You guys have been together for about ten years now, right, so do you find it easier or more difficult to reinvent yourselves in your music, as far as new ideas or writing styles?

I think when a band starts out there is usually a bit of a golden period when the combination of individuals is fresh and untested so you kind of explode out of the gate with a bunch of ideas sparked from the newness of interaction. After a while you kind of get accustomed to certain tendencies from each other so you may have to work a bit harder to undercut your own expectations.....with our group I think its never been super easy to write new songs mainly because all four of us contribute to the writing, so each piece kind of has to run a gauntlet with each member taking whacks at the thing. A great majority of the songs don’t survive the hazing, but we do work really hard at pushing ourselves to a different space each time - we kind of like trying to mutate the signature.

I read an interview with Ian once where he said that you guys basically “handcraft the songs,” how exactly do you guys come up with new song ideas?

We basically get into writing modes where we sequester ourselves in whatever basement we’re practicing in, we moved from Ian’s to my parent’s to Brendan’s and now most recently we are in Joe’s, and play like 4 or 5 hours a day, 4 days a week. Basically, each of us will throw pieces at each other and we’ll work through them, combining, rearranging, discarding, resurrecting, etc. the same as all bands. Occasionally, someone will have a song completely written and arranged that it will survive intact without that much editing, but more typically all songs get fully imprinted by all the members. I think a lot of people probably don’t realize how much of the actual bass and guitar parts are written by Brendan for example - everyone can write for everyone else. That is for the music - lyrics on the other hand are more of a private affair with whoever sings the song being responsible for those lyrics.

Are there any bands out there now, whether from D.C. or not, that you take interest into?

Yeah, right now in D.C. there are a ton of bands old and new that I think are pretty killer. For example, there is Quix-o-tic who just played out on the road with us for 5 days who I think are amazing. They should have a record out soon. Also, the Cranium and Crom-tech are astonishing ground breakers. I could go on and on with Make-Up, Lungfish, The Stigmatics, Deep Lust, etc. As far as out of towners I would recommend Blonde Redhead from NYC - I just worked on a record with them whiich will be out in September on Touch and Go - it is totally epic.

How do you see the D.C. scene now as compared to your days with the Rites of Spring, back in the early to mid 1980’s?

It would be pretty hard to compare them because in the Rites of Spring I was a completely manical 19 years old and everything hit my consciousness in an extreme and raw fashion. Now at 32, with a lot of time under under the belt as it were, my perspective is all elongated and stretchy...I mean in some ways ways I think not much has changed - I mean groups still form, they still provide wild inspiration, they still break up cataclysmically, I mean all those processes still remain. The underground network and musical community is still really strong. But there is a difference that really has to do with historical forces and the weird mass media communications assault of the 1990’s. I mean in the early 80’s the ambitions were really localized to a degree - there was never any sense of an overground or industry interest, so shit happened in a kind of idyllic do it yourself netherworld - there was a real sense of a rival culture underneath the rest of the world’s radar. Though I think there still is and always will be strong underground activity, in a real way things got disrupted by the glaring focus and lacerating influence of corporate attentions. I don’t want to cry too long and hard over the wrecking of the playhouse because there is more pressing work to be done but looking back it is hard to ignore the differences.

Was there anything in particular that was different between doing “End Hits” and any of your previous records?

Really the main difference was how long it took us to record and complete it. Generally in the past we would do our records in quick bursts from between 4 days to 2 weeks, but rarely longer. Last year though everything was really scrambled. We had a bunch of tours to make up due to cancellations and postponements brought about by Ian’s having had a lung collapse on tour in Australia and the subsequent six months recuperation period. At the same time our drummer Brendan was getting married and having a kid so there was a lot of breaks in the recording process. We started in March and didn’t finish till December with tours and stuff taking us away at every juncture. Still, it probably worked in our favor - the record has an interesting feel as a result. We really got the chance to fine tune it and make it just like we wanted.

What life experiences have you learned through making music with Fugazi and your entire experience since being with the band, has it taught you to look at life differently?

Well for the last eleven years it has basically been my life. There is not a single thing in my experience that has not been affected by what it means to be in this group.

Your lyrics, where do they stem from, and what do you want kids to get most out of the music?

I am kind of a reluctant lyricist - a lot of people have notebooks jammed with scribblings, fragments, etc. but i am completely not like that. To get me to write anything down is orthodontal teeth pulling. So when I get an idea for a song together I am pretty thankful and just try to massage it into shape. Its funny we get two basic criticisms about our lyrics - either that they are too obtuse to be understood or that they are too specific and dogmatic. The criticisms are completely contradictory and self-cancelling so I don’t know what to think. I just write them, if people get something out it I’ve succeeded - if they don’t I’ve failed. I can deal with it either way.

Literature, do you take interest in it, or even art, do they influence you in any manner, and how?

Yeah, I read tons, I love movies, museums in D.C. are all free - it’s all grist for the mill.

What is the whole touring experience for you like, obviously ups and downs, but how does it influence you?

I am a big fan of the touring experience - in the time we’ve been in Fugazi we’ve got to play all fifty states in the U.S., nineteen countries in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina. These are all places I probably would have never had the chance to visit otherwise and the impact of the travel has been major. It’s weird because physically the toll is pretty intense - you really have to learn how to detonate on stage night after night and always respect the music and the moment even if say your stomach is distended with a giardic infection or your voice is strained to straw sized radius or you broke your nose on the mic stand base or whatever. It’s really quite the learning experience.