Ian MacKaye, Fugazi pioneer and frontman of Dischord Records’ The Evens, is probably the biggest rock star you never heard of. Really.
Fast service, huh?” he says, phoning minutes after an e-mail interview request. “I knew this was last-minute so I tried my best to fit it in before your deadline.”
Truth is, MacKaye has every reason to be a holier-than-thou, ivory tower rock snob. But, he isn’t.
“I try to be accessible,” he insists, “But many wars have been lost when there’s too many entry points to the front line.”
His punk band, Minor Threat, revolutionized the Washington D.C. hardcore scene in the ’80s while he unknowingly reworked the underground music landscape with his childhood friend Henry Rollins. During that era, the trailblazer penned and released the song, “Straight Edge,” which has become an anthem for an entire movement-ultimately spearheading the whole no booze, no drugs subculture.
MacKaye’s label, Dischord Records, has consistently unleashed a brand of uncompromising, balls-to-the-wall music for almost 25 years that has won over rock gods like Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Anthony Kiedis.
And, with the seminal group Fugazi, MacKaye (guitarist and co-vocalist) managed to carve the path for thousands of acts-bands like Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana and Foo Fighters-and bypassed the whole commercial radio/MTV thing to ultimately sell more than 1 million albums.
What’s his secret? The 44-year-old veteran never looks back.
“I’m not very nostalgic,” he says. “Others seem to be concerned with the past. I’m always looking forward to what’s next.”
With The Evens, MacKaye continues to revolutionize the music landscape. This time around, he’s doing it with a lo-fi PA system and his partner in crime, Amy Farina.
MacKaye, phoning from the Dischord home base near D.C., reflects on his “less is more” concept with The Evens, his love-hate relationship with technology and slams the idea that he founded the straight edge movement.
Q: I’m familiar with you from your Fugazi days, what’s the set-up with The Evens?
MacKaye: Amy and I are sort of self-contained. We tour in a van with our own PA and play at venues that normally don’t have shows. Most of the venues on our tour are art galleries, record stores and weird free spaces.
Q: Do you prefer playing art galleries versus dirty rock clubs?
MacKaye: Yeah, I’ve done my time with the black boxes over the years. I toured with Fugazi for 15 years and I wanted something different.
Q: Have you outgrown that whole rock and booze scene?
MacKaye: Not necessarily, but I have noticed how insidious the relationship between the alcohol industry and the music industry has become. I’m not taking the ethical point of view that alcohol is the root of evil, even though there are obvious health issues associated with alcohol. But, that’s not my point. My point is the behavior that’s associated with alcohol has infected the music industry. And, 15- and 16-year-old kids are left out of live shows because they’re too young to drink.
Q: I’ve actually never thought of it as exclusionary.
MacKaye: Yeah, forget the cliché that people are old enough to die in a war but not old enough to have a drink. This is even more absurd. They’re old enough to die in a war but not old enough to see a band play a live show. That’s ridiculous.
Q: That’s why an all-ages venue is important. Right?
MacKaye: Yeah, new ideas don’t have established audiences. And, you’ll find at the places where alcohol sales dictates the audience, that it’s the same thing over and over, night after night. The problem with these spaces is that it’s usually bands that are already known or groups that play genre-specific music. The problem with this alcohol-music scenario is that there’s no room for new ideas. That’s why I like the idea of a free space. It’s the concept that music can come out of any old room.
Q: Speaking of community, what is your perspective of the whole MySpace.com phenomenon?
MacKaye: My take on MySpace.com is one of bewilderment. I don’t know what it is. (Laughs). I’ve talked to several people over the phone who were like ‘man, you must not be under 20, because MySpace is where everyone is now.’ I’m still not sure what it is.
Q: It’s basically an online community of music lovers-and bands trying to reach out to their fans.
MacKaye: I’ve never been cutting-edge as far as technology goes. At Dischord, we didn’t crossover to CDs for years. We stuck with vinyl and cassettes until like ’88.
Q: OK, I’m sure everyone asks you this, but do you feel responsible for the whole straight-edge movement?
MacKaye: I think you know my take on that.
Q: Well, has it changed?
MacKaye: In 1980, I wrote a song ‘Straight Edge’ about an individual’s right to live his or her life in any way they see fit. In 1983, we put out a record called ‘Out of Step’ and in one of the songs I articulate that ‘Straight Edge’ is not a strict set of rules for people to follow and that I’m not interested in that idea at all.
Q: You’ve been fairly upfront, but the myth seems to continue. Why?
MacKaye: I’ve been fairly clear from the beginning. I am the person who coined the phrase ‘straight edge,’ but I am not the founder of the movement.
Q: But not all straight-edge kids are bad. Right?
MacKaye: No, not all. 95 percent are good. But, you have the 5 percent who are fundamentalists. And, within that 5 percent, you have even a smaller group that has a fascination with violence. Their issue is not sobriety. It’s with violence. People with violence in the belly are in search of a trigger and way to get the violence out. Unfortunately, for those violent fundamentalists out there, they’ve used the whole straight edge concept to beat the crap out of somebody.
