Henry Rollins has clarified that the project he’s working on with Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye does not actually feature either of them, and won’t include any new music from the pair. The four-song project is instead a remaster of a 1979 recording from another unnamed legendary punk band.
In a sad twist, it appears that hardcore legends Henry Rollins and Fugazi‘s Ian MacKaye aren’t actually writing new music together.
The misconception came after Rollins shared on his blog that he had entered the studio with fellow music legend MacKaye, revealing that they had recently mixed a four-song session.
“Weeks ago, I journeyed it to DC in order to work on a great project. Ian MacKaye and I went to Inner Ear Studios, where we made our first records decades ago and mixed a four song session with the great Don Zientara at the board. … We are extremely excited by this one.”
Well, Rollins has now come forward to clarify that those four songs were actually not their own. Instead, the duo were looking to remaster a demo they had received that was recorded in 1979. Rollins would issue the correction in a new post on his website, writing:
“Before anything else, I think I need to clear something up. Last week I told you that I went up to DC and mixed some tracks with Ian MacKaye at Inner Ear Studios in beautiful Arlington, VA. The tracks we mixed were not a collaborative effort, besides the mixing itself. I am not on the tape. Ian is not on the tape. Neither of us are on the tape,” Rollins would clarify.
“What we were working on was a demo, recorded in 1979, by a legendary Punk band that recently came into my possession. I had the tape baked and transferred by the very capable Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound in Nashville and had him send the tracks to Ian so he could take them to Inner Ear and get them loaded in.”
For all the old-school hardcore heads, this might feel like being stood up on a date by a high school sweetheart. Rollins would go on to write more about the process of the collaboration with MacKaye and how their shared love of the tracks are bringing these demos to light.
“The mix came together quite quickly because it was only eight tracks on one inch tape and the quality of the sounds were so good out of the gate, very little had to be done. The performances are fantastic. Ian and I played the mixes over and over days later and kept in touch to see if either one of us had any notes as to anything that needed to be changed and neither of us could find anything wrong with the work.”
The Black Flag frontman would go on further to mention that he had acquired permission from the unnamed punk band whose material he and MacKaye have been remastering.
“I contacted a member of the band and asked if I could release the tracks. I got permission and started preparing the tracks for release,” revealed Rollins. “We sent the final mixes to Pete, who mastered them and they’re really good. I’m going to be working in collaboration with Larry Hardy at In The Red Records and we’ll be releasing the demo as soon as possible, as a four song 12″ [record].”
“You might already know that Larry and I have been putting out very cool and often extremely rare tracks on 7” and 12” records over the last few years. In fact, we have a great one at the pressing plant right now. Once it’s back, I’ll tell you all about it. It’s super cool.”
A very unfortunate turn of events for fans, but who knows, maybe if we breathe in the copium, the new collaboration could spawn a creative spark between the two and inspire them to write material together. (Come on folks, there’s enough hopium for us all to breathe in together).
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