Friday, February 22, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Back from PC vacations
Hello no-readers.
Long time no see. I've been on vacation and most of my computer-time was dedicated to getting destroyed in Team Fortress II. No matter how good you play (and I don't) there's always some geek somwhere who just humiliates you, just like that. My wife wasn't too happy about my new addiction until I showed her how the controls went. The result was, after a few days, she broke all my (laughable) records. Not satisfied, she went out and bought herself a mic/earphone USB set and is now commanding her teams everynight. In retrospect, I can understand how this is the perfect game for her: collaborative and competitive at the same time. That's my dear wife for you.
I have been listening to a few of my older records again, especially Fugazi, one of my favourite bands of all time. I had not listened to them in a long time. We music lovers spend so much time craving for the new, listening to anything that the Internets are hyping around, sometimes we forget how great those older records of ours are.
I was introduced to the band when I lived in Iowa for a few months and a girl made me a mixtape with a song of theirs. I went out and bought "Steady Diet Of Nothing". I didn't like the sound of the record but the songs were all so good I forgot about that detail. I went on to buy several of their albums, "Red Medicine" being my favourite still.
A few years ago I managed to get an interview with Guy Picciotto. I mention this like it was hard but it was actually as difficult as sending an e-mail and I was very happy that he was kind enough to write me back and answer my questions. What a great guy !
This is the original interview, it's kind of old now (specially my dull questions) but I felt like posting it anyway, since the great songs have been with me the last weeks and made me feel so good.
Fugazi's sound is quite hard to define (you know journalists like to do that kind of stuff...) and has become even more so in the last albums. I'd like to know what drove you interest to music and what you liked to listen to growing up.
The thing that originally got me into music was really The Beatles. When I was a little kid I was completely obsessed with them. I had my haircut like them and I would not allow myself to buy any other records by any other bands until I had every song the Beatles ever recorded. I was totally devoted to their music and I listened to it with microscopic intensity. To this day their music is so ingrained into my brain that the songs feel like part of my anatomy and they are absolutely what initially drove me to want to learn how to play guitar.
I was not in a very musical family though my father had played harmonica in a band when he was growing up in Lebanon but that's about it - there was no piano in the house and none of us were especially musical. Still my parents did help me get a guitar when I was 12 and I started slowly learning chords and stuff as well as starting to listen to alot of the rock music that every other kid was listening to in the mid 70's : Kiss, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan.
It wasn't till I found out about punk rock in 1978 that I really started thinking about being in a band myself. There was something about the all the music I was into before punk rock that functioned in my mind as an escapist dream - punk rock made music seem like a reality, a potentiality and one that I could be part of. Seeing bands in small rooms and not arenas - seeing other kids my age forming bands and putting out their own records - those were really pivotal changes and from about the age of 14 on I was always in a band of some kind or another.
I also realize you take an interest in filmmaking and I'd like to know how that is going and if you plan to work on the music of the films as well. Have you done music for films before (excluding Instrument video) ? How do you feel about it ? What are the other members up to ?
I do love films and I even tried to make a couple of short movies on Super 8 film about ten years ago - they were called "Silly Game" and "Please Cry" but they were pretty amateur attempts. Working on INSTRUMENT with director Jem Cohen was the first time I really got a chance to be involved with professional editing equipment and I really learned alot from that experience. Jem is an amazing filmmaker and both Ian and I have helped out a tiny bit on the editing and conceptualizing of his latest feature called CHAIN - which is his first full length narrative film about the homogenizing effect of modern global capitalism on the actual surface of the world we walk around in. As for doing soundtrack work on films myself - I haven't done much beyond helping to assemble the INSTRUMENT soundtrack but the other guys in the band have. Ian and Brendan worked on music for a documentary about the Weather Underground radicals of the 60's last year and Brendan in particular has done alot of work for a variety of cable television documentaries - its like a parallel career for him and he's really good at it.
How do you feel about the state of the music industry as it is right now ? Do you believe it's easier for independent bands who'd like to stay that way to show their work with the Internet ?
I honestly don't think or worry about the music industry at all....... I really don't give a shit about it. I think music will always be with us because its enters the soul so powerfully and its such a powerful expressive outlet - the industry that builds up around it is just a hitchhiking scab and how it fares is just not that important to me.
Bands always have the option of how much they want to operate within the industry - some bands feel it is indispensable to work within that system. Other bands just want to find a free space to be able to create.... it all depends on what is important to you. For Fugazi, autonomy was important so we protected ours and just did what we could to stay free. The Internet is just a tool - there is no doubt that it is a powerful way to spread information to wide numbers of people- it can be used in ways that are really cool no doubt - but the Internet isn't going to write a brilliant song for you - the Internet isn't going to supply you with the inspiration that determines a great creative statement or a great social movement. That stuff has to come from somewhere else - someplace human.
I realize you have been in Brazil. When was that and how was that experience ? Any other South American countries on that tour ?
