Ian MacKaye Quotes

And, uh, I've got about six thousand cartoons up there, also books and papers.

Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to start a record label.

I have four warehouses full of stuff. I have every boarding pass of every flight I've ever been on. I have all the old contracts that we had from all the clubs and concerts we played, every one of them, up from 1980. Guitar picks and amps - it goes on and on.

I make records all the time. But making records is not quite the same as getting them to the audience.

I don't have a manager who's secretly on Interscope. I'm the complete opposite of an industry plant.

We've been lucky. Even as a young, local-level band, we were able to rise out of the local scene without having any debt, without having signed the wrong deal with the wrong manager or the wrong booker or a small label.

The record companies don't give you a chance, like in the old days when they went, 'Here's a pile of money. Go make a good record!'

I always knew I was going to do something with music, but with my whole family being in the business, acting was something that was just mine. But when I was 20 or 21, I started writing songs and felt the itch to make a record.

Four times a year, Warner Bros. Records send out their little statements, and they're like eight pages with all the countries from all over the world, and I end up getting a check for $48. But I think, obviously, the Ramones make some good money, because they must get a writer's share from the Rock 'N' Roll High School.

I think as consumers Europeans are a lot more artist loyal irrespective of the genre of music or the type of project or the collaborative effort, and Americans are more media-loyal, because they need to be fed that media to know what's going on, because we're so inundated with promotion and marketing and everything that's going on - advertising.

I think there is no culture in which music is not very important and central. That's why I think of us as a sort of musical species.

The writing of the record didn't take long, because I just have a huge stack of papers and I just pluck from the stack. It took a long time because it's very expensive to make records; in fact, I think it's a complete rip-off.

I entered a songwriting competition, I didn't win, and one of the judges on the panel was an A&R man at a record label that had no other acts and I signed to them. We sent my demo out to five people and David Kahne got back to me that day, and said I think you're amazing I want to start with you tomorrow. He was like my Harvard reach school, I couldn't believe it. I was really excited. It was the first time anyone of any importance said I was good and I ran with that validation for a long time.

Everybody just lets the media do their thinking for them... that's why you'll never hear any reggae on the radio!

I know texture is really important, but I think texture and stuff precedes songwriting a lot of the time these days.

I was raised playing music in coffeehouses and I feel that was the foundation for my career. I think it is important that we remember where we came from.

I think as a music listener you have your rock and roll dreams. I personally wouldn't want to apply that necessarily, mainly because I love music too much to mess it up.

I was fortunate enough to have gone through the major label process and kind of have the inside scoop on some things, some information I wouldn't have normally had. To go from a major to an independent, I don't think it's an easy transition.

I'll say about Fueled By Ramen is, I don't know what anyone else's experience has been, but we signed to them as Fun. We already had a fanbase, we already had music out there so when they signed us they were signing our vision. I always think it's so weird when people think that Fueled By Raman are trying to change us or mould us into something else, as we weren't a bunch of kids playing in a garage who joined a label and then collectively worked on a vision, like, they signed us with the intention of letting us be Fun.

I like pop music because it can really affect a large amount of people and if I tell stories and spread messages that I think are really important for people to be aware of, I would want it to be on the biggest platform and I feel like pop is that. I use it as a way to tell stories.

There is such a thing as good interference from your record label. I don't think I get enough interference from my record label.

I think the most important thing about what musicians do is the music. You can be as big an arsehole as you want but if you're not making good music, you won't get away with it.

When you get a certain amount of media attention, I think people are like, "Where's your other album?"

Today on social media, you can release anything and everybody will hear it. Back in the day, that was your only outlet, getting a deal with a record company and them distributing it around the world.

My contract with mercury PolyGram Nashville was about to expire. And I never had really been happy. The company, the record company, just didn't put any promotion behind me. I think one album, maybe the last one I did, they pressed 500 copies. And I was just disgusted with it. And about that time that I got to feeling that way, Lou Robin, my manager, came to me and talked to me about a man called Rick Rubin that he had been talking to that wanted me to sign with his record company.