When you're writing, you're only a brain and some fingers, but drumming, you're involving all four limbs, and you're hearing stuff and you're converting your ideas into physical motions, getting physical feedback from things you are touching - it's pretty cool. It's a really a nice contrast to writing.
Michael AzerradThere'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.
Michael AzerradThe American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.
Michael AzerradI 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.
Michael AzerradTen percent of the American population thinks that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Those are the people that have not learned the skill of filtering information from the vast barrage of inaccurate information that we're all faced with everyday. I think that's a very 21st century skill.
Michael AzerradTo begin with, the key principle of American indie rock wasn't a circumscribed musical style; it was the punk ethos of DIY, or do-it-yourself. The equation was simple: If punk was rebellious and DIY was rebellious, then doing it yourself was punk. 'Punk was about more than just starting a band,' former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt once said, 'it was about starting a label, it was about touring, it was about taking control. It was like songwriting; you just do it. You want a record, you pay the pressing plant. That's what it was all about.'
Michael Azerrad