At the Incubate DIY conference 2011, English punk legend Steve Ignorant was interviewed by writer and BBC commentator John Robb. John Robb writes for The Observer, The Guardian and The Independent and will interview Ignorant about DIY, Crass’ and Ignorant’s aesthetic and his autobiography The Rest is Propaganda.

In 1977 Ignorant co-founded, together with Penny Rimbaud, the anarcho-punk band Crass. With Crass, Steve Ignorant was one of the driving forces of the Do-it-yourself movement, and therefore a major influence on the punk movement. Crass was one of the first bands to arrange their own concerts and record sales without interference from the music industry and asked fans to make their own merchandise.

Next week at the Incubate DIY Conference, John Robb, writer, BBC commentator and singer of the band Goldblade will do an interview with Steve Ignorant, one of the founders of legendary anarcho-punkband Crass. With Crass, Ignorant was one of the driving forces of the DIY movement, and therefore a major influence on the punk movement. John Robb writes for The Observer, The Guardian and The Independent and will interview Ignorant about DIY, Crass’ and Ignorant’s aesthetic and his autobiography The Rest is Propaganda.

In advance to the interview between Ignorant and Robb, Dutch punk rockband Antillectual (who played Incubate last year) put down some questions for John Robb on paper about… Well, DIY and punk rock of course, but also on the digital revolution, the traditional music industry, The Ramones (so, punk rock again), the social contents of new bands, piracy and the corporate world, cutbacks on art and music funding and the legacy of Crass.

Check out the first part of the interview at the Eerste Hulp Bij Plaatopnamen website. The introduction is in Dutch, but the interview is in English. The second part will appear online tomorrow. Interested in hearing more? Join us next week, September 16 at the DIY Conference. Be sure to get a ticket in advance here.

Here’s a short piece of the interview:

“There is still lots of young people thinking and feeling things: the student demonstrations, the anti-globalization movement, it may not be in the charts but who gives a fuck about the charts? I think the gains made by the counter culture are so much part of the mainstream now that no-one notices them any more, they seem normal.”