Aaron Margosis’ Interview with Ian MacKaye
By Lewis Reining
Picture originally from the Ian MacKaye biography on the Dischord Records’ site
During our 2014 Rock Marathon, Aaron Margosis aired an interview he had done with Ian MacKaye on all things music and record label related. WAMU 88.5 in Washington, DC recently rehosted the interview and transcribed highlights of the interview.
My interest in the record industry itself is actually extremely low. In fact I generally think of it as pretty odious. So in some ways, the only way to get my music out, the only way I would feel comfortable doing it, is really by putting it out myself. But in terms of the business, I can’t stand it. Never used a contract on the label ever, no contracts. No lawyer. Don’t have a lawyer. Never had a lawyer. I think a lot of times people felt that Dischord—the approach we had, Dischord was too idealistic. But considering that the label is now 33 years old and we have a staff of four or five people who are at least reasonably paid with health care and so forth, I’m wondering if we’re real yet. I suspect we are. Maybe we weren’t too idealistic after all.
You can listen to the interview here:
And if you want to read the conversation, you can visit WAMU’s website.
