smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Michael Carpenter" <Stagefright@msn.com.au> |
| Subject | Re: Elephantine Album Gestations |
| Date | Sun, 1 Aug 2004 12:04:49 +1000 |
[Part 1 text/plain iso-8859-1 (6.2 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
Jason wrote..
>
> Exactly, and as long as artists who are as talented as Michael Carpenter
are
> recording and releasing records, I'm going to be buying them. But I don't
> mean to heap all the blame on the artists, either--I think the labels are
as
> much a part of the equation--if not more--and it seems that one of the
major
> problems is that albums get shelved to wait for the right spot in a
promotional
> cycle. Obviously you want to maximize your exposure each time out, but
> there's definitely a limit to how long this should wait. It's nice that
there are
> labels like NotLame and artists like MC who do break this mold. --Jason
Firstly, thanks for the kind words Jason. It's truly this kind of support
that makes it all worthwhile..
I totally agree with what you are saying about the artist not being totally
at fault. I think i do as much as i can partly BECAUSE i'm not discouraged,
or talked out of projects. Bruce in particular has always been supportive of
following ideas through and seeing them become reality. It made me think of
another scenario, that i hope you all don't mind me relaying..
I play with another band who are in a strange situation. Their debut album
was on a semi-major. It did ok.. not a million seller.. but solid. I'm
certain they didn't recoup though, but i thought it was a good foundation.
So it comes time to talk about album 2. The label says they're unsure about
committing to album 2, and ask for a single to see how that fares. The
artists decide that would force them into the corner of having to produce a
'hit', and are dissappointed with the lack of long term vision of the label,
so they part ways with the label.
Meanwhile, they're writing like crazy, without a label, and just start
recording anyway. They start to accumulate a great catalogue of fantastic
finished recordings. I have a CDR of what should have been an amazing 12
song album from 12 months ago. But having been dropped, labels seem very
hesitant. So they keep writing and recording. They toss up the idea of self
releasing, but they still believe that they'll find a home for this stuff.
Aware of the fact that they already have too many songs, they do a low key
mini album of songs they think won't make this mythical 2nd album. And yet
they keep writing and recording, and the material is consistently fantastic.
Finally get to the point where there's 25 finished tracks as we speak. They
do find a label now who are interested. They say they're 100% behind the
artist. They say there's one DEFINITE hit (whatever that means). But also
say they won't take the band on unless they can write another song 'just
like' the hit.
IN the meantime, it's 3 years since the first album was released. 18 months
since their peak exposure (songs on the radio, toured with Counting Crows).
Not only that, but they have this incredible catalogue of finished material,
that they're now second guessing the value of because they have no idea what
it is they're trying to do. For a project that should be celebrating how
great it is, they're now in a mess of paranoia, self doubt and forced into
the situation where they have to try to 'catch lightning' a second time.
In my mind, they should have gone for a smaller label or self released. They
had a nice little fan base to build upon, that has now substantially eroded.
They could have done an album a year for the last 3 years. They would have
had a substantial body of work that they could have built upon and shopped
around with each album. They would have been more visible in the market
place, and hailed as prolific and consistent. And i doubt they would have
been financially much worse off..
So, i guess that's the flip side of my fortunate situation. the worst part
about the above scenario is that i feel their creative confidence has been
severely compromised. When i see these people going back and trying to remix
songs that were finished 18 months ago to try to fit a format, i know that
the wheels are on the verge of falling off..
Jaimie then wrote..
>
> Just to play devil's advocate here for a minute, people do have to realize
> that labels are at the mercy of economic cycles as well.
>
<snip>
>
> And this is something FANS don't necessarily comprehend...nor should
> they....but in many cases there are REASONS why albums don't come out
right
> away.
This is of course a good point. There are limited windows to release
throughout the year. But i'd agree with this only to a point. My label in
the UK advised to hold up the release of Kingsrdworks for about 6 months.
They believed that rather than releasing in Sept/October 2002, it should be
January 2003, which of course turned to February. They believed i had a
better shot at coverage in mags like Mojo, Uncut etc if i wasn't competing
with major label releases. Despite being frustrated at this prospect, i went
along with it, passing up a better opportunity to do my big world tour in
about October 2002, and knowing that i'd already made a start on songs that
are on the new album. But i had faith in the label's decision. So the album
comes out, and i didn't get the exposure anyway. I toured at a time later
that was a bit difficult for me, and in hindsight my band fell apart in that
6 months due to lack of activity. On top of that, there didn't sem to be
much point in working on new stuff.
So in the aftermath of all that, we're releasing this new album in
September. Between juggling Spanish summer, the oncoming Xmas rush, and the
fact that by the end of the year i'll have projects backing up, we've
decided to take our chances and see where the album falls.
I think there's a case for knowing which battles to fight, and i think we
all became realistic about our expectations for this record, and i guess my
career. I doubt Mojo will ever do a feature story on me. I don't do videos,
am not touring, don't have major label hype behind me etc. There's a big
chance the very things we could wait and wait for may not happen anyway. And
for an artist with a lot coming up, to wait 6 more months for something you
can't control at all would kill me. That doesn't mean i'm giving up on the
new album. More to the point, i think my few fans out there would prefer to
keep things moving rather than have to wait.
But that's just my opinion..
Thanks for listening..
MC
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.