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| Interviews: Ash |
You Got A Lot Of
Questions For Me Fugazi's Ian MacKaye: April 1995 Ian MacKaye is a legend. This interview was done as a preview for some gigs on the eve of Red Medicine's release. It appeared in the 2nd issue of New Traffic Pattern. I: Well, I'm leaving for practice in about half an hour, that's why I'm particularly in the middle of this shit. What sort of stuff did you want to talk about? Fritz: We just wanted to get an update on the band and the upcoming tour. I: At the moment, we just finished up recording a new record, which will probably be out at the end of May. It'll have 13 songs. I think right now it's called Red Medicine. And we're not actually doing a tour right now; we're just doing this one show. We haven't played Baltimore in quite a while - I think it's been about three years since we've been there. So we decided to come up and do a gig up there. We are going to be going out around the first two weeks of April - we're going to go up into New England and then we're going to Europe in May and June. F: About the album - how did not having Brendan (Canty, Fugazi's drummer) around effect you guys? Did it take anything away from the album? I: Well, we can't write without Brendan, so we have to wait for him to come home, so he was here. Brendan was commuting back and forth, so he'd spend a month and a half in Seattle and then come back here for a month and a half, and we'd work and work and work, and then he'd go back for a month and half, and we'd stop working, and then he'd come back - so all it did really was double the length of the year basically, because half of the year he was there and half of the year he was here. We write as a unit, the four of us, so we actually didn't do anything while he was gone, as far as writing was concerned. I don't know - Even if he had been here the whole year, it's possible we wouldn't have finished the album any sooner. We tend to finish records when we finish them. Sometimes it takes quite a while for us, because we're pretty picky. Every song got pretty well worked over. We went through a lot of songs, dozens of things that never made it. What we ended up with was what we felt were approachable songs, you know? F: What about those two shows you guys played in D.C. last year - were they just for practice or to get an audience reaction? I: We'd been writing and writing and writing and decided we wanted to do a couple of small shows just because we were feeling very frustrated with ourselves. We felt like we wanted to be a band, we wanted to play, but it had become, first off, really difficult because Brendan was out of town all the time, second off, we can't seem to play anywhere because we draw too many people. It's just impossible setting up gigs at the moment around here, it's just so hard. It's weird to be a band that doesn't play just because you can't. It's like opening a Pandora's box. Even this show tomorrow night - it's already completely sold out, and people are calling me right now to try and get in. It's nice - I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about the fact that we're popular, it's just a logistical nightmare. If every time you play, you have to deal with trying to make arrangements for hundreds of different people to get in, it becomes really complicated - every family member, that kind of thing. It's been interesting for us not to really play for the year. I'd rather play. I like playing, I like touring. I want to go out. That's what I feel is really the point of being a band. So, I'm happy that we're going to go back out and play again. F: So there weren't any problems with stupid people moshing or ticket-less fans bum-rushing the gates? I: People were very polite. No problems. The only problem with the shows is that I feel bad about the fact that there's a lot of people who want to see us but can't get into the gigs. I think it stinks. I don't know how to resolve this situation - we don't want to play fucking barns and armories and stuff. We're trying to have some quality to our shows - some kind of compression. Shows that are really big are discouraging to us. We like to play places that have some kind of impact. We're trying to find a couple of creative spaces. As long as people keep finding them, we'll keep playing them. F: For the people without tickets, are you going to be playing in the area again? I: Well, uh, we live here, so I hope we'll be playing here again. F: Sorry, I meant anytime soon. I: We're trying to set something up for April, but it's been really difficult. We can't find a hall big enough at the moment. F: Are you going to keep playing more outdoor shows like the Fort Reno show last summer? I: I'm sure we'll always do outdoor shows. They're are less of a headache. They're usually free, so we don't have to worry about guest lists and stuff. F: Now, on this European tour, are you guys gong to be playing places you've played before or a bunch of new places? I: Before, we were going east to west, like going as far east as Poland, but this time I think we're going more north-south. I think we're going to places like Portugal and Finland. F: How good is your reception over there? I: We do really well. We have a great time over there. I'd say on a ratio - certainly in Germany - we're bigger there than we are here. The country's a lot smaller, but we play really big shows, where thousands of kids come out. F: What's going on with Dischord this year? I: We have this Fugazi record coming out, we have a Slant 6 record coming out, we have an album by a band called Trusty, we're working on a record by a band called Branch Manager, and there's a whole slew of young new bands here in Washington we're hopefully going to start working with by the end of the year. Right now, they're just doing their own singles, and we're just helping them with that - distributing and helping them come up with the cash. F: Are we going to see the post-humous Antimony record? I: That's coming out on a label called Double Deuce out of New York, luckily. It's a really good record, and I did the remix on it. I really felt bad - once they broke up, I couldn't bear putting out another record by a band that wasn't together. We've already had enough of those. But this guy Dalton Ross is going to put it out. F: What's the future looking like for Fugazi? I: I don't know, and I never knew what the future looked like to begin with. We are what we are. We just play. We have a new record coming out and we're going to Europe in May and June. We hope to do a U.S. tour by the end of the year, but I don't know how to see past there. |