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The interview began with Ian explaining how to pronounce his name correctly…
ian: 'There's a really funny story about a kid who was travelling with Verbal Assault and telling them that he was my half brother but then he pronounced his last name wrong and so he got found out'
q: What have you been up to since the release of The Argument?
ian: 'We did a lot of travelling last summer which we had to get out of the way because Joe our bass player was about to become a Dad'
q: Do you see yourself as fighting the system?
ian: 'If you don't do exactly what the system wants, you immediately become a system fighter. It's a very pleasant side effect of doing things yourself'
q: You were a big Ted Nugent fan which seems odd to many people.
ian: 'When I think about it, it makes sense to me. In the mid to late 70s Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith were junkies and Ted's thing was about rock hard and just get out there. Take a look at video tape of Led Zeppelin in '76 and Ted Nugent in '76 and see who looks most alive. (Ted) was rocking and he worked hard'
q: What triggered you to make Minor Threat?
ian: 'I was looking for meaning and I thought people were looking to change things… My parents were involved in anti-war and anti-government movements and to me that's normal to question authority, and to look out for people rather than profit. By the late 70s most people at my college wanted to just get high and go to college'
'At first punk rock just looked like a trivial fashion thing but once I started listening… my reaction to The Sex Pistols was that it scared the s*** out of me.'
q: Was it the British bands that got you into it?
ian: 'The very first band was a band from DC called White Boy; it was like art Rock. The Sex Pistols, Jam, The Clash, Tough Darts and Generation X were all in the first batch of records I listened to. The first band I saw was in January '79. I saw The Cramps and it was just incredible'
'It was everything that I'd looked for in music. They were challenging conventions at all levels. A room of revolution and it just blew my mind'
'A lot of music magazines are selling a lifestyle, and we don't want to be part of that'