Friday, June 24, 2011
Music Minor Threat's Ian Mackaye Talks Religion, Fear of Death and the Sanctity of Music, to Jewish Publication, Tablet
Posted by Sydney Brownstone on Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 3:58 PM
Interviewer David Samuels grew up in a strict Orthodox community, but found a sacred sort of fervor in MacKaye's music, his movement, relating it back to a formative experience at a Minor Threat concert in 1983, when Samuels was just 16 years-old. The interview is less of a series of questions, and more an engaged conversation on a number of topics—religion, 9/11, death, community, music and silence.
On the intersection of sanctity, music, religion and community, MacKaye had this to say:
Straight up, I think music is sacred. I think music is a form of communication that predates language. Music predates religion, it predates business, it predates all of that stuff. It’s serious. It’s not a fucking joke. I’m not a Christian, I’m not a Jew, I’m not a damn anything. I’m not a team member. I understand why people are drawn to that, I respect it, even. But for me there’s something that’s even deeper, more sacred than all that, which is human beings figuring out how to gather. Music can set us free in that moment. And if we’re in a room with other people who are all being affected this way, then you get into that mass energy, this thing that can be really cathartic. And I think it is a really deeply important thing to have happen, catharsis. To go off.The problem is, because people are drawn to it, because it’s so fucking important, people always say, “How can I set up a tollbooth there?” How can I get them to come to my place, so I can charge them and make money from their rite, their ritual.
And another nugget from the Tao of MacKaye:
(...) I think that people, if they could make peace with incomprehensibility, then I think we would live better in this world.
Put that one in your peace pipe and (don't) smoke it. You can read the full interview here.
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