by Jon Bains
So why are we doing a featurette on Fugazi instead of a full blown interview. Well it comes down to the fact that Ian didn't have much time before playing at the Glasgow, Barrowlands gig in June. Another factor is that we shared him with the Incredible Shrinking Fanzine, another local zine this meant that we couldn't go into any real depth. However, this should keep you going for a little while until we get a chance to talk to Fugazi again.
Dischord seems to be insanely busy at the moment, why now?
Right now, in the history of Dischord we have the most active bands. Usually by the time we get the money and the record and everything together the bands already broken up! (muffled laughter). This year together, right now we have - Shudder to Think, Jawbox, Holy Rollers, Circus Lupus, High Backed Chairs, Fugazi, Desitera ( my sister sings with them). They've just put a single out. Gray Matter is still together. Its really weird man, there's so much stuff going on.
We don't have contracts, its a very informal collective I would say. As a label our concept is just to document, like, the music in Washington, the bands we like, our friends whatever.
Whenever I get discouraged about having a label and get tired etc. I think if anything we literally employ my sister & brother, Kim & Jay from Jawbox work there, Amy Pickering, Seth Martin, Charlie Motes. There are a lot of people who work there and are associated with the label. That's pretty cool, but it's weird when you own what's actually the livelihood of some people.
How do you find time to reply to all the fan mail received?(ISF)
Its really hard. I do try and answer it all but its impossible to keep up and what becomes discouraging is that out of every 200 people write back and say "Fuck You, Rock Star". That's very discouraging although I try not to let is get to me. I'm currently 6 months behind in my mail. Right before I left I work for 3 nights solid and caught up till January this year. I'm approximately 5 months behind, by the time I get home I'm going to be 8 months behind.
ISF wondered about some guy in Belgium said that he had been fucked about by Fugazi, what happened?
I can't say anything about him, but I haven't spoken with him in years. He has a particular problem with me that drives him to continually harass me.
I would say he's a bit of a policeman, Honestly, 1st time I met him we played a show with his collective. We got to the show in Belgium, this is in 1985, before we had a record out, he did the gig. he said he needed to talk to me. He said he's very upset because all the kids wanted to see Fugazi, not their local bands. He thought it sucked that all these bands kept coming from America and were doing so well. I said 'wait a minute, if you think you have a problem with us and do book us, fine, but if you book us don't fucking bellyache. It's bullshit. No one is forced to book us anywhere, or like us, or buy our records or go to our shows. We've tried really hard to make it so people coming to our shows don't feel ripped off. Really in the end he can shove it up his ass. I don't care.
Fugazi is notorious for not talking to major press, why?
Within the band its been a real debate. On the one hand we think information is important and that it should get out. On the other hand we feel the vehicles that exist are actually, I think, kinda dubious and are for sale. If info like that is taken as truth, if society is like that, some band no matter how "good" a band are never going to get the space that someone from a major label could buy. That's wrong. We have had an internal debate, not that we disagree with each other, but we can't decide how to go about it. We will talk to zines, radio stations but ultimately our job is to play music, if we have time then we'll do it. In America Spin & Rolling stone never did shit for us, ever. So now we're regarded as an important band we don't feel like giving them any kind of time.
Short and sweet huh? Well I promise at some point in the future we will be able to do this properly. They should have a new album out in 93 so you also have that to look forward too.