Parenting & Family Quote by Daisy Berkowitz

Berkowitz is sketching a map of subculture America and then casually erasing the borders. In one breath she name-checks two scenes that used to posture as rivals - metalheads pledged to Iron Maiden’s gallop and theatrics, industrial kids chasing the cold grind of machines - and insists they’re not actually different species in the crowd. They’re simply tuning in to different frequencies of the same signal.

The intent is generous and strategic: a musician defending the band as a kind of open system. Instead of policing what “counts” as the correct way to listen, she frames fandom as interpretive. People “come for the same reason” (they like us), but what they take away is personal, almost modular. That phrasing quietly rejects the purist instinct that haunts heavy music: the idea that authenticity requires a single, approved reading.

The subtext is also about survival in a fragmented culture. By the late 80s and 90s, rock scenes were tribal, and a band’s identity could be narrowed by critics or genre gatekeepers. Berkowitz pushes back: the band isn’t trapped in one aisle at the record store. It can satisfy kids who want melody, spectacle, aggression, atmosphere, shock, catharsis - sometimes all at once.

Even the slightly tangled wording (“they different things”) works in her favor. It sounds like someone speaking from inside the van, not from a branding meeting. The point lands because it’s lived: the audience is plural, and the band’s power is its ability to be misread productively.