Brendan Canty says “there is always a lingering chance Fugazi will reunite”

"If it was up to me, we’d be out there playing, but it’s not that easy"

Brenden Canty has opened up about the potential of a Fugazi reunion, revealing that there is “always a lingering chance” of the band reuniting.

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The drummer of the legendary D.C. DIY hardcore band – comprised of Canty, Ian Mackaye, Guy Picciotto and Joe Lally – appeared as a guest in a new video interview with White Lake Productions and opened up about Fugazi and the possibility of a reunion.

“There’s always a lingering chance that we’re going to get back together, and I mean it becomes less and less likely, but there were times throughout the last 22 years that we have gotten together and played for sometimes a week at a time, and we always see each other in town, and we’re always working on other reissue projects,” Canty shared.

He continued: “I mean, we’re just in each other’s lives a lot so, you know, it’s not up to me whether we get the band back together. If it was up to me, we’d be out there playing, but it’s not that easy.”

Formed in 1986 after the disbandment of MacKaye’s band Minor Threat, Fugazi became well-known for their DIY ethos within the hardcore scene, releasing all of their music via Dischord Records – MacKaye’s independent label – and their prioritisation of keeping ticket prices affordable and their emphasis on creating community within the scene.

The band released six studio albums within their career, with the final LP being 2001’s ‘The Argument’. Fugazi went on an “indefinite hiatus” following the end of their 2002 UK tour, following three sold-out shows at London’s O2 Forum in Kentish Town.

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In a previous interview from 2011 with the Approaching Oblivion blog, MacKaye revealed that the band had been “offered an insane amount of money to play reunions” but shared that “it’s not going to be money that brings us back together, we would only play music together if we wanted to play music together and the time allowed it.”

In 2019, Lally and Canty were interviewed by Louder Sound and discussed the possibility of a reunion with Lally saying: “You never want to say never about anything, because how can you say that about the future? But there does seem to be a lack of time to allow it to happen, because the four of us would have to spend a lot of time together to figure out, ‘Should we play old songs?’ ‘Who are we now?’ ‘What is it now?’ We are not the kind of band to get together and just rehearse two hours of old songs to go out and play it, rake in the dough and come home.”

Canty added: “If we got back together it would have to be from the spirit of creativity. It would be different if we got back together.