* * * * *
By Ben Gook for oz online
It seemed the end was approaching - an album entitled End Hits in 1998, a documentary focusing on ‘behind-the-scenes with Fugazi’ and then a disc of unreleased material in 1999. Even the band’s previously rigorous touring schedule wound down over the same period. However, this was not to be the end, but merely the calm before the storm.
The storm has now arrived in the form of The Argument, which, like all truly exciting and invigorating experiences, came with little preceding fanfare. It arrived in stores with no Rolling Stone feature, nor a cover sticker quoting NME or Mojo. No, the name Fugazi carries its own suggestion of innovative brilliance without the need for press puff.
Fugazi are a band of hyperactive musical creators - none of the albums have repeated the precise sound of those that have come before. With The Argument, the band has taken the ingredients that had been partly obscured (handclaps, backing harmonies, acoustic guitar and piano) and brought them to the fore. There is also the addition of Jerry Busher to a second drum kit - a move that brings even more exciting percussion sounds to the band’s already interesting rhythm section. The overall result is a record brimming with melody and deft production touches that open up the music, making it more accessible than the band’s earlier work.
Q: While such a move could have blunted the band’s trademark edge, there is no doubting that the visceral intensity of Fugazi remains. They’re primarily a punk-rock band, and in terms of aesthetic and attitude, there is little chance that these roots and outlooks will be disregarded in the production of the band’s work. With that in mind, I asked Guy Piccioto (guitarist and vocalist) whether the pop sound of the new record was a conscious effort, or just the natural progression of the band?
GUY: “We write all our stuff together and we always describe it as being like a gangland initiation - ideas get kicked around brutally by all 4 of us and the ones that survive are allowed to proceed to the next level. Whatever direction the songs on the new record ended up having - it’s like a chemical distillation of the 4 of our aesthetics boiling down together. Really the only conscious decision we made that separated this album from the ones before it is that we brought in outside people to play on it with us.”
Q: Over 14 years, Washington DC’s favourite musical sons have pummelled their way through seven full-length releases of punk rock without the commodified baggage that the term suggests today. Fuelled by a political passion and selfless attitude to the problems (and solutions) around them, the band set down operating prerogatives from the beginning: $10 CDs, $5 shows that are always all-ages and a strictly independent operating nature (they release their records through guitarist and vocalist Ian MacKaye’s well regarded Dischord Records). While Fugazi have been labelled with ridiculous folklore that became the taunts of the indier-than-thou, they deserve to be recognised by all as a symbol of how a band can successfully operate outside the mainstream - both musically and logistically. Instrument, the aforementioned documentary made by Jem Cohen over the majority of the band’s career up until its release, showed the ‘other side’ of the band. While they had been slated as humourless, angry hermits (there were even claims that they lived in a share house with no heat), Instrument showed the band are just normal people making extraordinary music. Do you think Instrument altered the audience’s perception of Fugazi?
GUY: “We’ve always felt strongly that the work we do should be what defines the band in people’s minds. The music and the way we handle our business should be the things that speak for us, not some publicity spin. Initially, we almost had a feeling of embarrassment or self-consciousness [about Instrument]. But, it did do a tremendous amount of good in breaking up a lot of the bullshit mythologies - stuff like the ascetic hermits rap. And its cool too, at a time when we are not able to tour as much as we once did, there is this movie that can go around as this surrogate entity, spreading the word.”
Q: You’ve said you don’t want to consciously steer publicity or mould a perception, but at the same time does it hurt to see people construe you in a profoundly wrong way?
GUY: “Yeah - it drives me crazy sometimes but I’m not sure what can be done about it. I definitely don’t think surrendering ourselves to the mass market publicity machine would necessarily free us of those kind of misconceptions - I think that kind of thing just breeds more distortions and you’re more likely to actually become the distortion yourself than escape it. I think the best you can do is just to follow your own path, be true to the work and just hope that people will be canny enough to sort it out for themselves.”
Q:
With Fugazi, music and politics are seemingly inseparable. The band have noted on several occasions that a political band’s messages need to be “more in line with what they actually do, as opposed to what they say they do.”
To this end, Fugazi are truly an activist band. Leaving behind the loudmouthed polemics and rhetoric that can clutter some band’s political messages, Fugazi get down-and-dirty - breaking their backs for causes that they believe are worth supporting. For example, they only play benefit/charity shows in their home town of Washington DC and the list of groups that they’ve contributed to (the Whitman-Walker AIDS clinic, National Coalition for the Homeless, Food Not Bombs etc) gives an overview of their pro-active involvement in some of the most important social issues of the period during which the band has operated. How is the pro-war mood - as well as the nationalism and patriotism - of the US public making you feel at the moment?
GUY: “Politically, things here right now are really depressing. The Rightward shift that the country has been on for awhile has just been massively empowered by the terrorist attacks of September and it seems like even the most rudimentary attempts at analysis or examination of government policy gets quickly stomped on as treasonous or as apologetics for the terrorists. It’s made extra depressing because prior to September it seemed as if a really powerful coalition of labor, environmental, student and progressive groups was coming together to address problems of globalisation and corporate power, but a lot of that momentum and unity has been busted up in the new atmosphere of the moment.”
Q: Now that books on Islam and terrorism are top of the best seller lists, do you see a possibility for a new period for music that talks about issues?
GUY: “I guess I feel there is always a need for voices that cut against the grain. Even during the times of supposed prosperity, there were always huge pieces of the puzzle not being represented. Whether society is ready to hear it or not, I think for some people its just part of their make-up to question the accepted line. It’s like Ian says in one of the songs on our record - there’s a mission to never agree, and some people are on it.”
Q: Do you still feel as strongly about issues now as you did when you were younger?
GUY: “The longer I live, the more I learn and the more I feel like questioning.”
Q: Fugazi have toured our shores a number of times over the past decade - each time gaining new fans and moving into more and more ‘best show ever!’ lists. It seems that they will be back for more - including my lounge room. Your previously rigorous touring schedule has been slightly diverted by non-Fugazi things (marriage, illness, children etc), but will you still make it to places like Australia?
GUY: “Touring is definitely a bit of a dilemma for us and all I can say is we are doing our best. We certainly still have the desire to play everywhere but the mechanics of it are not as easy as it was when we first started out and a seven month touring schedule was possible. We talk about coming back to Australia all the time (and did so today, as a matter of fact, at our band meeting) - so it will happen, just hang in there. Do you find it hard to keep door prices down when you’re touring a place like Australia? We can’t really pull off the $5 thing that we do here in the US because of all the added costs of travelling, but we still insist that our promoters help us keep the door down as low as possible. We always undercut the competition - that’s our guarantee to you the consumer.”
Q: I had a dream last week that you played in my lounge room. That was a dream - right?
GUY: “No - that actually happened. We played for 6 hours - you loved it.”