Ian Folke Svenonius[2][3] is an American author, filmmaker, and musician with various Washington, D.C.–based punk bands including Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up, Weird War, XYZ, Too Much, Escape-ism, and Chain & the Gang.

After a short-lived side-project called Cupid Car Club, Svenonius formed the Make-Up in 1995, who combined garage rock, soul, and liberation theology to make a new genre they dubbed "Gospel Yeh-Yeh".

Svenonius' solo work includes the 2001 album Play Power under the fictional pseudonym of David Candy,[5] the books The Psychic Soviet,[6] Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group, Censorship Now!

In a later interview, Svenonius explained the reason for the split: "Nation of Ulysses broke up because the epoch changed with the advent of digital music and the Nirvana explosion.

[18][19][20] The band's aversion to American culture was expressed through their self-styled musical genre "Gospel Yeh-Yeh", a belief system through which they advocated to their audience to "get theirs" and to "off the pigs in all their forms".

[15] Appropriating gospel music's use of the congregate as a "fifth member", the Make-Up incorporated audience participation through call and response vocals, lyrical "discussion" techniques, and destruction of the fourth wall by physical transgression.

[15] The Make-Up dissolved in 2000, reportedly "due to the large number of counter-gang copy groups which had appropriated their look and sound and applied it to a vacuous and counter-revolutionary forms".

[22] These collaborators soon left to pursue other projects, and the band briefly changed its name to The Scene Creamers, with Svenonius on vocals, Michelle Mae on bass, Alex Minoff on guitar, and Blake Brunner on drums.

Weird War claims that they are "the sole answer to the hype-based careerism, empty formalism and vacuity which has infected what was once a genuinely creative underground rock 'n' roll scene".

Some of the musicians featured on these records are Calvin Johnson, Brett Lyman (Bad Thoughts/M'Ladys's Records), Fiona Campbell (Vivian Girls/Coasting), Sarah Pedal, Katie Alice Greer (Priests), Faustine Hudson (The Curious Mystery), Brian Weber (Dub Narcotic Sound System), Veronica Ortuño (Finally Punk/Carrots), Nicolaas Zwart (Desolation Wilderness), Karl Blau, Chris Sutton (Hornet Leg, The Gossip), Sixx (The Vibrarians), Arrington de Dionyso, Aaron Hartman, Benjamin Hartman (Old Time Relijun), Anna Nasty (Olivia Neutron-John), and Francy Graham.

Play Power was part of a series of "Magazine-Style Records" which included other imaginary acts such as Death by Chocolate, Maria Napoleon, and Lollipop Train.

[27] As host of the VBS.TV online show Soft Focus, Svenonius interviews guests such as Ian MacKaye, Genesis P-Orridge, Adam Horovitz, Cat Power and Will Oldham in front of a live audience at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

[32][33] The writing addresses topics such as the ascent of the DJ as a "star", the "cosmic depression" that followed the defeat of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Cold War, and the status of rock and roll as a religion.