Creativity Quote by Greg Ginn

Ginn is laying down an anti-gloss aesthetic that doubles as a power move. “I listen to everything that comes in” sounds open-minded, but it’s also the posture of a gatekeeper who’s heard enough to trust his own internal lie detector. The key phrase is “I can hear through that sort of thing.” He’s not just dismissing demo quality; he’s claiming a kind of x-ray hearing, a producer’s authority that doesn’t need the usual industry cues (money, polish, studio time) to validate talent.

In the punk and hardcore ecosystem Ginn helped define, this matters. Demo “sound quality” often measures access more than ability: who has gear, who can pay for studio hours, who knows the right engineer. By treating fidelity as irrelevant, he’s positioning the scene as meritocratic, or at least performance-first. It’s a backhand to the mainstream pipeline where production can mask mediocrity and marketing can substitute for musicianship.

But there’s subtext: this is also a defense of the label/curator’s taste. If you can “hear through” rough recordings, you can justify signing raw bands, releasing abrasive records, and keeping standards anchored to energy, tightness, and conviction rather than radio-ready sheen. “If a band can play, then they can play” is almost tautological on purpose: a blunt ethic meant to cut through hype. It’s punk’s refusal to apologize for sounding imperfect, paired with a demand that the imperfection be earned.