Gaza, it really does crystallise a lot of ideology as well and that’s what we are hoping for. It might sound ambitious but I think a lot of our music is not far away from what the Dead Kennedys were doing in terms of authenticity and the power of what Biafra was saying at the time- I feel like I channel his energy and spirit on stage.”
And the band have their own cache of ‘Holiday in Cambodia’s with tracks like ‘Danny is a Hate Preacher’ – an astutely observational and almost timelessly relevant anthem which stands shoulder to shoulder with our political punk forefathers. Singles like ‘Heavy Heart’ features a video displaying the various guises of the modern far right, from reactionary street hooligans like the EDL to politicians such as Suella Braverman and ‘image reformist’ neo Nazis like US White Supremacist Richard Spencer. Kill, The Icon don’t just sit on their lyrics to get their message across, the visuals are also an essential part of articulating their message and perhaps making people think carefully about the views they hold:
“I think it’s the triangulation of hearing the music, seeing it live, watching the videos. Songs like ‘Danny is a Hate Preacher’, you might find it catchy and then you turn on the TV and see Braverman saying something awful….actually as a society we create hate preachers, we manufacture them and end up on our TV and we feed the media frenzy which makes them bigger and more powerful. Maybe it becomes crystal clear for 1 person, or 10 or 100, if they way they approach their thoughts change, then it is worth it.
From our POV it feels like there’s a deliberate culture being created to silence protest the last few years like the legislation that has been passed, and it might be putting people off attending marches but it is essential that we don’t give up fighting for a better society.”
And we’ll end on that note. Punk is about ‘exemplary manners to your fellow human beings’ as Joe Strummer said….but it’s also about dismantling systems of oppression and making racists and bigots know they will not be welcome in the scene.
Check out Kill, The Icon‘s music HERE.
