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FUGAZI
A Family Affair

from the Ox fanzine, unauthorized translation by altavista
do not attribute anything written here to ian mackaye. for experimental purposes only.

Ian MacKaye was once the front man of MINOR THREAT, based with Dischord record one of the serve-oldest and most renowned labels and entangled the international scene 1987 with FUGAZI . I remember still exactly, how people after their first European route not even looked enthusiastically: the straighten hard core, which one had expected from the MINOR THREAT icon, FUGAZI did not offer , and as the time seemed whole to be ripe not yet for the vision of MacKaye to neglect Joe Lally, Brendan Canty and Guy Picciotto of a sound, which leaves the plates and standards of the US hard core behind itself, without its roots in more musical as idealistic regard. But these initial problems were forgotten soon already, and although to FUGAZI until today the usual marketing patterns refuse themselves - no t-Shirts, no expensive concerts, no interviews with the large commerce media -, had they - suddenly the time was very probably ripe for it - at the beginning of the nineties with "Waiting room" a hit, which was played in each alternative Disco. Although I do not know exact numbers, one can probably assume that since this high phase the myth FUGAZI cannot be fastened necessarily at high sales figures - and star of the caliber of AT THE DRIVE-IN, which always called FUGAZI models and for the music also ever more than only the music were, times evenly records sold one million. But while ATDI possibly proved as fast glowing Shooting star, FUGAZI is the exact opposite, the musical equivalent for the ecological principle of the lastingness: FUGAZI were and are and become its.
With the EP " Furniture NUMBERS 5 " as well as the album " The argument " acknowledged FUGAZI in October, and Ian MacKaye had a scarce Stuendchen time to converse with me over FUGAZI and Dischord and the impact on the pentagon.

Q: Ian, it's been 3 years since your last album. That is quite a long time, since every few months the next big thing is announced, but FUGAZI always distinguished that it never depended on trends and marketing plans.

IAN: "in such a way I see it also. We do not have to worry, we have our own label. The band has been together for14 years, we always did everything how we wanted, and in a certain way it is a luxury, but on the other hand it also has a pleasant side effect, if one is all D.I.Y."

Q: Are you worried about getting publicity? Other bands bring an album each year and are constantly on the stages - you not.

IAN: "that is not my concern, I don't overthink it. We make music, we document that and publish it - and if that interests someone, beautiful, if not, all the same. My thinking does not move in terms of "reestablishing" FUGAZI or winning new fans. That has nothing at all to do with how I think of music. Music is a style of the human spirit, which is older than the spoken language. Some humans are now in the position, music is to be created, others want to be heard, and sometimes they are the same people. We are a band, we are friends, it make for us fun to play together, we see it as a challenge to make music and the world in which we live, drives us to make music. And it is beautiful to see that there are people, who are interested in us there outside in the world. We hope that our music inspires different people, as we were inspired by other musicians."

Q: And how does FUGAZI fit into a world, original and creative, but above all marketable products?

IAN: "I think, that I am no new phenomenon, although I have the feeling that the commercialization continued to itself accelerate in the last years. On the other hand the world was also never free from people, which exploit a thing to their own use. Primarily each particular band has to decide for itself, how close to get. An example: there are people who see your magazine, a magazine with high glossy cover, and their opinion is a sellout of the scene, in which you operate, because you also are against cash and so on. The point is that always possibly who deplores itself over something. Now the alleged commercialization of our scene concerns: ten years ago it was surely just as many bands as today, which somehow tried to create the break-through. Only those did not sound necessarily like music in which we're interested. Then there was a phase, where this agreement was quite available, to penetrate as the major labels tried to get into our scene or at least they strongly approached us. Today is already different again, but basically it is no matter to me, because this band is not interested. Everyone must decide on which base it wants to operate, what is for the best. Me personally, I would be very concerned if I had a big record contract.. For me that is not an option, for others it is. However, I can only make decisions for me, not them."

Q: And how does the band see it?

IAN: "it was not ever our thing to expose the errors or omissions others. We fight with our own personalities instead."

Q: your album was already recorded last winter, naturally like always in Inner Ear Studio with Don Zientara. How do you operate generally?

