WPRB: (Introduces Band) So, you guys have just returned from Europe, recording?

IM: Actually, we did a 2 1/2 month tour of Europe, and then we recorded at the end of it, and then we didn't finish it. So I went back out to mix it, and it's mixed, and I think we're going to do out of that a six song 12 inch. We haven't seemed to be able to record an album yet, we just keep not being satisfied with what we're doing, and picking a few songs.

WPRB: Any tentative release date on that?

IM: As soon as possible. It sort of depends on us getting the artwork together, and getting promotion. Hopefully in a couple of months. Before the summer, I would hope, like June, maybe. Or right in the beginning of the summer.

WPRB: Ok, and who writes most of the songs? Do you split the songwriting?

IM: Lyrically, or musically?

WPRB: Let's say musically first, and then lyrically.

IM: Musically, right now, everyone sort of writes the songs. Someone writes a part, and then all of us put in our own two cents. Lyrically, the songs that Guy sings, he writes, and the songs that I sing, I write.

WPRB: And the ones you sing together?

IM: Both of us write (laughs).

WPRB: That's a good enough way to answer.

GP: Usually, if we're singing it together, there's a main vocal, and the other guy's coming in.

IM: And alot of times, if he writes a song that I sing on, if I'm singing backup, it's my idea, and if he's singing backup, it's his arrangement, or even his words sometimes, either way. There's no set of rules on it, it just comes together.

WPRB: Are you feeling more restricted now that you're an instrumentalist rather than just a frontman?

IM: That's a loaded question.

WPRB: Let's just say in terms of mobility.

IM: Mobility, sure, but at the same time, it's nice to be able to play guitar, it's interesting. And, in a lot of ways, you have control over the general volume of the guitar, or whatever, it was nice. But now if two of us are playing guitar, I mean Guy also plays guitar in some of our new songs, and we're right now writing a ton of new stuff with two guitars, so the sound will change. I don't know, I can't tell, I can't compare it to other bands, it's a different band. I feel much better and freer in this band, period.

WPRB: I guess I'll ask Joe a question. Would you like to speak about where you've come from?

JR: (laughs) I come from Rockville, Maryland, right outside of Bellway. I too was working on trying to play with people while I was going to see these guys' bands playing. I followed what they were doing.

WPRB: That's just the thing. I don't mean to be a snot or anything, just because Brendan and Guy are...

J: Yeah, it's understandable, the question, I'm not offended by it or anything. I went on tour with Beefeater, writing for them, in 1986. At the end of that tour, I was actually kind of like - I don't care about really trying to do this music thing anymore. It wasn't that I didn't like the tour, it was just that it seemed like people didn't give much thought to what was being played and said to them. It sort of turned me off. But then I got home, and Ian was looking for a bass player, Tomas hooked me up with him, and he was looking for someone to just play with and see what would happen, and his idea about what he wanted to do musically was right in line with what I've always wanted to do, so I said yes.

WPRB:As a matter of policy, Fugazi has some general rules about what kind of shows they're going to do, and I guess you're pretty logical about making shows accessible to more people.

IM: We just generally try to be thoughtful about what we do, period. So I mean, playing shows, recording, or how we go about our business certainly speaks louder than a lot of the songs we may sing. I mean, it's as important as our lyrics, so we tend to care about what we do. We would like to play all-ages things, and play shows that don't discriminate against people, so everyone can get in. Actually, it's a thing that we are grappling with at this very moment. Because we're playing at Terrace Club, and that's sort of a Princeton ID thing only.

GP: We were under the impression that the college was more isolated than it was. Apparently, there are children in the community, well not children (laughs), but potential audience members who can't attend the show. We weren't as up on top of this one as we should have been.

IM: It's a tough one. We don't mean to exclude anyone, and it's weird, because it's definitely and issue, because when someone says 'do you want to play at Princeton', sure, that sounds good.

GP: We haven't been offered anything else in this area that's up our alley.

IM: We also have a door price thing, we try to keep a low door price.

WPRB: You haven't taken anything else in the area because the door prices are ridicuously high?

IM: No, I don't know the area. First off, we did a tour last Spring, we were in Washington over the summer, we did a few shows, then we were gone all Fall. The reason we haven't played the area is that we just haven't been here, or we've been playing somewhere else, or whatever. We haven't tried to avoid anything, we just haven't really investigated playing up here at all. There are clubs up here that I know about, and I've talked to some people, but it seems that I just can't see us playing for a $10 door price. We're not playing Princeton because we're not playing anywhere else, that's what I'm trying to point out, we're playing Princeton because we want to play Princeton. It is an issue though, and we're going to sort that out with the band after the show.

WPRB: Well I guess we will move on to what is happening with Discord Records in general. Is there a specific sound that you are looking for these days about who you decide to be on Discord, or what is the type of band that you want to put on Discord oppossed to other bands that you wont allow?

IM: Well the only bands that we put out on Discord are bands that are from Washington DC or a group of friends that are from a certain scene in Washington DC. It has always been like that for the most part, we don't have any angle or nothing that defined.

WPRB: I guess now with bands like Fire Party it is not as specificlly a hardcore label like it's past known to be.

IM: (Incoherent mumble) They were a hardcore label as a punk label.

WPRB: Well they were a punk label.

IM: In the beginning we were putting out the music of our friends and we still are. This is a Fugazi interview so I don't want to... you know what I mean?

