The online musical universe has become Balkanized, with many sites focusing on minute niches. That works well for reaching very specific demographics, which is wonderful for advertising, but it flies in the face of the common wisdom that people's tastes have become more diverse as music of any description has become a mouse-click away.

There's a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.

I just wanted to tell the story of a bunch of musicians who had never had their story told before. There's no preaching or theorizing.

People didn't get to see how other towns interpreted the underground ethos, and so they developed their own unique versions of it.

I would roll out of bed and immediately start working, and keep working until it was so late at night that I couldn't stay awake anymore. Then I'd go to sleep and wake up the next morning and do the same thing all over again. I did that every day for three years.

Back in the day, in '91 or so, I tried to interview Fugazi for Rolling Stone, which the band felt stood for everything they detested about corporate infiltration of music. They said, 'We'll do the interview if you give us a million dollars of cash in a suitcase.' Which was their way of saying no.

I really believe in the power of music - and I mean literally the power of musical tones - to rearrange the way you can think.