IAN: "there is no normal methodology. However we took longer than usual this time. The principal reason was that Joe Lally, our bassist, and his wife Antonia had a baby at the beginning of the sessions. That threw our schedule completely over the heap, because planned only the record was to be finished at home completely and then extensively on route be gone, into the spring and summer. The baby was announced for September, so we stopped playing shows in July. And so we had to again check all dates, so that we get everything regulated, with the effect that we took up the recording over several sessions. We have the habit to always leave to us in the studio something time but I think, if one is for 14 years as band together, one sometime on the point arrived, where one wants to die no compromises and simply says themselves, we machenx27s exactly the same, as we think that it is correct. Apart from it to have we the Songs not only in December written and then in January taken up, but it partly already two or three years with us dragged. We took up it written, it arranged, it at home, thought again for a long time about them and finally tried to produce in the studio a definite version. That can for hours discuss sometimes already almost something nerves, even if we in the studio, how a Song is to be. Sometimes I have already the feeling, we are somewhat privileged that we can waste our time with such a thing. You also have moments where you stare for a half hour out the window before you type a record. One needs some easy time, in order to prepare for something to concentrate and with us it is like that in the studio: we must achieve the point, where it is a pleasant feeling, the emergence process of a new album. And finally the result counts: if the record pleases you, it's worth the wait."

Q: My general impression of the album is that it failed Inge including rather calmly.

IAN: "I can neither agree nor disagree with that. I write it, I do not think about it. We operated hard on this record, and it is very difficult for me to reconstruct, how the result of our hard work affects others. You about hear the record and hear all Songs together for the first time and I already know it by heart. A comparison: you meet a family for the first time. The five children are in the age from 5 to 20, and then talk to someone who knew them growing up. You are just seeing a snapshot of what the ohther person sees. My position opposite the album is thus completely a different one than yours, I am in the position of a father."

Q: A very beautiful comparison. Speaking of children: Was Joe's child the first in the FUGAZI family?

IAN: "No, third, Brendan has already two children. Another reason this album took a little longer. Brendan's first son was born in 1998, second one year later, and we give to parents as much time as possible. That is the reason why we as a band do not obligate ourselves too much, it depends on Joe and his wife, when it is again time for the band. That does not mean that the band isn't working: we nevertheless constantly meet, make together music, try this and that. That is very important to us also all, because the first ten years were constant tours, we were each year six months on the road and the band was a large part of our life. In 1996/97 it changed: I became ill in Australia, had a pneumonia and stayed two weeks in the hospital, then some of our parents were ill, Brendan and Michelle had their first child - we had to suddenly state that the "normal" life knocks quite violently on our door. And so decided we that after ten years in which the band was a large part of our life, now the band is just a section of our life. May be that things run more slowly now, but we have the liberty to do so in our situation. So perhaps it lasts a few months, until we decide what the next step is, but it becomes clear in a natural process. Because we know, if we exert pressure on us or the band, the result could be nothing. Everyone must feel good about the situation, that is the most important."

Q: Sounds like a good prescription to keep a band together for 15 years: a natural rhythm, no obligations.

IAN: "I think that it's not for everyone and in all areas of life it would be a bad thing. But I must point out that we, if we are not on tour do not under any circumstances waste our time on the golf course. We all have a job: Joe has a label, Tolotta records, Guy has a label, Peterbuilt records, and produces other bands, I have the Dischord label, and Brendan makes music for TV Documentaries and plays for other musicians. In addition comes the work, which in such a way brings band with itself, which one may not underestimate genuinely. We do not have a manager, we have no Booking agent, we have no lawyer, but we make everything, and it explains perhaps also why we somtimes take longer. Like that I was busy last week to make the account of our last tour before it struck myself I with the health insurance of us four around, because our past health insurance broke went to be done and so on - it is always which. If it has thus the appearance, as if we could ourselves a break, then that refers alone not to sit times one while in the band bus."

Q: We speak about Dischord: I have the impression, the label follow the same principles as the band - a new record comes out if it comes, everything needs its time, and nobody is busy to carry aggressive A&R work out and find new bands.