We actually played in Brazil twice - the first time was in August in 1994 when we just did about a week of shows in towns like Belo Horizonte, Sao Paolo, Rio and Curitiba. The next time we came back was in August of 1997 when we did a more extensive tour of Brazil - playing towns like Brasilia and Santos as well - and we also did one show in Buenos Aires, Argentina and one show in Santiago, Chile. Both tours were life changing experiences for us - we totally fell in love with everything about Brazil - the people, the food, the music, the nature. It had a very deep impact on us. I really regret the fact that we haven't been able to make it back down to South America again - I think about it all the time. I sometimes deejay on a small community radio station here in DC and I always play alot of Brazilian music on the air - Capoeira stuff, the music of Os Mutantes, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, etc.
Bush vs. Kerry. Do you believe there's much difference between them ?
I am under no illusions about John Kerry and he is certainly not the person I would pick if I had the power to name the President of the USA - I would much rather have some kind of fusion of Ralph Nader and Patti Smith in the White House. But idle fantasy aside, given the situation at hand I think there is a world of difference between George Bush and his administration and John Kerry - Kerry, if he wins, will no doubt be a huge dissapointment but George Bush is a straight up pathological maniac who has fucked up the USA and the world in an astonishingly aggressive manner. The prospect of an additional 4 years with Bush in power is too terrifying to contemplate and I think everyone should do what they can to prevent that from happening.
At last, will we be hearing anything from Fugazi in the future ? Any plans ?
I wish I had some news to report about Fugazi resurfacing but there are currently no plans for that to happen. Right now everyone in the band is off doing other things. Both Brendan and Joe have kids and that priority has alot to do with the hiatus that we are on right now. But we are all still doing stuff. I mentioned Brendan's soundtrack work - he also produces bands and plays in a group called Garland of Hours. Joe has moved to Los Angeles and he has been working on a project called the Fugazi Live Series where he has made a bunch of Fugazi live tapes from our archives available for sale - check out www.fugaziliveseries.com for more information about that. He has also just finished a project with John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers - its called Ataxia and the CD is out now. Ian has a new band , a duo called the Evens and they have started playing shows as well as made some recordings that will probably come out at some point. I have been doing some production work ( with bands like Blonde Redhead and the Casual Dots) and I am slowly trying to put together a new group but still nothing definite to report. But whether Fugazi will ever play together again remains up in the air - we all remain friends and we still work on band related stuff all the time but whether we will actually play another show again or make a record - I just don't know. Stay posted for news about us at www.dischord.com
Long time no see. I've been on vacation and most of my computer-time was dedicated to getting destroyed in Team Fortress II. No matter how good you play (and I don't) there's always some geek somwhere who just humiliates you, just like that. My wife wasn't too happy about my new addiction until I showed her how the controls went. The result was, after a few days, she broke all my (laughable) records. Not satisfied, she went out and bought herself a mic/earphone USB set and is now commanding her teams everynight. In retrospect, I can understand how this is the perfect game for her: collaborative and competitive at the same time. That's my dear wife for you.
I have been listening to a few of my older records again, especially Fugazi, one of my favourite bands of all time. I had not listened to them in a long time. We music lovers spend so much time craving for the new, listening to anything that the Internets are hyping around, sometimes we forget how great those older records of ours are.
I was introduced to the band when I lived in Iowa for a few months and a girl made me a mixtape with a song of theirs. I went out and bought "Steady Diet Of Nothing". I didn't like the sound of the record but the songs were all so good I forgot about that detail. I went on to buy several of their albums, "Red Medicine" being my favourite still.
A few years ago I managed to get an interview with Guy Picciotto. I mention this like it was hard but it was actually as difficult as sending an e-mail and I was very happy that he was kind enough to write me back and answer my questions. What a great guy !
This is the original interview, it's kind of old now (specially my dull questions) but I felt like posting it anyway, since the great songs have been with me the last weeks and made me feel so good.Fugazi's sound is quite hard to define (you know journalists like to do that kind of stuff...) and has become even more so in the last albums. I'd like to know what drove you interest to music and what you liked to listen to growing up.
The thing that originally got me into music was really The Beatles. When I was a little kid I was completely obsessed with them. I had my haircut like them and I would not allow myself to buy any other records by any other bands until I had every song the Beatles ever recorded. I was totally devoted to their music and I listened to it with microscopic intensity. To this day their music is so ingrained into my brain that the songs feel like part of my anatomy and they are absolutely what initially drove me to want to learn how to play guitar.
I was not in a very musical family though my father had played harmonica in a band when he was growing up in Lebanon but that's about it - there was no piano in the house and none of us were especially musical. Still my parents did help me get a guitar when I was 12 and I started slowly learning chords and stuff as well as starting to listen to alot of the rock music that every other kid was listening to in the mid 70's : Kiss, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan.
