Charlie Park

In this town I’ve always said “Don’t ask for permission, because the answer’s always no”. If you think about our work, when we started Dischord we didn’t register the name, we didn’t copyright the name — we still haven’t. We didn’t get a business licence, we didn’t get a lawyer — we’ve never had a lawyer. We didn’t have contracts, we just made records because that’s what record labels do. We didn’t ask for permission, we just did it. If we had asked for permission, and we tried to do it formally, then I don’t think we’d be having this conversation now. Being 18 years old, starting a record label and asking someone how you do this and they give you the formal structure? That would have taken the air outta that fuckin’ thing right away! I would have quit immediately. But instead we just went in and did it. With Fugazi, we just played so many shows in D.C., and with the exception of the shows that we did on Federal property — the park system, where we had to get permission from the park police — by and large we never asked for permission or a concert licence or anything. We just did the shows. It’s not hard to do! You need to learn that lesson — don’t ask, just do!