“You tell me that I make no difference/At least I'm fuckin' trying… … What the fuck have you done?“ — Minor Threat
Do-It-Yourself, or DIY. In an analog world, Ian MacKaye carved for himself and his D.C. hardcore brethren a means of navigating and establishing a route around the world of corporatized music, building a label that would nurture hometown talent, inspire a scene, and permanently alter the perceptions that major labels were the only alternative for musicians or bands to thrive.
“People will say, ‘this is how it is,’” MacKaye explained to me. “'you can't do this by yourself now; you’ll have to get a manager at some point.’ Why? ‘Because that’s what everyone else does.’ It’s not the truth.”
On a very rainy Friday afternoon, I had a phone conversation with Ian MacKaye, co-founder of Dischord Records and creative presence behind the seminal Minor Threat and Fugazi. Our discussion centered on independent music and its progress as the scene, technology and means with which information can be distributed have changed. MacKaye, who continues to manage Dischord through evolving tastes in an internet age, has worked to stay current with the trends associated with what he terms “buying populations.”
“Yes, a lot of people now are getting their music through downloads. But, we sell downloads. There is that part of the population, but there’s also a part of the population that are buying records.”
With regard to these populations, MacKaye refuses to believe that these trends are leading to what some might call an end to independent record stores and the physical product that sustains them.
“I think there are some stores that are closing, but other stores are opening,” MacKaye responded. “Currently, in Washington D.C., we have four news shops that are selling vinyl, which is four more than there were years ago.” He continued, “I think there are different buying populations: there are the people that buy the most mainstream format, then there are people who have a more specific idea and a different relationship with music. In the early '90s, for instance, Repeater (the Fugazi record), the CD and vinyl were both outsold by cassettes. We sold 180,000 cassettes of that record. It’s unimaginable. Could you imagine selling that many cassettes? But, that’s what people were buying.”
He concluded, “People are still interested in it and they’re still buying it. So, I don’t really accept this notion that it’s being phased out; I think that’s actually a party line. A little bit of the other party line that you’ll hear is that the only way bands will make a living is basically by licensing their music for advertising. I think that’s bullshit. Total bullshit. And, I think there are other ways that bands can make a living if they want, y’know. If they write music that people want to hear."
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“We owe you nothing/You have no control” — Fugazi
Dischord Records and the bands that brought the label its notoriety, among them Teen Idles, Minor Threat, S.O.A., Government Issue and Youth Brigade, were built to rely on their own steam, acting and thriving apart from the industry. “We were interested in our own game,” MacKaye explained. “Creating our own space, creating our own thing.”
Following in the footsteps of Dischord and other independent record labels like Touch & Go, SST, Sub Pop, Kill Rock Stars and Alternative Tentacles, obviously new breeds of bands and labels have emerged while the internet has allowed for ease of promotion and enabled simpler methods of song dissemination. While MacKaye feels that the means of labels and bands acting outside the major labels are similar to the more hands-on methodology of Dischord’s earliest efforts (“by and large, it’s the same thing.”), he also feels that bands simply need to write good music if they want to thrive. “How do you get it out there? Write a good song,” he said. Commercialization, he feels, is not the only means of making a living. “I think selling music in advertising is very slippery,” he said. “I think it devalues the music.” He was careful, though, to add, “I don’t think people are wrong for doing it.”
As for himself, MacKaye stated, “I worked my ass off. I’ve been running a record label. I’m booking the bands, driving, managing; doing everything. That’s our work. I don’t have to play music for a living. I play music to live.”
In terms of the seismic impact the independent scene of the mid to late '80s had on music, I asked MacKaye if there are any labels he’s following that maybe work to bolster unique artists in such a way as to potentially instigate another music reawakening. “I know there are tons of good labels out there,” he answered. “Now whether or not the bands are powerhouse bands, that remains to be seen.”
“I have to think there are definitely labels out there. I can’t name them at the moment. We sell, through Dischord distribution, we sell probably about twenty or thirty labels that are all D.C. related in some way or another. Some of them, I would say, are pretty vibrant.”
In terms of newer bands, MacKaye observed, “I've often thought about this a lot, like, 'where are the visionary bands? I don’t mean ‘I don’t think they exist.’ I mean ‘I’d like to know where they are, because I’d like to see them.'”