It wasn't till I found out about punk rock in 1978 that I really started thinking about being in a band myself. There was something about the all the music I was into before punk rock that functioned in my mind as an escapist dream - punk rock made music seem like a reality, a potentiality and one that I could be part of. Seeing bands in small rooms and not arenas - seeing other kids my age forming bands and putting out their own records - those were really pivotal changes and from about the age of 14 on I was always in a band of some kind or another.
I also realize you take an interest in filmmaking and I'd like to know how that is going and if you plan to work on the music of the films as well. Have you done music for films before (excluding Instrument video) ? How do you feel about it ? What are the other members up to ?
I do love films and I even tried to make a couple of short movies on Super 8 film about ten years ago - they were called "Silly Game" and "Please Cry" but they were pretty amateur attempts. Working on INSTRUMENT with director Jem Cohen was the first time I really got a chance to be involved with professional editing equipment and I really learned alot from that experience. Jem is an amazing filmmaker and both Ian and I have helped out a tiny bit on the editing and conceptualizing of his latest feature called CHAIN - which is his first full length narrative film about the homogenizing effect of modern global capitalism on the actual surface of the world we walk around in. As for doing soundtrack work on films myself - I haven't done much beyond helping to assemble the INSTRUMENT soundtrack but the other guys in the band have. Ian and Brendan worked on music for a documentary about the Weather Underground radicals of the 60's last year and Brendan in particular has done alot of work for a variety of cable television documentaries - its like a parallel career for him and he's really good at it.
How do you feel about the state of the music industry as it is right now ? Do you believe it's easier for independent bands who'd like to stay that way to show their work with the Internet ?
I honestly don't think or worry about the music industry at all....... I really don't give a shit about it. I think music will always be with us because its enters the soul so powerfully and its such a powerful expressive outlet - the industry that builds up around it is just a hitchhiking scab and how it fares is just not that important to me.
Bands always have the option of how much they want to operate within the industry - some bands feel it is indispensable to work within that system. Other bands just want to find a free space to be able to create.... it all depends on what is important to you. For Fugazi, autonomy was important so we protected ours and just did what we could to stay free. The Internet is just a tool - there is no doubt that it is a powerful way to spread information to wide numbers of people- it can be used in ways that are really cool no doubt - but the Internet isn't going to write a brilliant song for you - the Internet isn't going to supply you with the inspiration that determines a great creative statement or a great social movement. That stuff has to come from somewhere else - someplace human.
I realize you have been in Brazil. When was that and how was that experience ? Any other South American countries on that tour ?
We actually played in Brazil twice - the first time was in August in 1994 when we just did about a week of shows in towns like Belo Horizonte, Sao Paolo, Rio and Curitiba. The next time we came back was in August of 1997 when we did a more extensive tour of Brazil - playing towns like Brasilia and Santos as well - and we also did one show in Buenos Aires, Argentina and one show in Santiago, Chile. Both tours were life changing experiences for us - we totally fell in love with everything about Brazil - the people, the food, the music, the nature. It had a very deep impact on us. I really regret the fact that we haven't been able to make it back down to South America again - I think about it all the time. I sometimes deejay on a small community radio station here in DC and I always play alot of Brazilian music on the air - Capoeira stuff, the music of Os Mutantes, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, etc.
Bush vs. Kerry. Do you believe there's much difference between them ?
I am under no illusions about John Kerry and he is certainly not the person I would pick if I had the power to name the President of the USA - I would much rather have some kind of fusion of Ralph Nader and Patti Smith in the White House. But idle fantasy aside, given the situation at hand I think there is a world of difference between George Bush and his administration and John Kerry - Kerry, if he wins, will no doubt be a huge dissapointment but George Bush is a straight up pathological maniac who has fucked up the USA and the world in an astonishingly aggressive manner. The prospect of an additional 4 years with Bush in power is too terrifying to contemplate and I think everyone should do what they can to prevent that from happening.
At last, will we be hearing anything from Fugazi in the future ? Any plans ?
I wish I had some news to report about Fugazi resurfacing but there are currently no plans for that to happen. Right now everyone in the band is off doing other things. Both Brendan and Joe have kids and that priority has alot to do with the hiatus that we are on right now. But we are all still doing stuff. I mentioned Brendan's soundtrack work - he also produces bands and plays in a group called Garland of Hours. Joe has moved to Los Angeles and he has been working on a project called the Fugazi Live Series where he has made a bunch of Fugazi live tapes from our archives available for sale - check out www.fugaziliveseries.com for more information about that. He has also just finished a project with John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers - its called Ataxia and the CD is out now. Ian has a new band , a duo called the Evens and they have started playing shows as well as made some recordings that will probably come out at some point. I have been doing some production work ( with bands like Blonde Redhead and the Casual Dots) and I am slowly trying to put together a new group but still nothing definite to report. But whether Fugazi will ever play together again remains up in the air - we all remain friends and we still work on band related stuff all the time but whether we will actually play another show again or make a record - I just don't know. Stay posted for news about us at www.dischord.com
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