“I was just like ‘OK, this is a girl zine, this is gonna be great. I was being really sarcastic about it because I really like to focus on the inclusiveness of things,’” says Skeiky, who also works in food PR. “My ideal is always, ‘Why doesn’t every zine just have more female contributions?’”

But Skeiky eventually warmed up to the idea because Scharbach and Martinez had a strict rule: female-identified contributors only.

John Scharbach — better known as Crucial John, the vocalist of D.C. hardcore band Give — has spearheaded other zines before. He met Martinez, an artist and then-prospective American University student, at a Give show in her home state of Florida. He dug her art, so Scharbach advised Skeiky (an occasional Bandwidth contributor) to follow Martinez on Instagram.

Skeiky tapped “follow,” and out of this 21st century friendship, a 20th century zine emerged.

Skeiky took all the photos for Strawberry Dreams, mostly of live performances from punkish bands like Gouge Away, Downtown Boys and D.C.’s Sneaks and Priests. Martinez contributed a heap of drawings and a piece of writing, which opens the zine. Crucial John, the token man, handled layout and passed out the final product while touring Europe with Give.

“I think it’s important for everybody to consume media that makes them kind of uncomfortable.” —Farrah Skeiky

“I think it’s really good that [Crucial John] was part of this idea because he’s just being a really good male ally to women in the scene,” says Skeiky. “He’s setting a really good example — he’s not using his voice in the scene, which is a pretty strong one, to decide what should be in it. He’s using his voice [for] something everybody should be reading regardless of their gender.”

The zine’s founders stress that while Strawberry Dreams skews female-identified, they think everyone can — and should — read it. Skeiky points out that while cultural products created by men are considered open to all audiences, products made by women are often seen as specialized, or for women only.

“I think it’s important for everybody to consume media that makes them kind of uncomfortable,” Skeiky says, “because it means that you’re reading about something that you don’t know a lot about… or something that [makes you] realize you feel guilty [because] you haven’t given it much thought.”

Skeiky, Martinez and Crucial John plan to produce more issues of Strawberry Dreams this fall — with Issue No. 2 expected to arrive in the next month — and they’ll keep the finished product short and free of charge. After that, they may reevaluate both the zine’s size and cost. They say they’ve already been flooded with submission inquiries, so serious growth could arrive seriously soon.

The team’s distribution plan is a wonderful mix of old- and new-school: They distribute hard copies at shows, while folks with the digital PDF version are encouraged to email it far and wide.

The zine’s aesthetic is clearly influenced — like a lot of subculture right now — by the 1990s. But Skeiky and her partners (who have only been in the same room once, at a recent Ceremony show) want to go broader.

“There’s no denying that we’re not influenced by older punk zines, especially older riot grrrl kind of zines,” says Skeiky. “But we also recognize that there were a lot of things missing at the time from early riot grrrl zines, because that feminism was primarily for white women… and feminism can mean different things to different women.”

Hard copies of Strawberry Dreams are available at Joint Custody, Upshur Street Books, Smash Records and Meats & Foods. To get a copy in the mail, email your mailing address to strawberrydreamsfanzine@gmail.com. The zine’s second issue is forthcoming.

Strawberry Dreams Fanzine: Issue No. 1

WAMU is licensed to American University.

The magazine is deliberately pocket-sized, says its creator, Maryland resident Vicente Gutierrez. But its first issue, which came out in October, is thick with content ranging from archival band photos to long-form interviews with people on the fringes of independent music — some of whom don’t actually make music.

Gutierrez says he’s particularly interested in those folks in the background, like music photographers and writers.

“I decided to start the magazine because I felt there was a need to include these other voices,” the publisher writes in an email. “They are just as valuable in the way we experience music culture. All of these personalities feed into a ‘scene.’ And in a way, our comprehensive experience is a life with music, which is one key facet of the magazine’s editorial approach.”

