Photo courtesy Scott Russell

This was the Three Stars interview that we thought wouldn’t happen. Initially, The Fordists balked at the idea of having their thoughts and opinions in print for the District (and the DCist staff) to take the wrong way. And while the philosophy of Lee Elmore, George Weissgerber and Jason Lobe toward music and what it means to be a musician might run slightly against the prevailing grain, these opinions aren’t anything new or dangerous. The dream that they’re living is being able to play music that they feel good about for their friends. It’s the sheer passion for the work that really defines the Fordists, and their apprehension stemmed from whether they’d be seen as anything besides people who clearly put a lot of thought into everything they do. It’s hardly a new outlook on music, but it’s always a good one.

The music itself is a raucous, dissonant mess of shouted vocals and angular rhythms and riffs that owe as much to post-punk as to hardcore. How the songs begin won’t necessarily give clues to where they end. An uptempo beginning with squeaky guitar work might not seem like it would lead to slow, loping basslines and drum beats and maybe a semi-melodic end to what had been a very fast rhythm-driven tune might also seem unexpected. But this is where The Fordists excel at taking hints from bands like Frodus or Fugazi and really twist them until the songs are purely their own.

After a truly frightening car ride through Northwest DC soundtracked by STNNNG’s Dignified Sissy, we sat down with The Fordists to get some more insight into their philosophy on performance spaces, who they consider to be truly interesting artists and why they don’t use the term DIY to describe their ethos.

Find them online: http://www.myspace.com/thefordists

See them next at: August 1 at the Kansas House (900 N Kansas Street, Arlington)