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Ian MacKaye Prepares For Another Long Day of Documentary Interviews

DISCHORD HOUSE — Only hours after getting off of his last shift, Ian Mackaye is already preparing for another long day at the office. At 52, the hardcore pioneer hasn’t slowed down one bit and currently works a back-breaking 60 hours a week getting interviewed by various documentary crews.

“We cut and folded each 7-inch cover by hand, you know? We took some apart and just looked at them and figured it out – it wasn’t meant to be a movement,” MacKaye rehearses to himself while gently laying out his favorite red hat on the bed for tomorrow’s shoot. 

As one of hardcore’s earliest pioneers, MacKaye is widely considered to be one of the best sources of insight and perspective into the Washington D.C. hardcore scene he helped create as a teen. Now, the aging punk icon is often unable to leave his chair for over 24 hours at a time as multiple film crews rotate in and out of his office interviewing him for documentaries on a surprisingly wide range of topics.

“I never thought after all of these years anyone would still be asking me about ‘Guilty of Being White.’ I also never thought I would be interviewed for a documentary about a minor league baseball team that only existed in Mexico during the 1930s but, hey, all I do is answer the questions they give me,” MacKaye said.

MacKaye’s insight into the Russian space program during the height of the Cold War may be limited, but that didn’t stop a film crew from interviewing him for several hours about the most minute details of the topic.

Related: Members of “Guilty of Being White” Say It Was the Last Song Name Available

“Well, I’m not sure exactly which brand of water recycling system the cosmonauts used, but I can say that I didn’t mean to start a movement,” MacKaye said to one film crew. “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t fuck. I think that relates to both American kids growing up in the ’80s and cosmonauts alike.”

Words by The Hard Times Staff. Picture by Marvin Joseph.

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11 Comments

  1. Bob Rob January 19, 2015

    Is this article going to be followed up by Keith Morris one about how he rebelled against Peter Frampton and the decline of the American Family in the 80’s?

  2. Bob Fart January 19, 2015

    Who’s Ian MacKaye?

    • Alex January 19, 2015

      lead singer of Black Flag you idiot

      • less idiot January 19, 2015

        Black Flag? Who’s the idiot here? Try Minor Threat or Fugazi.

      • resdee January 20, 2015

        Brillinat mate! The dude below is an absolute morrrron…

    • beastman January 19, 2015

      He also formed the first emo band, the Get Up Kids.

    • rantsloth January 21, 2015

      he plays in some band called the evens but i dont go to shows at libraries

  3. Jim Russo January 19, 2015

    There is a Screen Actor’s Guild Union mandate that explicitly states that “…any documentary must contain the minimum of 4 1/2 minutes of commentary by Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, Keith Morris and Thurston Moore, et al.,….regardless of subject matter or theme.”

  4. Daniel January 21, 2015

    He is the guy with sheep’s on his shirt at urban outfitters you can buy that red hat and shirt as a combo I saw the card board cut out of him by the Shia labuff transformer shirts aND the i love boobies ones . I didn’t know he was in black flag,I just thought he was another fashion designer , or tv star like that Keith Rollins guy from the tv show with the bikers on fx. Is he guy with the danzig tattooes ? I don’t know what the discord house is ,must be the fashion design school he went to in the 80s.

  5. Jim Russo January 28, 2015

    Interesting fact: Ian Mackaye has yet to appear in a documentary about….Ian Mackaye…

  6. Ian Mackaye January 29, 2015

    I think punk is a presentation of ideas. Ya know? And ideas…they don’t neccessarly make you money but that’s okay. You should do it because you love it.

    This article is interesting. Kinda like The Evens(Not a plug). I mean you don’t really want to listen to them but you jacked off really hard to Out of Step when you were 14 so your semen gets nostalgiac. I get it.

    What do you expect though? I’m a dad now. I mean my child was born through D.I.Y. Do it yourself. I wanted to have a child. So I just did it myself. I had sex with my wife. I put flyers in my wifes vagina. I did it all. All myself. I even gave birth to the baby myself.

    What i’m really trying to say is hardcore punk ended cause of all of the fighting.

    I personally apologize for Alec Mackaye.

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