Since 1980, Ian MacKaye has been the living definition of a number of ideals central to the evolving punk and post-punk scene in America. His three years fronting Minor Threat's speedy, hostile hardcore punk attack has had a profound influence on bands of strikingly different breeds -- Minor Threat songs have been covered by the Beastie Boys, Slayer, and Rage Against The Machine among countless others. One song, "Straight Edge", unintentionally coined an entire movement that still thrives on its anti-drug, anti-booze sentiments. The formation of Fugazi in 1988 signaled the start of a second wave of American punk rock, and the blossoming of MacKaye's DIY (do-it-yourself) band philosophy, which mandates all-ages venues for concerts, $5 ceiling on admission, and budget-priced CDs. Serving as HQ for MacKaye's projects past and present is Dischord, the label he started in 1980 out of his parents' house in Northwest Washington, DC. In its twenty-year history, Dischord has evolved into one of punk rock's most enduring DIY symbols, a truly independent label run by MacKaye with no corporate affiliations -- and devoted exclusively to the recording and promotion of DC-area bands. To this day, Fugazi remains staunchly "indie," having refused numerous major label offers and devoting much more time to political causes and benefit concerts than press interviews or record promotion of the traditional sort. MacKaye and Fugazi are still going strong in the digital age, though it seems ironic that, in a time when the internet is giving aspiring musicians more control over their destinies than anyone ever thought possible, the king of DIY is almost apathetic about its promise. Asked whether he logged much time on the 'net himself, MacKaye had this to say: "Not really. I'll wait 'til I have no legs or something and then I'll stare at the computer. I'd rather go out for a walk." What's an average workday like for you when you're not on tour? Right now it's an awful lot of maintenance. One aspect of my life is that I've been involved with music for so long -- I've had a label for twenty years, been in the band thirteen years, I was in other bands before Fugazi that are still being talked about -- so the legacy, or stuff behind me, is still a part of what I'm doing. A lot of what I do is upkeep and making sure things are sort of all operating, like, if someone wants to use a Minor Threat song for something, I'm the one who's dealing with it. I haven't turned it over to somebody else to handle. Then, conversely, I figure out what the band's gonna do next -- I book the band and deal with the business of the band and stuff like that. Then of course there's Dischord, the label, that's an everyday business, stuff going out all the time that has to be addressed. Then there's also day-to-day stuff like "Uh-oh, this computer crashed," and stuff like that. And then I have band stuff, like practice three times a week, three or four hours a day at least, and trying to write music and trying to work on that. And then there's a ton of other little projects I'm involved with. I work with other bands, I give advice, help other labels get started, I'm working some very political stuff that I think is interesting that I'm trying to support. The days are insane. The thing is, [I have] more things to do than can ever be done, and some time years ago, I decided that instead of thinking of it as things that must be finished, I should just work as much as I can on them, and then feel kind of content that I've worked. I'm not foolin' myself that "Oh, the fields will be plowed." But dammit, I'm out there plowing anyway. You pretty much put DC on the map, musically. Was the scene there always happening, even before Minor Threat and Fugazi became known? ? I think it was a combination of things. On one hand, there was a lot interesting going on here, but a lot of those bands weren't 'hitting,' they weren't connecting with a lot of people outside of Washington. But also in the '70s, it was really difficult -- this was before punk rock. One thing that punk rock really changed is the idea of distribution, or how people heard music. Think about network television -- there's only three channels, and you're only gonna see what they give you. And that's sort of where rock-n-roll was. It was like the networks were just like these few major labels. But American kids in the late '70s and early '80s did something that nobody ever did. We didn't' wait around for a label to put us out, we took control and decided to put the music out ourselves. 1 | 2 | 3