From the DVD extras of "D.I.Y. OR DIE: Burn This DVD" (the DVD of my film "D.I.Y. OR DIE: How To Survive as an Independent Artist") www.diyordie.org Interview: Kime Phuong Le Camera: Jonathan Buchanan
Control of the means of music/record production is infinitely more important than turning a "profit". Selling out gives the means of production to bosses, who are totally profit-driven. As a musician, you no longer have control or the ability to make decisions.
nothing more??? He's arguably part of three of the BEST noise bands ever that's all. Oh yeah, and he produces underground bands for cheap and overcharges signed bands.
What amazes me is that in the days of Big Black, he used to hang up the phone when Major Labels called him, how did he know these things even then? I would imagine you would need to see yourself or others get taken advantage of before you could know what the labels were capable of. He's a smart guy.
keeblin he observed major labels court and then abuse a lot of the bands that he produced for like Nirvana, Jawbreaker, Urge Overkill (I'm not sure he produced them. But had a close relationship with them on T+G)
"When a band is thrust in front of me... wiggled like a severed head... it makes me hate them." I feel like radio has ruined a lot of decent bands for me that way.
Dude, I love you and support you so much that I sat through that commercial hoping it got you something from Adsense. Keep up the good work and I'll catch you down the road.
@Joshello I agree. Have you ever read an article he wrote called The problem with the Music business? (Something to that nature) He nails it! As a musician in a working band I book our shows, do all publicity, make any and all phone contacts, etc. Everyone says get a Booking agent. Maybe at some point but not now, not until we're making money right now we're paying for ourself so not losing.
As a matter of fact Nirvana were thrust in front of me like that with their Nevermind album. Even in Germany there were huge billboards advertising the album everywhere. It felt as if Geffen really wanted this to be a success. I was about 18 when all those early Sub Pop records came out and I had seen them during their Bleach-Tour with Tad promoting God's Balls, so I was eagerly awaiting their 2nd album at the time. I wouldn't go as far to claim that the campaign surounding it or the music itself made me hate them, but I certainly lost interest anyway. Most people disagreed, though, and I guess it translated into money well enough! ;-)
Same feeling about Nevermind, i was 14-15, we all skated to a friend’s that got the tape - I thought euuwww yuk, “new-wave”…none of those chugga-chugga heavy hooks & kick drum beats, & guttural screaming badassness that Bleach had!
@@slimchance7748 Funny enough I also despised Soundgarden's Superunknown when it first came out, after I had so much admired Badmotorfinger's utter heaviness. I changed my mind later on and really got into that album. Never happened with Nevermind, though.
I totally get what he's saying and I've done it without other "people" the whole time but there was one band I was in that really could have benefited from a "manager". Or maybe just a cheerleader of sorts to keep us together. Water under the bridge now.
For the record, he is the man and I agree with most of what he says. This guy is a true musician, but not some idealist wannabe either. He is fuckin brilliant. I guess I need to clarify that since people got hung up on two fuckin words I said and didn't read into it. I hate making these long specific comments but no one seems to get reading between the lines and figuring out meaning from anything! god
He says the Truth, as a live band..... Management takes a cut, Overhead takes a cut, what he doesn't realize is, You gotta spend Money to Make Money. Until you get a van, don't get a sound guy. Until you got a bus, don't get label management. When you got a bus, you can weigh the label..... Rock is a tough market, no one drinks, so successful rock clubs are few. You MUST SELL BEER, and as a side note, YOU MUST HAVE GOOD MUSIC! SELL BEER through music.
@Rankmoistmeat - To call Albini paranoid for not equating "industry" with terms like "trust" and "making friends" is a mistake, I think. You put them in ALL CAPS as though they couldn't be more obvious when I would think the opposite would be, if not the rule, at least the more feasable.
@tubbythug92 Every? No, but most. I don't see it as bad either. As if no one could guess from my comments Im a pretentious asshole myself, and the fact is many alternative artists (and I include indie, prog, everything like that) are as well. Dont be off put by the word, it is what it is. I'd take being a pretentious asshole who's true and out for the music than anything else.
Sure he had an opinion, you have to have a place to start from or you’ll not be able to create anything. What I understood about him is he never took royalties and he tried to be fair to the artists he produced.
@spicyMcHAGGIS9green 100% false, a lot of punk bands make negative..that's why you'll have to be willing to risk everything in order to do something you really love. That's why Albini had a side job back when he was in Big Black.
I'd love to ask him - without a tape recorder - what he had spoken to kurt cobain about throughout the In Utero sessions..... open ended question obviously.....
Just play live and make good music and do it all by yourself with the right people . When you think too much about a fuck up music bussines.. i think the art suffers from that.
@easymac75 I don't know what you're talking about. I am an American and do not hate other countries, and am appalled by America's foreign policies and warmongering. Not everyone with a gun is a "USA! USA! Fuck yeah!" type.
I have a suspicion that the people who bring up "rights" and "free speech" the most often have never themselves truly had their rights challenged or even threatened. And if they are an American (which I am also) their "love" of America probably has more to do with hating other countries than appreciating their own.
I went to jail. got both my bandcamps taken down for hate speech. live on the skids. barely can pay rent. I practice NS' disfigured cousin's belief: NatCom. everything I stand for stands against my country. pretty far stretch for someone who began an interest in politics being a run of the mill conservative at 12 years of age in the early 90s. I like Ted K, I like Pol Pot, I like Baron Ungern. I am a sick individual.
to wit: if the band is not presented "artistically"- and as perhaps even "underground" but instead is using the commercial apparatus to promote itself... albini "hates" them. here we hit on the ancient musical cliche--- has the band gone, or not gone, commercial?. were the stones and beatles commercial?...absolutely. albini gives us the fan as artist pose- ever searching for truth and "authenticity" --- as doctrine. careful when marketing to the kids.
@IntristicValue Too bad he's giving advice to the average person, and not to the exception who needs no advice. You'd think an intelligent man would understand something like that.
Steve Albini seems really paranoid when it comes to the music industry. Like when he says that a booking agent wouldn't give a fuck about the well-being of a band that, however, had HIRED him, because surely they TRUSTED him, and had MADE FRIENDS with him. Yea of course people often act in their own self-interest, but for a band and their booking agent, finding a mutually acceptable compromise will ultimately serve the band and the booking agent better than if they'd never come together.