Thinking about this more, MacKaye adds, “I try to figure out where the house shows are, I try to figure things out, it’s a little tricky for me to dig them out, but I’m always interested. And, I know they’re there, so there’s no question in my mind. I’m not a ‘back in the day’ dude. Y’know? I don’t think, ‘oh, it was so good back then and it’s shitty now.’ I actually think the most important music being made is being made right now. Music that’s been made has been made. It’s done. You can’t change it; it can’t change anything. Music in the future has not been made; it can’t change anything. Music that’s being made now? That can change things. It’s the most important music.”
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“We’re too young to rock!” — Teen Idles
Although Ian MacKaye is synonymous with independent music, often he’s seen as a bastion of the political correct, a spout of protest and platform. During a conversation about this, MacKaye told me, “I read in a review of The Argument — did you ever listen to that record? [I assured him it was one of my favorites] I read a review of that record in a reputable publication, and the reviewer said, essentially, ‘more straight-edge barking from the drill sergeants.’ I thought, ‘they couldn’t possibly have listened to this record.’ If they did they must’ve had goggles on. They must’ve had some very weird bias going into it.”
With Minor Threat, MacKaye promoted his own ideas about sobriety with the song 'Straight Edge', which inadvertently and unintentionally planted the seeds for a movement that militantly enforces a lifestyle firmly against the use of alcohol and drugs. Fugazi has stood firm on its belief in all-ages venues, low-cost shows and non-violence within their audiences. Noting that a heavy portion of MacKaye’s legacy is comprised of these positions, I asked him if he felt his music was often overlooked because of the attention given to his “causes”, and whether or not this bothered him.
“Minor Threat is a punk band that played shows,” he explained. “One of our songs is ‘Straight Edge’. We were never a straight edge band. We were a band; we were a punk band. We had one song called ‘Straight Edge’. Now, I coined that phrase and I know it’s taken a bit of a life, but I think it’s been pretty well-documented that I never made it a movement, never saw myself as part of the movement.”
As for Fugazi, MacKaye deconstructed his philosophies. “Part of our concept as a band was that we wanted to be comfortable on stage,” he explained. “We wanted to feel free. And, if you’re playing a show, in which a significant part of the population, and even more specifically, a significant part of the population — extremely significant for rock 'n' roll — are people under the age of twenty-one. What the fuck? Why can’t you go see a band? Because you’re not twenty-one? What kind of sickness is that? So, our point of view was we’re going to play a show on a stage. We’re not going to play a fucking show where people who should be so important to us can’t come in.”
Continuing, MacKaye added, “and, low door price: same concept. We wanted to feel free to roll the dice. If you charge a lot of money for a show, then you are making a contract with an audience to entertain them. Therefore, you have to play a specific number of certain songs they want to hear and you have a certain production value. But, Fugazi’s idea was we want to get in the door with the people; let’s see if we can make a show together. But, we need help: we can’t turn the key on our own. So, let’s get a fair price, then we all go in.
"I understand how this assertive attention to detail on our part, or my part, is made to get all the attention,” MacKaye said. “Everything I’ve done — everything Fugazi did — was for the music, because that was the point. That is the point. Does it bother me?”
Again considering the question I asked, MacKaye added, “we worked tirelessly on our music. We practiced four or five times a week — four, five, six hours a day. We really worked on music. We practiced so much and really tried to craft something that was interesting to us and would hopefully reach the other people.
“So, to answer your question: yeah, it bothers me.”
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Currently, MacKaye plays in The Evens with drummer Amy Farina. The band released two LPs (2005’s self-titled debut and Get Evens in 2006) with a two-song 7” scheduled to release in late November. As for Dischord, the label survives the same ailing economy that led to Touch & Go’s basic demise in 2009 and still manages to put out new music.
When I asked MacKaye about what sort of music inspired Fugazi’s sound, he stated that the band “were just contributing to the conversation,” which is to say that they were inspired not simply by a compendium of essential listening, but by each other and the bands that his label have released over the years.
Beyond his philosophies about the importance of music being independent from the suits, about music being for everyone and about it being fairly priced, MacKaye’s basic view: “does a band have a good song? Which is kind of the bottom line.” By contributing to the conversation, independence through music, recording and retail may still have a chance so long as it stays inspired and chooses to ignore “the party line.”