While HIGHWAY is technically a D.C.-area publication — Gutierrez, 33, is from and lives in Montgomery County — the magazine embraces both local and global culture. Its debut issue covered Los Angeles’ KCHUNG radio, German-born composer Hildegard Westerkamp and Yugoslavian new wave and punk, but it also tossed in an essay from D.C. rock ‘n’ roll icon Ian Svenonius and an interview with photographer Glen E. Friedman, who logged many hours shooting photos of legendary D.C. bands.

“Since I’m from D.C., I always like to include something from the D.C. area,” Gutierrez writes.

Gutierrez has contributed to music publications like Wire and Pitchfork and worked as an editor at a media studio, and he’s spent a lot of time living, working and studying abroad. He moved back to the area to hunker down and work on HIGHWAY, which he’s been doing since the summer of 2012. But he wanted to ensure that his new project would reach an audience far beyond the beltway. That’s why HIGHWAY also has a mobile app.

“There’s always talk about how widespread smartphones have become, and there’s also talk about how people stare at their phones all the time, peering into the cyberspace matrix,” Gutierrez writes. “I thought it’d be a good idea to get the magazine in the iPhone as a simple app, which would allow us to deploy the issue and have it reach more and more people.”

The app, which is a bare-bones presentation of the magazine, helps offset the downsides of print — namely steep international shipping costs, a major obstacle to distribution.

One thing HIGHWAY doesn’t try to do is mimic the blogosphere, with its frantic coverage of super-current bands. That’s not Gutierrez’s focus.

“One reason why we decided to not cover the most current acts is because it’s a fervent conversation already happening in a number of vibrant outlets,” Gutierrez writes. “Independent music couldn’t ask for more. As a publication, the focus shifted because I didn’t feel we could add anything to that conversation.”

HIGHWAY‘s own conversation is slated to continue this summer, when Gutierrez plans to release Issue No. 2. He says he’s hard at work on it now.

“Publishing twice a year gives us time to evaluate and present stories which we feel are worthwhile and able to provoke thought and trigger conversation,” Gutierrez writes. “The publication is meant to be a conversation starter, and that’s one reason why we made it pocket-size — so you can bring it with you.”

HIGHWAY is for sale at Smash! Records and Som Records in D.C.

Second image by Sebastian Mayer with Beastie Boys photo by Glen E. Friedman.

In recent years, academia has taken notice of DIY culture both past and present. This week, the University of Maryland announced that they were in the process of creating a “D.C. Punk and Indie Fanzine Collection” as part of their Special Collections in Performing Arts program. Curators Vincent J. Novara and John Davis recently fielded a few questions about this unique collection for Bandwidth.

What role do you think fanzines have played in documenting independent music in the last 30 years?

VINCENT: The fanzine is an ideal primary source to understand what was happening during that span, especially to learn about artists other than those with sustaining legacies. The enthusiasts who created the fanzines frequently prove eye-witness accounts to the events, trends, and practices as they developed. Plus, there are many unpublished and rare photographs of artists, shows, and spaces.

What’s the future for fanzines? What effect has the Internet had on self-publishing?

JOHN: Zine culture is still thriving. I don’t see as many music-based fanzines anymore, though they’re still out there. Fanzines now seem a little more about documenting personal and political aspects of the community. DC has an annual zine fair and the appeal of fanzines still holds strong, I think.

Because the word implies that their “fan” driven, some could infer they’re less than critical. But in my mind, fanzines aren’t beholden to advertisers so they can be as critical as they want. Fair assessment?

VINCENT: That is my assumption, and I have certainly read vicious criticism in zines. But, when someone creates a zine to celebrate an artist, sure, the objectivity is lost. When someone creates a zine to comment on the happenings in a genre or a scene, they have greater license to express what they feel.

What makes somebody want to start a fanzine?

VINCENT: For some people, it’s their best way to be involved. They might not have any musical ability, or zero interest in performing in front of people, and creating a zine is their contribution. Pre-Internet, this was of importance equal to those people who organized shows, started labels, took photos, etc. It was another vital branch on the tree of independent culture. And, of course, there were people (like McPheeters) who did all of it.