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1 ноя 2025

CRO-MAGS' HARLEY FLANAGAN: 'I'm Making Some Of My Best Music' Right Now
 In a new interview with George Miller of United Kingdom's Devolution Magazine, CRO-MAGS founder Harley Flanagan discussed the feature documentary "Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos", which charts his tumultuous life and survival. Asked if Flanagan's early life — which consisted of childhood neglect and sexual abuse as well as drugs, violence and PTSD — is what ultimately fueled the CRO-MAGS' hardcore sound, Harley said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't know, man, because my life is pretty fucking good now, I gotta say, and I'm making some of my best music. But I can't eradicate one from the other because I still had those experiences. So I may not be living that same exact struggle at this point in my life. Nonetheless, I still struggle with those exact same experiences. [Laughs] They still echo in my brain… as I try to move forward in life. Because, quite honestly, when you have PTSD, it's like sometimes being in a peaceful environment is almost more torture than being in the chaos because in the chaos you feel a certain sense of, 'This is my comfort zone. I'm in a state of fight or flight.' When there's no fight or flight, you find your mind racing to a place to create it. So sometimes calm can be more difficult than a war when you're raised in battle."
Flanagan also talked about his songwriting process, saying: "A lot of the stuff is actually written in the studio. Typically I'll go in with half the songs kind of formulated and the other half will just kind of happen, and then I'll just move a couple parts around, but that'll be the basis of the song. In fact, I find more often than not, those are the songs that come out the best because they're just burning; they're coming out right then and there. And then the good thing to do is to freestyle some vocals or whatever, and then come back to them and revisit them later with actual lyrics, and take it from there."
He added: "My process is still evolving. Who knows? Maybe that's why I haven't had any real success, because I haven't stuck to a formula long enough for people to sink their teeth into it. I don't know. But do you wanna be a successful artist or do you want to be a satisfied artist?"
Asked how he defines success, Harley said: "Success, for me, is… I appreciate the woman that I am married to every day, all day, all the time. And my kids are young adult men now and doing well, and I've survived through already things that would've broken a lot of people. So I feel super successful because I married someone that really complements everything in my life so perfectly, and my kids are growing up to be strong, well-rounded young men who are figuring things out. And that makes me proud of that. And fuck, man, if that ain't success, I don't know what is."
"Wired For Chaos" arrived in theaters this past June. A trailer for the film can be seen below.
Flanagan burst on to the punk music scene at the age of 11 in the late 1970s as drummer for his aunt's New York-based band THE STIMULATORS, later founding the seminal hardcore act CRO-MAGS. Flanagan tells his inconceivable story through gritty footage of NYC's downtown 1970s and '80s music scene as the backdrop, alongside stories from friends and peers like Flea, Ice-T, Henry Rollins, Michael Imperioli, members of BAD BRAINS, BEASTIE BOYS, CIRCLE JERKS, ANTHRAX and many others.
While Harley's journey as a musician is certainly explored, "Wired For Chaos" centers on the lasting effects of trauma and its integration into his present-day life. Harley Flanagan was a child prodigy musician, who raised himself in the very adult world of rock 'n' roll. He was born to a Warhol Factory "it" girl, enmeshed in the Lower East Side artist sub-culture of the late '70s and '80s, surrounded by copious amount of sex, drugs and violence (as victim and later perpetrator),simultaneously achieving punk rock legend status.
In addition to touring with his band CRO-MAGS all over the world, today Harley Flanagan is also a jiu-jitsu professor (under the tutelage of Master Renzo Gracie),devoted husband (having married a Park Avenue attorney),the father of two sons and a deeply introspective human. He confronts his past, hoping that it can bring him some peace, and pass what he's learned forward to others struggling. Though he has moved on from the violence of his youth, it is never far away as he works through his very pronounced PTSD. His primal instincts to survive remain sharp. The film is built around a vast archive of material, scenes with Harley and his friends, several intimate interviews with Harley and his wife, and abstract imagery and animation.
Harley's childhood with iconic artists (Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Joe Strummer, Alan Ginsburg) looks enviable on the surface, but ultimately his DNA is riddled with the trauma of abuse and sexual violence, laying the groundwork for an unstable adolescence and rocky young adulthood.
The career of filmmaker Rex Miller, who directed "Wired For Chaos", spans more than 25 years and has yielded two Peabody Awards, several Emmys and two Oscar shortlists. He recently directed (with Sam Pollard) the film "Citizen Ashe" (CNN Films),which won "Best Documentary" at both the 2022 Critics Choice and Grierson Awards and was nominated for a Sports Emmy for "Best Feature Documentary".
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