Interview / Andy Crysell / No Way Back

Launched in July of last year No Way Back is a music and culture magazine curated by Andy Crysell and Mark Maddox. The two friends have a huge amount of experience within the music and media industry, that began with roles at Blues & Soul, DJ, DMC, The Face, i-D, Muzik, and The NME. Issue 1 ran with the tag line “Better ways forward through music and subculture stories” and did exactly what it said on the tin – carefully compiling key archival articles from an exhaustive range of seminal publications – many of which were short-lived, most of which have since been lost. The texts themselves captured scenes before they were scenes, movements as they were emerging, in enthusiastic prose, and by preserving the original typography and layouts the magazine also allowed readers to see the nature of style magazines evolve. The first volume featured The Village Voice on graffiti, The New Statesman on Soul II Soul, and London’s then leading pirate radio station, Kiss FM. John Savage covers NYC…