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| Interviews: Ash |
Bon Soir Regret A
Demain Fugazi's Guy Picciotto: 27 January 1996 fugazi played 2 benefit shows in their hometown of washington, d.c. at the end of january 1996. fritz talked to guy on the 27th. the article appeared in the diamondback on 31 january. fritz: first, what've you guys been up to? guy: well, last year we were on tour for 6-7 months or something, and when we got back at the end of november, we decided to take some time off and work on some new songs and kind of take a break from touring so much. for the last couple of months, we haven't really done much of anything but practice a little bit. we're doing these two shows locally, but after that, we probably won't be going out again until march. we're just basically trying to take it easy, write some new songs and eventually record them, I guess. fritz: how'd the tour go? guy: The tour was great. we went to europe for three months and then we covered the states - we went all the way up to alaska and back, pretty much. it was amazing. we just did a lot of fucking gigs. fritz: how was europe? before you left, ian said you'd be trying to play places you'd never played before. guy: we always try to cover areas where we havent played before - this time we went to sardenia, sicily, we were flying around like crazy. i think we did like, 17 countries on the european tour. on the american one, we did alaska, which was one of the last states we need to play, besides new hampshire, and then we'll have covered all 50. we've been working pretty hard. fritz: about these shows that you're doing next week - are there going to be any surprises? do you have any new songs? guy: At these shows that are upcoming, we're probably going to have a few new things. we don't have a lot that's totally ready to play out yet. most of the stuff is still ideas that we're working on, so we'll probably be doing a lot of stuff from the last record and a few new things. right now, most of the stuff is still in the practice room; we're still trying to figure it out. fritz: what about the stuff on red medicine? were you trying to go in a different direction? guy: we had about a year - i guess it was 1994 - where the band ceased to function, and we had a whole lot of time for everyone in the band to kind of think about the group and what we wanted to do. so when we came back to do that last record, we'd had so much time off that we had a lot of fresh ideas, and it seemed like there was a break that gave us an opening to do something more creative. We just felt free to try a lot of different kinds of ideas. and recording the record was really a relaxed process. we did a lot of it in a small home studio that we have set up - 8 tracks - and we used a lot of practice tapes and stuff on the album. we just tried to mix it up. fritz: how bad was recording with the brendan situation? guy: it was terrible (with brendan going back and forth to seattle), but now that he's moved back to d.c. it's a lot easier for us to practice. with having him on the other coast, it wasn't easy to coordinate stuff, and practices would have to be really intensive. fritz: a lot of reviewers are calling this an experimental album - like on "version," is that you playing a clarinet? guy: yeah. i bought a clarinet last year and i'm still trying to learn how to play it. it's not really an experimental album - we just wanted to feel free to do whatever the fuck we wanted. basicly, that's always been the process, but i think on this last record it was highlighted a little more just because we'd had the time off and everyone else was exploring other things: brendan was taking piano lessons and i bought a clarinet - it was just a lot of different ideas coming around. the process of recording was exactly the same, but i seemed like we were ready to do some different stuff. fritz: what's one thing about fugazi that would surprise people? guy: one thing I don't think everyone knows is that everyone in the group contributes to writing the music. Brendan, for example, writes a lot of guitar and bass parts, and Joe interjects a lot, as well as me and Ian. It's really much more democratic than people realize. I think that a lot of times people think that the person who sings the song is responsible for the way that song sounds, but with our band, that's not necessarily true. Everybody interjects different ideas, everybody's writing on other people's things, so it's really much more mixed up than people know. fritz: what about lyrics? guy: lyrics are the one area that's a pretty individual thing. ian writes his, joe writes his and i write mine. that's not very collaborative at all - it's much more of a personal thing. fritz: another thing is that some of them are really confusing. people i've talked to don't seem able to figure out what some songs are about - especially songs like "do you like me." guy: i can dig that. but see, people have been saying that since we started. i think that if you write songs, your style of writing changes just because you try to keep yourself interested in the process. you try to write a certain type of song, and the next time you set out out to do something more interesting or different. a lot of the songs have really specific meanings or messgages, but a lot of them are different ideas clashed together, just experimenting and fucking around with stuff. i feel like we've written a tremendous amount of material, and if you look at the body of work, there's almost every different type of song you can imagine. i think a lot of it is really different, which makes it really interesting to me. if you had to write just one way it'd be dull after a while. fritz: these two shows are both benefits - for the washington free clinic and for the ccnv. i've see you guys at some other benefits you've done for the free clinic. what's your involvement with the group? guy: we've done a number of benefits for the free clinic. we started doing benefits for them at a time where health care was a big problem for our friends and a lot of people in the community. the clinic was something in the neighborhood, something we knew that people used and something that we also knew was in trouble finanically. ian's dad works over there a bit, and some of our friends in the medical profession work over there as well, so we thought it was a good cause. we know that the money we give for them is directly important to that organization. there are a lot of organizations you can raise money for, but you kind of feel like you're buying envelopes or something. with the free clinic, you know the money is directly going to the people who need medical services. we're also doing the black cat show as a benefit for the community for creative non-violence, a local homeless organization. we decided to do that because this winter has been especially cruel in terms of weather temprement, and we thought it would be good to give them some money because a lot of people are suffering out there. fritz: you guys do a lot of benefits. it almost seems like it's what you're known for. guy: In d.c., we play strictly benefits. i think it's good, because it's easy for us to do, and we know that we've raised thousands and thousands of dollars over the years, and it feels good to know that it went to people who could really use it. there's nothing bad about being a benefit band. fritz: is there any reason you're doing these shows now? in 1994, when you did the last club shows, ian said it was partially to try out the new material ... guy: there's no reason for the timing, we hadn't played d.c. in a while, and we'd all be in town. we also wanted to try out the new 9:30 club, and we always enjoy playing the black cat. fritz: what's your ethnic background? i know some people have been wondering because of your name. guy: my background's a mixed bag - my first name is french, the last name is sicilian. just a typical american background - usual european mixture. and my dad's an italian citizen. fritz: so, what else have you been doing outside fugazi? guy: before our neighbors stepped in, we had a small studio in my house - i recorded the metamatics, slant 6, the make*up, a bunch of different stuff. it was all just done in my living room. i'm really happy with the recordings, but the neighbors just nixed it. fritz: what do you do when you're not doing music-related things? guy: we're on tour half the year, and when we're not, we're at home working on stuff. when i'm not working with fugazi, i'm working with other groups, so it's all pretty music directed. i used to work part time jobs like dishwashng and bookselling, but in the last couple years, i've pretty much been doing music exclusively. fritz: finally, what's one thing about you that would surprise fugazi fans? guy: about me ... hmmm. i don't know. i go to the [national] zoo about 4 times a week. fritz: really? guy: yeah. it's right across the street from my house, and i really like walking around. I just really like it. fritz: what's your favorite part of the zoo? guy: i'd have to say that my favorites are the sloth bear and the invertibrate exhibit. |