5 QUESTIONS :: BONUS EDITION

Boudless NY just received Mishka’s entire Spring line . As you read this, I am sitting on a stack of Death Adler Tshirts 5 feet tall. With so little room in the back office, we sent Brooklyn Street Reporter Te$ly $nipes out to hit up our comrades at Mishka for this installment of 5 Questions.

1. Tell us your name, what you do and what inspired you to do such ?

Greg Rivera. Operations Director/Co-Owner of Mishka. The idea of doing your own thing is I think the ultimate goal of any artist.

2. Tell us about your roots coming up as a youth in the Florida Emo violence scene?

It started at a show from this pop-punk/ska (ska-punk) band called Slaptick (no not SLAPSHOT the sXe band). The singer was talking about the 1996 Olympics and how they were “cleaning” up the city to get rid of all the homeless people and whatnot. They said if you wanted to get involved in doing something about it, you could contact your local food not bombs. I had no idea what that was, but found out there was a chapter in Orlando. I called them up (this is pre-email days) and went out to help them cook. I was pretty much into pop-punk at the time. Way into a local band called Prospect: Zero, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Pinhead Gunpowder, 7 seconds, shit like that. Probably the most brutal stuff that I owend, was only a 7” from FILTH, and I bought that cause it was on lookout! records.

My first time at this girl Tori’s house, I met this dude Jason who played guitar for this Florida band called Reversal of Man. He asked me what bands I was into, and then proceeded to ask me if I had heard The Locust, Union of Uranus, In/Humanity, or Palatka. I was pretty much floored. Not only were some of the coolest band names that I ever heard, they became some of the most influential music in my life.

After that I started a band, saw some amazing shows, and had some amazing times. That scene pretty much made me what i am today. Funny thing is, a lot of people that work/worked for MISHKA were big in that whole scene. Ron was in a band called Devola and our boy Erik was in Jeromes Dream.

3 Is there is any truth to the rumor that you worked at taco bell to get yourself through college instead of becoming a male stripper?

I DID work at Taco Bell my junior and Senior year of high school. I actually became Vegan while I was working there. I also met my band mates. These two kids came in decked on in shirts that I knew they had bought from Felix von Havoc. I remember first buying shit from that dude. Crazy bootleg tapes like Seige, Mob 47, Wretched, and live Crass shows. Crazy Shit. I never was a male stripper but my roomate and I almost started selling his used underwear on ebay. For a while, if you typed in “wrestler, underwear” all these auctions would come up with dudes selling thier used underwear and making up crazy stories. Like, I wore these last week while wrestling, and shit like that. Some used underwear was going for like 40, 50, 60 bucks. I figured we could buy thrift store underwear and then sell it. Pretty soon after the idea, Ebay banned auctions selling used underwear. Go figure!

4 How did the collab with JK5 come about? Tell us about the production process.

I first saw JK5’s art at a show at Alife in 2003. He did this crazy assemblage show with this other amazing artist Sucklord (suckadelic). JK5 met a couple of years later, and began to talk about everything stupid pop culture. We ended moving into a studio on Roebling and JK5 moved into the new Saved tattoo downstairs. We just started talking, meeting, and building. The project actually began officially about one year ago! The process included hours and hours, days, and months of meetings. 2 trips to china! Numerous meetings, beggings, pleadings with New Era, and whole lot of beer fuel.

5. This is the part where you can big up or diss anything you desire.

oh shit, what the fuck would happen if i dissed someone/something here. Man-o-man, man-o-war! Fuck those kids for making fun of my Mcgregor sneakers on my bus in 2nd grade, whatever I am over that. I dont like to hate, or diss really. At least not in a public forum. Actually who is reading this? I always have to big up King Stampede, Fying Coffin, Actual Pain, Amulet of the Bloody Goblin, as far as brands grow. some of the nicest dudes I have met of recently or got a better chance to hang out with, Jasper from Rouge Status, Eric from Fuct, Joshy from rebel eight. JK5, nasty PI one, gnarled mummy, crypt witch, dust ape, bad ronald, my MISHKA family, ease, mike jones, bortnik, Brian Pan, Crazy Mike, mr. ziti, ty “cheesecake” morales, Trouble and Bass Crew, everyone, that supports us all over the globe, yes yes, jah bless

And Because we ordered so much stuff from Mishka, Greg agreeded to answer a special Bonus Question.

6 Tell us about your Mr. T years

My hardcore mr.t collecting started in about 1996. Shit has been slow of late, but its still going on. My friend and I mike essl have combined the largest collection of Mr.T memrobilia in the world. You can check out some of the collection www.mrtandme.com , even though we haven’t updated in like 2 years. We are about to speak to a class of 3rd grades about our mr.t collection, that should be fun. Kids stay in school!


Thanks to Greg and the rest of the Mishka Camp. They are doing it. Check out their entire Spring Drop on Boundless NY.