Over the past decade and change, Damian Abraham, lead singer of Canadian band Fucked Up, has become a public conduit for punk music, pro wrestling, and pot. With scores of reports covering cannabis, wrestling, and society-at-large, it’s difficult not to acknowledge his contributions over the years. At the same time, awards like the 2009 Polaris Music Prize and various MTV set-destroying performances have helped cement Fucked Up as an act loved by fans and respected by music peers.
Subcultures including but not limited to punk, cannabis, and pro wrestling are a particular interest of Abraham’s. He calls the groups “communities that exist without the conventional societal push for them to exist.”
Abraham spoke to High Times soon after Fucked Up wrapped its most recent U.S. tour—touching on topics including plant education, cannabis culture, and the overlap between the subcultures he holds dear.
From Straight Edge to Cannabis Enthusiast
Before punk and the plant came into Abraham’s life, there was pro wrestling. As a kid, he recalls being the only one captivated by Wrestlemania 2 while at a friend’s birthday party. The isolated fandom would continue for years.
“It felt like something I did on my own,” he recalled. That wasn’t the case with pot and music.
By 14, he and a group of friends were smoking a bit of weed while being self-described “shit disturbers” in the Toronto area. A minor run-in with the cops forced Abraham to step away from his friends at his family’s insistence. Despite being terrible at sports, he was sent to a sports camp to become a counselor. While there, he met a similarly minded counselor-in-training.
The eventual friend hit all the marks for Abraham: He was into Sonic Youth, graffiti, and also smoked weed. Pot took a backseat to …
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Author: Andrew Ward / High Times
