Ian MacKaye

Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye (born April 16, 1962) is an American musician.

Ian MacKaye was born in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 1962, and grew up in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. His father was a writer for the Washington Post, first as a White House reporter, then as a religion specialist; the senior MacKaye remains active with the socially progressive St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.

In his capacities as a journalist in the White House Press Corps, MacKaye's father was in the presidential motorcade when John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963.

MacKaye's paternal grandmother was Dorothy Cameron Disney MacKaye.

She worked with Paul Popenoe on marriage advice columns and was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club.

His grandfather was Milton MacKaye, also a magazine writer as well as an executive with the Office of War Information.

According to MacKaye's longtime friend, singer Henry Rollins, MacKaye's parents "raised their kids in a tolerant, super-intellectual, open-minded atmosphere."

MacKaye first learned to play piano as a child.

He eventually took lessons, but quit when his mother placed him in a more academic environment.

He first attempted guitar at around ten due to inspirations such as Jimi Hendrix, but again he quit when he was unable to understand the connection between piano and guitar.

Active since 1979, he is best known as the co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label, and the frontman of hardcore punk band Minor Threat and post-hardcore band Fugazi.

MacKaye was also the bassist for the short-lived band the Teen Idles, and frontman for Embrace, and Pailhead, a collaboration with the band Ministry.

MacKaye listened to many types of music, but was especially fond of mainstream hard rock such as Ted Nugent and Queen before discovering punk music in 1979 when he saw The Cramps perform at nearby Georgetown University.

He was particularly influenced by the California hardcore scene.

MacKaye looked up to hardcore bands like Bad Brains and Black Flag and was childhood friends with Henry Garfield (who later changed his name to Henry Rollins).

MacKaye's first band consisted of one performance as the Slinkees in the summer of 1979, performing a song titled "I Drink Milk."

The band also recorded two demo tapes of covers as well as songs that would later be recorded by the Teen Idles.

The Slinkees evolved into the Teen Idles, in which MacKaye played bass guitar and sang back up vocals.

The band was short-lived, breaking up in 1980, but released an EP, Minor Disturbance, the first record from MacKaye and bandmate Jeff Nelson's newly-founded label, Dischord Records.

After feeling creatively limited in the Teen Idles, MacKaye was determined to be the frontman and primary lyricist for his own band.

He founded Minor Threat (1980–1983) with Nelson after the break up of their previous band.

MacKaye cited the dynamic performance of singer Joe Cocker in Woodstock as a major influence on his own animated stage persona.

The Teen Idles and Minor Threat were modestly successful in and around Washington, D.C., but would later be cited as two of the earliest and most influential hardcore punk groups, and as pioneers of the straight edge philosophy that rejects use of drugs (including alcohol), tobacco, and sex.

In his early teens, MacKaye saw the negative effects of drug abuse on several close friends and one immediate family member, and he vowed to never use tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs.

During their existence Minor Threat were inactive for several months due to Lyle Preslar being at college; during this hiatus MacKaye and Nelson briefly formed a new band which dissolved when Minor Threat reunited, Skewbald/Grand Union (1981–1982).

After Minor Threat broke up, MacKaye was active with several relatively short-lived groups, including Embrace (1985–1986) and Egg Hunt (1986).

Pailhead (1987–1988), a collaboration between MacKaye and the industrial metal band Ministry, then consisting of Al Jourgensen, Paul Barker, and William Rieflin, featured MacKaye on lead vocals.

In 1987, MacKaye founded Fugazi, a band that has been cited as one of the most important post-hardcore groups.

Fugazi set itself apart from most other bands by never playing a show with high-priced tickets.

They would often turn down venue options for this very rule, and the band would go so far as to stop a show and have unruly concert goers escorted out of the venue – complete with a refund of their ticket money.

The band famously turned down at least one offer to headline Lollapalooza because festival organizers refused to price tickets cheaply; MacKaye objected to the $30 ticket price.

MacKaye also has never conducted an interview with Rolling Stone magazine or any other similar publication, stating he would only do so if the magazine agreed to not advertise cigarettes or alcohol.

MacKaye currently sings and plays baritone guitar in The Evens with drummer and vocalist Amy Farina of the Warmers.

The band pride themselves on playing in non-standard locations, such as community centres, bookshops, or other atypical spaces.

MacKaye is a member of The Evens, a two-piece indie rock group he formed with his wife Amy Farina in 2001 and in 2018 formed the band Coriky with Farina and his Fugazi band mate Joe Lally.

Along with his seminal band Minor Threat, he is credited with coining the term "straight edge" a philosophy that promotes abstinence from alcohol and other drugs, though MacKaye has stated that he did not intend to turn it into a movement.

A key figure in the development of hardcore punk and an independent-minded, do-it-yourself punk ethic, MacKaye has produced releases by Q and Not U, John Frusciante, 7 Seconds, Nation of Ulysses, Bikini Kill, Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty and Rollins Band.

The Evens released their self-titled album in early 2005, breaking a three-year silence by MacKaye.

Their second album, Get Evens, was released in November 2006.

On September 22 they announced on Dischord Records' website: "The Evens are currently mixing a new record, due out at the end of this year (or early 2013 at the latest)."