IAN: "I would say your estimate is absolutely correct. I go through the label work exactly the same like the work with the band. The label was always the creative medium for a special Community here in Washington D.C. - a Community, which is at times larger and at times smaller, at times more actively and at times fewer actively and this is reflected in the output of the label. times a whole set of band and release, then do not resolve themselves again band and it appear new records, then that is even. And well possible that the thing achieves a natural terminator point also sometime: the flat I not, that should not be suggestion or threat, but I know evenly that everything ends somewhere sometime and is also like that correct. None of us ever understood the label as typical Business or as something which continues to grow forever. There is this conception in our western world that something ever further must grow, so that it is good, and if you continuously do not grow, you are dead."

Q: There is so a rule that a company must increase the conversion each year by 15% or it has a problem.

IAN: "and I must contradict this conception quite basically, and I believe that this thinking is also the cause of a lot of pain and suffering for many humans. That means that possibly who gets ever more during possibly who ever fewer it gets. That is bad. I have no problem with businesses making cash. But I have a problem with this constant urge after more and more and ever more cash. That is ill, and if the only reason for work is cash to earn, then that perverts the decisions, which you must make in artistic regard or also regarding business behavior. Then profit is the highest maxim and not creativity."

Q: Which you tell there me, covers yourself with what writes Craig O'Hara in his book "The Philosophy OF Punk", in which you are quoted.

IAN: "interesting, but I read basically no books in which I am quoted. You, I know participated at that time, there are heavy it to then get sowas in a book by someone else carried forward. Additionally has sowas always also which from an intending writing, but I am not dead."

Q: Do you have nostalgic feelings in view of the fact that since the MINOR THREAT days meanwhile 20 years passed and Punkrock celebrates its 25-year old anniversary?

IAN: "now, there are anniversaries for me: today it is on the day exactly 20 years ago, that I moved into the Dischord house. And first, which I make on this day, is to be led this interview with you. Am I nostalgic? No, it is not appropriate for me. The life actually fascinates me, I considers it important to know history because it is very important for what is situated before me. In navigation there is a procedure named "DEAD Reckoning", which my brother Alec explained to me. With his band THE WARMERS it had a Song with this title. to discover the so-called " new world " and at that time, when the sailors opened themselves, segelten it loosely, without knowing their target, and so they had also no reference points for navigation. And in such a way they oriented themselves at the asterisks behind itself, a procedure, which is called " DEAD Reckoning ": Experiences from the past use, so that they point in the future the way to one. In my life I apply this method to a good section, because I do not have a condemned idea, where the life leads me. I know only, where I now even am - because I look back. In order to return to your question: Nostalgia does not belong to the feelings, which I feel thereby, because I locked it with nothing in my past, I may not not pack and banish in the photo album certain episodes nicely. I live in the present, and all from the past accompanies me. If you ask me whether I am a Skateboarder, reads the response, and whether I am a Punkrocker, well clearly. Whether I regret possibly something, which I said in the past? Naturally not. Do I regret possibly a text? No! Am I too all to my texts? But surely. I do not have phases, which I went through and which then out and past were. And therefore I keep myself away also from books concerning music and Punkrock, which possibly contain also still passages over me, because those are in each case summaries, which compress the occurring at digestable breaking into, so that someone, which was not thereby which can reconstruct. That is okay, but I am not thereby through and can therefore regard, as if it would be somewhat final. Sometimes that is, it adjusts also with me sowas like nostalgia if I think approximately of all the great people, which I met in all the years, and gibtx27s then moments, where one it misses, with this or that one in the kitchen to set and talk. Moments, when the movement, to which we belong, was quite new and exciting. That means however finally also that I mean eyes keep open must, in order not to miss the next thing, the those the passed experience possibly resembles. "

Q: We speak of the future: You plan a DVD version of " instrument " as next publication, the FUGAZI Live documentary.