GP: Also the music label is all what, of nine years old, and the music styles change in the area. The label is not some kind of monument, it is more like a working thing.

IM: The end-all is not supposed to be the label the end-all is the music.

WPRB: The only reason I am asking is because things are happening now with the label.

IM: Generally there are a lot of good bands in Washington, and the bands that we like are our friends, and I think are great but there always seems like there is music to put out. But I also look forward to the day when there won't be any music to put out, and I suppose that will happen some time. Right now there is Ignition, Fire Party and Soul Side and Shudder to Think and Ulysses and Fidelity Jones and Manifesto and Ed Soul - and there is still something happening. There's still this community of bands, and there seems to be a responsibility to put it out in the light.

WPRB: Alright I guess I'll direct this one to anybody. In general all the shows have been well attended, but have you noticed any lack of support from any specific area?

GP: We played well over a hundered shows in Europe and over here, and the variety of shows that we have played have been pretty intense and incredible, so there has been no real pattern. Some nights no one comes and it is bad, and others it is jammed and every one is having a good time.

IM: Sometimes it is small and everyone is having a good time.

J: And sometimes everyone is there and there having a bad time (laughs.)

GP: Some nights are up, some nights are down.

IM: Right now obviously compared to last year we seem to be drawing a lot more people, or at least a lot more interest. In Washington we do great shows, and they're huge, at least a lot of people show up, but that's our home town, right? We are incerdibly naive about this sort of stuff, we just think "yeah, we'll play" and we can't gauge what people think of us, but we seem to get good response good reactions so I guess we're doing okay.

WPRB: Alright, how about this one, has there been some sort of expectation in the audience that you will play Rites of Spring songs or something like that?

IM: Well if there is, then they're just dissapointed in ten minutes, because we're not going to do it.

GP: For some people we're just a band that comes out of no where they don't any history. They just come and see the band and either they enjoy it or they don't, some people who know a little something about us maybe they excpect a certian kind of sound but with our door prices as low as we hope they will remain no one should feel to dissapionted about walking out if they don't enjoy what they are getting. We provide what these for induviduals put out, it is not the same four induviduals that were in Rites of Spring, not the same kind of individuals that were in Minor Threat, it would seem to be incredibly dishonest to play any of that kind of material.

IM: Yeah we have had a few instances but really I am relieved that most people have not given us that hard of a time and it is not that bad at all. In the begining because we were a new band people could only really gage us on what we had done and yeah there were people like X amount of credit but the fact of the matter now is that people smur with the band and there is a record albulm and they have a better idea of were we are coming from.

WPRB: Could you guys just describe what is happening in the next few weeks with you guys?

IM: We're playing the next couple of nights in Conneticut and then we are playing Hoboken on Sunday. In the end of April we are going to drive across the country again and do another US tour, if we can get our van fixed, we seem to be having a gasoline problem (laughter). It's not taking any gas. After that I think we're going to do some recording this summer, and I don't really know, we'll keep on playing I suppose. Well with this band we enjoy practicing a lot, we enjoy writing new songs and it's really a pleasure. It's fun to continue to create and it's nice to play. But it is hard to put into context of what the band can do from a business perspective, where the band is going to go, it just comes naturally. Earlier Joe was talking about Ian's idea of what the band was going to be, but once Joe and I started to play together, it wasn't my idea only becasue Joe had a lot of input, but when Brendan and Gui started playing, the band became everyone's input, and it's all these different ideas, and it just has been a really natural progression and to plot anything out to any great degree. I think we have destroyed that, and the natural progression is what really keeps me interested in the band, because it feels correct, it feels like we're doing something good and purposeful. Otherwise I don't want to get into anything where I am trying to think of what my next step or move is going to be, because then it would not feel right or not feel purposeful - it would feel like a job.

WPRB: We'll have them them do an ID now. You can do an ID any way you want. You guys can sing a song or something. (General laughter and joking).

GP: Well, my Dad studied here in 1961. Nah, I'll start this over. My name is Guy Picciotto, member of the rock group Fugazi. When my father studied here at Princeton in 1961, he was always listening to WPRB. So whenever I'm in Princeton, I listen to WPRB, because I love my father.

WPRB: That was very good! (applause) How about something with the whole band?

IM: Way back in 1961, a dear friend of mine's father studied here. Hi, I am Ian Macaye from Fugazi. Guy Picciotto's father listened to WPRB. I love his father. (laughter).

GP: Hey, what if my dad's up here listening? He'll be here on some alumni weekend...no, that's OK.

WPRB: What year did your brother go here?

GP: Oh, I don't know.

WPRB: He reviewed the Rites of Spring record, so it must of been a short time ago.

GP: I heard he gave it a good review.

IM: He did, huh?

WPRB: He did, someone wrote nepotism in big letters on it. Was it you?

J: Let's talk about those guys who walked by us tonight!

IM: To the three guys who said "liberals, cocksuckers, and faggots" when we walked by, "we'll meet you in the quad or by Nassau Hall"...

ALL: And this is WPRB, in Princeton!

IM: WPRB Princeton, a station for liberals cocksuckers and faggots! (laughter) There, you go use that one.

B: Do your three-tone Buddhist whistle, and then Joe, you say "WPRB"

IM: In the moutain's of Tibet monks are known to be able produce a full chord with their own human voices, that is three notes in unison, that's WPRB in Princeton.(three different tones, then laughter). Forget it, it's too long.