Everybody who knows and loves Fugazi knows that they don�t do a lot of interviews and things like that but Guy Piccoioto was good enough to answer some questions for Nova Wreck following the band�s last European tour...
How did the European tour go? Did you enjoy it?
Yeah it was really a blast though it can hardly be called a full European tour as we really only went to Iceland, Ireland, Scotland and England. Since our drummer Brendan became a dad last year we�ve kind of had to curtail the amount of time we spend on the road so we�re having to break up our touring into more bite sized increments. We do hope to return to continental Europe this fall and cover as many of the places we had to skip as possible but as far as this last 3 week mini-tour went, it was seriously a good time for us. We had never been to Iceland before so it was cool to get to hang out and go kayaking in the ocean amongst the puffins. We also got to play a couple of towns on Ireland like Kilkenny and Cork where we�d never been and they were totally fun gigs. It was also the first time in 6 previous attempts that we didn�t miss the ferry coming over to Dublin - we finally get our act together and make it on time - a real jaw dropper!
What do you think of right wing politicians trying to introduce age classifications for rock shows and records in the wake of the Denver killings?
This is actually the first I�ve heard about that - whenever something like the Denver killings goes down, politicians try to milk the righteous indignation which follows for as much political leverage as possible. On the liberal end of the spectrum, a lot of gun-control legislation gets a boost and on the conservative end of things weird cultural control initiatives get juiced. From my own bias, I would hope the gun control stuff overpowers things like this age classification nonsense you�re mentioning but we�ll see how it plays out. It�s kind of ridiculous the kind of stuff which has been going down in public schools here since the shooting - now every kid with a weird haircut or a �bad� attitude is being singled out like he or she is a potential serial killer. You can never overestimate the American penchant for knee-jerk hysteria.
Following �Instrument�, do you have any interest in doing more things like this, maybe soundtracks etc?
Not really sure - actually quite a lot of our music has been used by people in movies over the years, mostly underground, indie or student stuff so I think there is some kind of component to our music that connects well cinematically. Brendan has actually been the one of us who is most involved in doing soundtrack type stuff. In the past few years he�s put together music for a few CD-ROMs for children as well as for a documentary television show on engineering called �Bridges, Tunnels and Buildings�. Actually, one of the projects he did songs for called �A History of Glamour� will be shown on BBC-4 (I think he means Channel 4- Jamesy) at some point this year - its an animated short film.
Musically, did �End Hits� and the �Instrument� soundtrack give you a lot of new ideas or do you just take each record as it comes?
We really aren�t that self-conscious about it - we just write stuff that sounds good to us and try to get it on tape in a way that satisfies us. As time goes by I think we�re getting a little more confident with the process of recording so it allows us to get a little more far out in technically in the studio. The �Instrument� soundtrack was really just a matter of digging through a bunch of archival sources like practice tapes and demos and finding stuff we had never used which seemed to work with the images in the movie so it was really not approached in the same way we would do a studio album like �End Hits� for example.
Fugazi are quite influential, if bands are going to be inspired by you either musically or politically, what do you hope they take from you?
I guess two things that are kind of central to our concept of ourselves are: 1. a healthy respect for live performance and the energy that can be transmitted and received there and 2. autonomy and control over what we do, but really what bands draw from us has probably more to say about their context and point of view than us really - that�s usually the way inspiration works.
Who are the bands that have blown your minds in the past and who around at the moment does the same?
I think the band that had the most impact on us in the past would have to be the Bad Brains. As for contemporary bands that have really blown our minds of late I would have to say The Ex from Amsterdam and Shellac from Chicago. Sharing bills with those two bands this last year has been incredible.
�Instrument� shows you protesting against the Gulf War, how do you feel about the Balkans Conflict?
Obviously what is going on in the Balkans is fucked up and Milosevic is a thug but I still think the NATO bombing campaign was insane and moronic. I�m just enormously relieved that they have managed to negotiate a peace settlement and that all this madness can cease for a little while. I honestly believe that the whole militaristic moral imperative that was cynically positioned by the Clinton White House was inspired by the success of �Saving Private Ryan� and its bogus nostalgia for WWII. Even as bombs were dropping on the very refugees we were ostensibly trying to save you could hear the refrain �at least we�re doing something!� as if any action no matter how ill-advised and bumbling was evidence of our restored moral fibre.
Yow! Do you consider yourselves a hardcore band? Do you feel an affinity with bands like Sonic Youth and Shellac who play what could loosely be described as hardcore or punk music but who are still pushing the style forward?
I honestly do not care what we are called - I think of ourselves as a band that plays music. For me hardcore is a pretty specific term relating to a pretty specific historical juncture and though I think we come out of that moment historically speaking, I hardly think we�re still there. But really, it�s a subjective thing - everyone has their own definition and I wouldn�t pull my hair out in tufts or anything if someone called us a hardcore band and yeah - I do feel an affinity with bands like Sonic Youth, Shellac, The Ex, we kind of all come from the same generation and we�re all still out here working on sound.
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