Amy Spencer has just published 'DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture,' a chubby little paperback that documents a vast world of zines, music, history, culture, people and, well, so much more. There's a bit of me in there too. Here's what she said about the whole kit and caboodle:

So what do you mean by DIY?
I mean the process of creating and producing something (a zine, a book, a record, a film, anything) on your own terms. I see it as a way of working that is more to do with communicating with other people in a way than necessarily about making money. It's about doing something just because you want to see it happen. But that's just what I think, everyone has a different idea.

What's the value of lo-fi culture?
To me, lo-fi culture is a rejection of the idea that you need to be professional about what you do for it to have value. You can record a song on an old tape recorder and I think it can be as great as a song that costs thousands of pounds to produce. You can write your own blog, publish your own zine or newspaper using the resources you have and it can still be a valuable contribution. And it can be more exciting too.

How did you come to write this book?
I think I just realised that this book didn't already exist. There are books on zines, and punk and pirate radio and mail art but nothing specifically connecting the strands of DIY culture together. Nothing really considered the nature of lo-fi and DIY culture. I realised that everything was connected, that different groups had been repeating the same ideas and ways of working for years and I wanted to figure it all out.

How did you manage to get such a snazz publisher? And how come you didn't make the book a DIY project? Or maybe it is. Please tell.
When I realised that no one would give me a job in publishing, I thought it might be easier to try and write a book myself. So I approached a publisher who seemed pretty cool, and accepted proposals, with the idea for this book and they said that they liked it. That was very exciting and unexpected.

Why wasn't the book a DIY project? Well, there are two reasons for that. Firstly, I really didn't have the money to self-publish a book. A zine I can do, but not a whole book. Secondly, I think that it is really important for information about underground activities such as zine writing and independent record labels, and movements like riot grrrl and queercore, to reach as wide an audience as possible. Independent music and publishing scenes can be pretty elitist and very difficult to find out about. I think that what I have experiences and learned from taking part was pretty vital to me and so would love something similar for other people.

I liked the way your books draws connections between things that are separated by time and space, like Dada and Cometbus, Mother Jones and Sniffin Glue. It shows that DIY is evolving, that it never really goes away. Could you say a little bit about that please?
That's exactly what made me want to write this book. The original idea was just to focus on DIY movements of the nineties, until I realised that there were all these connections with what people had been doing previously. I hadn't realised that zine writing began with sci-fi zines in the 1930s or how close the visual style of punk zines was to the Dada art zines or even thought about how confessional riot grrrl zines seem to pre-empt the web journal. I really do believe that DIY culture is evolving, while at the same time aspects of it stays the same. People always seem to feel the urge to create something for themselves and often without realising it are making something that resembles something from the past. This doesn't make it dull or predictable, I think it makes their statement stronger.

Did you meet GB Jones? What was she like? I've had a crush on her for years.
No, unfortunately I didn't get to meet G B Jones. She lives in Canada so we had to just email each other. She seems really cool and was incredibly helpful. A good choice for a person to have a crush on.

What did you leave out?
I really had to cut down what I wanted to write about simply because I ran out of room. The book could easily have been twice the size and still not have covered everything. But then it would have been a pretty expensive book. There were so many things that I left out. I had planned to write about visual art and film but that had to be cut. I wanted to write about comics. I also wanted to write more about the connection between DIY and protest movements. It was a shame, but I realised that I couldn't cover everything. It is such a huge subject, much bigger than I had first thought.

What are your favourite zines?
The like the personal story-selling kind of zines. If they are well-written you can feel really connected to the writer, like Cometbus and Dishwasher Pete. I also like old riot grrrl zines for nostalgic reasons.

I think that at its worst, the DIY scene can be terribly whitey and middle class. What do you think?
I have always thought that it's strange that the DIY scene is that way. It has so much potential as a way of working with limited resources. I do understand that it often takes a certain privilege to have the time and resources to work on a DIY project, something that is not often concerned with making money. It is a luxury to be able to spend time working on a project, making a zine or a record, without being concerned about making a profit. It is a shame that the DIY scene appears narrow in terms of those who take part but is part of a much bigger problem.

What's next for you?
Well, I am supposed to be working on my PhD (on London in contemporary literature) so will do that for a while. But I do tend to have various plans on the go at the same time. Hopefully, there will be some more events from The Bakery soon. Also, my friend Ilona and I have just started Crafternoon (a craft club in the afternoon, with a wide selection of cake for sale). That's held on the last Sunday of every month at 2-6pm at the Pleasure Unit, Bethnal Green Road. Everyone should come to that.

Buy DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture by Amy Spencer

Oh yeah, I do zines too