#146 - School Drugs (Josh Jurk)

Behind the Vinyl

Josh Jurk of Garden State's own hardcore punk band, School Drugs, joins for interview No. 146. When Jared Hart was on last summer he mentioned some of the best shows from when he was growing up in the punk scene. He mentioned how Josh threw some of the best shows in New Jersey. Josh reminisces about his upbringings in this one. It all started at a local VFW in Manchester with his original band, The Jurks. Fun fact - Marissa from The Screaming Females did all of the artwork for The Jurks. The name has carried with him since and Josh jokes that the a musician's first band name has to be thought out. If you are from New Jersey - stay tuned because we get into a debate about some of the best deli's/restaurants in the area.

All jokes aside, this was an episode that took on some serious subjects. School Drugs focuses on topics that could appear in the community such as addiction and mental health. Josh is the first to speak about mental health. In fact, he took it upon himself at The Fest, one of the biggest rock weekends of the year, and talking about seeing a therapist for the first time. Continuously, Josh can often be found at shows talking about addiction. He has experienced several close friends go through it and supports the charity Harm Reduction. Website can be found here: https://www.samhsa.gov/

Josh also takes the graphic design portion of the band extremely seriously. Check out his page for some samples, he does every design on his own. Josh is full of knowledge when it comes to the images people see of flyers and band tees. In fact, he is a huge fan of Danzig, but not because of the typical music reasons, but because he is a fantastic graphic designer and is big reason for some of the Misfits. School Drugs has some cool shows on the horizon and have seen organic growth over the past year or so. Keep a look out for this New Jersey band!