IAN: "Oh... Last week we got finally the final reference version from the masters. Before it there were still various small errors, which were corrected all, and in November the DVD will then be delivered. This DVD production was an enormous learning process, it one year used, until we had that finished. Thus one year, since we sent the band to the DVD Masterstudio. We had to improve and improve again and again, which was genuinly to is moved. It is evenly still a new format, with which the people do not have yet so much experience. When those was new CD on the market, was that exactly the same: completely at the beginning that was everything very expensively, only the large companies could so a production afford. But popular per and more common such a format will, the more favorably becomes a production and sinks finally on a price level, which also smaller companies can afford. Dischord needed at that time five years, until the first CD Title appeared. The problem with a DVD is that one must learn first times, how she functions, and it seems like that to be that many of the companies, which offer mastering of DVDs, with the format also are not so well familiar and likewise still learn. In former times we still like that drauf would have been that we also one would not then easily have rausgebracht yet perfect version, but after we had again improved six months always, we were not ready for the press release, as long as we are not content 100%. Now I am really done by the final result, and it was also simply a good learning effect. " Still is more at DVDs in planning? " I will near-dare myself next to a MINOR THREAT DVD, thus with the Live video. I still am on the search for suitable material to the Egaenzung. But that is still nothing concrete, I must times see, what from it becomes."

Q: How does your normal working day in the Dischord office look?

IAN: "strange. I rise usually quite early, so around seven. I have breakfast then together with Cynthia Connolly, which lives likewise here in the house also for Dischord operates and about the graduation worries, in addition, a very good fotografin is. Then I lead an interview with a German magazine, haha, as the first no, that am today an exception. Actually I hang all day long on the telephone and worry about the mountains of post office and eMails, which I get each day. Occasionally I sit still somewhat at the bookkeeping, go times evenly into the studio, and which results otherwise still in such a way. As you know are direct the Dischord house, where I live, on the other roadside of the office. I go thus constantly back and forth, and there is actually no " normal " working day, it occurred constantly which other one: I rise and go! It is always enough work there, and it is to be decided then at me, what must be really done and which can remain lying still somewhat. Last week was arranged I with someone of the health insurance, then came to the weekend a few people to attendance because of the peace march into which tone, I had my Dad still somewhat to help, I was here in the studio, over a SHUDDER TO THINK CD to remasters, and so on. " Will it give a republication there? ", and I am glad that we tackled. This CD is a good example of the problems, which there are in the starting days of a format: as we began to make DS, still quite differently gemastert, i.e. rather beschissen. We now decided, the DS, which sell themselves still well, gradually to rem asters. A friend has that very well drauf and makes also a good price, and there the sound is really much better, gives it a new version that SOULSIDE CD, SHUDDER TO of THINKs " Funeral RK The Movies " was now already last week to, and RITES OF SPRING is this week to. "

Q: You mentioned a while ago the peace march in Washington. Dischord is close to the center of power of the USA, how has the pentagon experience impacted you?

IAN: "the pentagon is not distant, one and a half kilometers from here. I got a call from a friend, who said that an airplane had fallen into the World trade center. Cynthia and I were about to switch the television on when my friend at the telephone, said another airplane hit the WTC. My first thought was that is amusing that possibly someone from the ground control made an error there. However when I saw the pictures on the television, it was clear to me that must be an impact of terror - and I switched the television off, because it was clear that something had occurred there, which will probably accompany us to to the end of our life. I had the feeling of being able to do nothing. And then, later, Joe Lally called me 15 minutes, the a few hundred meters from here lives and was completely resolved. He asked me whether I would have heard the explosion, and he told me that the airplane had flown directly over his house before it fell into the pentagon. We put on the television, saw the pictures of the burning pentagon, heard the message that eight airplanes are still missing, and switched the TV off again. I decided to dedicate me quite normally to my work because I could not detect that it brings possibly somewhat, the next hours before the television to hang - and it was clear that the whole thing would bring surely nothing property with itself. The impacts did not present themselves to me like a natural catastrophe, like an earthquake, a situation over which I did not have a check, over their Enstehung I no check had and over their consequences also. The situation is outside of the individual human's control. And thus I decided to answer some mail, because the phones were already overloaded, the roads closed. I dated all the mail 10 September, in order to establish the character of someone writing before the impacts. I did not turn on the television by the way in the days after, because it was clear to me, the transmissions would be full of consciously and unconsciously incorrect information and I didn't want it. I mean, it is unbelievable, what such humans do to themselves, but it is not the first time for acts of such unbelievable brutality and cruelty, and it will not be the last. If I had the power to change something, I as the first would ensure that the USA stop on other countries bombs to throw off. That is my opinion."

Ian, I thank you for the interview. Joachim Hiller