the money thing is the most boring part of everything
October 03, 2008
so when people who are songwriters say, “That’s my property and if you give it away for free then I lose my incentive,” then, well, good riddance.
I was 8 when Minor Threat formed in 1980. Way too young. I didn’t properly discover music until about ‘85. I inherited a big old record player and all my Mums records form the ‘60’s: Dylan, The Rolling Stones, lots of Donovan.
Perhaps five years later, must have been some time in 1990 the year I finished high school, I remember being at a friends house and hearing Minor Threat and Fugazi for the first time. It blew my mind. He was a French Mauritian skate kid. Definitely a bad influence. We hung out and smoked cigarettes (not very straight edge I know). We would often nick his dads (his dad had a shady history preserving French interests as a mercenary, ironically) strong French cigarettes and cheap bottles of wine. Those were happy days. We’d skate. Occasionally we’d surf (badly). We’d get drunk and smoke more cigarettes. And our soundtrack was Fugazi. Always Fugazi.
It opened the door to the grunge of Hüsker Dü, Nirvana (of course) and Screaming Trees (the talented but troubled Mark Lanegan) and then began a long love affair with Sonic Youth and all things Thurston Moore (who I admire in a similar way to Ian MacKaye. As much for his music as his outlook). They’re the reason why today I’m drawn to the raw punk energy of bands like Japanther (pictured), Sic Alps, No Age.
The record industry is in the process of atrophying but the music industry is thriving. I really believe that. Thanks to the internet I’m listening to more music now than I ever have. I’m always discovering new exciting bands and rediscovering old ones. And if I hear something and it blows my mind, you’d better believe I go and try and buy the fucking record. It’s exciting times and it’s creative people like Ian MacKaye that fill me with optimism. I want to believe that the future doesn’t belong to big whoring businessmen. I want it to belong to the people who make and create. In any case, creativity thrives in the absence of and regardless of money.
My position is that the money thing is the most boring part of everything and I find it much more interesting and engaging to be part of a community where money and contracts are not the central conversation, and that’s what happened to music.
This resonates very deeply with me. Not just in music but in everything I do.
Read the interview with Ian MacKaye at downhillbattle.org edit: archived here @ Mutant Squirrel
Quotes by Ian MacKaye taken from the interview. Photo of Ian Vanek of Japanther is my own.
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