5-08-2023 4:05am

TOWSON PUNK BAND

How Hardcore Punk Musicians Learned to Love the Gym

Henry Rollins created the archetype of the extremely jacked hardcore frontman, and new-school bands like Turnstile are pumping iron to follow suit.

By Luke Ottenhof, GQ

Illustration by Michael Houtz; photographs by Getty Images

Brendan Yates and Daniel Fang of the hardcore band Turnstile had crossed paths at shows growing up in Maryland’s hardcore scene, but it wasn’t until their first year of college, in 2009, that they became good friends. Drinking was the default activity at Towson University, just north of Baltimore, but neither of them were partiers, so, outside of listening to hardcore records, they found another hobby: lifting weights.

A mutual friend showed them the basics, and soon their time was divided between going to hardcore shows around Baltimore and working out. “That whole era of our lives was formative because we were just changing every day, in the actual physical transformation of exploring lifting weights and the progress of becoming a different person physically, and then consuming so much music and meeting so many people in Baltimore,” Fang tells me. “We were just living for lifting weights and being as creative as possible.”

Yates and Fang, who both played drums, proudly put on the Freshman 15, but in muscle. By the end of their first year, Yates was filling in on drums for Baltimore hardcore legends Trapped Under Ice. In 2010, the pair started their band, which went on to crack mainstream charts, sell out shows around the world, earn three Grammy nominations, and generally led a hardcore renaissance in pop culture. Yates and Fang are also carrying the flag for another time-tested hardcore punk tradition: being incredibly jacked.

Hardcore punk’s reputation as a literal stomping ground for muscular dudes started sometime after 1981, when Henry Rollins FINISH READING HERE