fugazi ! a Feature by jacinta (Jacinta Walpole) Dear Jacinta, Joe Lally, bass player from fugazi here. I've never done an internet interview but I'm ready to go. Send it and I'll do my best to finish it in the next few days. Ciao Joe Joe Lally [photo by John Falls... i have cropped this from a splendid photo that John falls took, which you can view from the related web site attached to this story] (submitted by jacinta.) jay: How did you start playing bass? joe: A friend from high school (Peter Cortner) and I were at a Minor Threat show and we decided that we'd start a band when he returned from school in New York. He wanted to sing so I said I'd play bass. I always thought I could play bass from listening to Joy Division who had very simple but very effective bass lines. I just went out and bought a bass and amp and cabinet and waited for Peter to come back from school. So we formed a band called Lunch Box. I think our first show was in a friend's mother's hair salon. She had an artist's pictures on the wall and wanted a band for the opening. Jay: Who do you admire music-wise? Joe: I admire a lot of musicians for their singing, songwriting ability, and musicianship. That includes the people in my band. Arthur Lee comes to mind, Scott (Wino) Weinrich of the Obsessed and now Shine, Louis Armstrong, the list is endless I suppose. Jay: What type of music are you into at the moment? Joe: I've been listening to all kinds of things. Yesterday it was Stinking Lizaveta (a 3 piece instrumental outfit from Philadelphia), Rogerio Duprat (a composer from Brazil who I don't know too much about), Shine (a band I just released a single with on my microscopic label, Tolotta. They are from Maryland near where I grew up), Branch Manager (a band on Dischord), and Pure Elegance (a go-go band from D.C.). jay: Have you had much of a chance to see/hear young australian punk-rock? joe: Not too much other than who we've played with there. My ears suffer a lot on tour so I don't always appreciate an opening band as much as I would otherwise. jay: How do you feel about electronic music... some of your songs seem to have an element of 'dub' about them in the 'red medicine' album. joe: I always liked Kraftwerk and I like some new electronic music I've heard. Yes we have a dub-like mix of a song on our last record. Are electronic music and dub related? I suppose so. jay: Who would you most like to interview? joe: At the moment, Rita Lee, from a Brazilian rock band of the '60s and '70s, Os Mutantes. She probably wouldn't want to talk about that so much though since she's still doing music and I'm not familiar with her recent recordings. I imagine it's difficult to interview, but I'd like to talk with some people. jay: Who was the legend behind Sweet and Low? It's one of my faves . . . it's a punk lullaby, smooth and viscous. This song is bass honey. It breaks my heart over and over every time I play it. joe: I wrote the bass line that prompted Sweet and Low. It may be that my significant other had left me at the time. I almost wrote words for that. jay: What's the dumbest thing you've ever done? joe: Practically stalking the first girl I was in love with when I was 14. Sorry Stephanie. jay: If you weren't playing in a band what would you be doing? joe: Trying to get a band together. jay: What's your favourite noise? joe: Shine. jay: What do you do outside fugazi? Well, actually none of my business. How do you feel always being asked Q's like this? Do you answer them? joe: Everything I do sounds dull so I'll skip that. jay: Is it annoying being a 'straight edge political band'? Do you ever feel like the message overides the music? joe: It's not annoying because, WE'RE NOT A POLITICAL STRAIGHT-EDGE BAND!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously though, we're not. jay: Will fugazi go on forever? What happens when it ends . . . or won't it end? I think I read somewhere that there is a film being made by u guys... joe: I won't know about the end until it is here. We're working on a film of live footage (super 8, 16 mm. shot by a friend and video by fans) that we want to make available on video from Dischord. jay: What would you like to be remembered for? joe: Being a decent human being. I'm not saying it will come to pass, after Stephanie and everything jay: A friend of mine took a photo [I think it was in italy] of a little old house with the name 'fugazi' on it. My friend took it to a fugazi gig and gave it to someone in the band. Maybe Ian or Guy, one of the two, anyway Ian or Guy put it on their wall when they returned home to America. Then coincidently a friend of my friend's happened to be in America in the same town and she met one of the fugazi lads and went to their apartment and low and behold there is her friend's/my friend's little old fugazi house photo on the wall, so she takes a photo of the photo on the wall and some photos of the lads from the 'gazi and sends them to her friend/my friend . . . now isn't that the loveliest thing. IS IT TRUE? From all the evidence I can figure it is. joe: I believe that's true. Watch this space for a [maybe] Ian Mackaye interview . . . soon Related Web Site Created on Mon, 17 Nov 1997 and last modified on Mon, 4 May 1998.

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