mmmender
Jun-7-04, 11:04 AM
An exclusive interview with Cocteau Twins producer, John Fryer is online now at Side-Line:
http://www.side-line.com/interviews_comments.php?id=1943_0_16_0_C
However, you must register with Side-Line (http://www.side-line.com/members/register.php) in order to read the interview.
(To save you the bother of registering, I've registered and am reprinting the interview below)
http://www.side-line.com/images/uploads/interviewsjf1.jpg
'Something To Listen To' ( www.somethingtolistento.com ) is the name of a new label set up by none other than John Fryer who produced bands such as Fad Gadget, NIN, Yazoo, The Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Depeche Mode, Die Krupps and many more. The UK based label so far signed the following bands: Esoterica, Sundealers, Audiodummi, Plastic Toys, Living With Eating Disorder, Kitty Stockings, Prince Jellyfish, Red Kid and Licky. Starting out at Blackwing Studio in London, John’s early career saw him working with several well-known 4 A.D. and Mute artists. He later on went on to enjoy massive success in modern rock with the likes of Stabbing Westward, HIM and Gravity Kills as well as with Jesus Jones for which he produced the US breakthrough album “Doubt”. More recently he mixed or re-mixed White Zombie and Sarah McLachlan amongst many others. An interesting move from one of the most renown producers around, and worth a serious talk… (By Bernard Van Isacker)
SL. 'Something To Listen To' seems to indicate that there is much out there that does not need a listen?
JF. All music has the right to be heard. It’s just that there is a lot of good / great music out there that¹s not being given the chance to be heard. Hopefully we can be a way for these bands / artists to be heard. What is good and what is bad? Of course it¹s all down to personal taste, but the general public aren¹t being given the chance to make up there own minds, they are just being force fed money making manufactured pop shit.
SL. And we have had lots of that trash already…
JF. Pop ideal, or more like Blob ideal for the last one in England any way , is killing the music industry , its making a mockery of all the real talent out there that have been slaving away for years and are still struggling to make a living from their talent , and the general public get another puppet shoved down their throats , well ears really , and I would just like to say that the sooner Brittany Spears moves over into making porn movies , as she is obviously moving in that direction , the better it will be for all of us in the music industry ...
SL. What are the imminent releases now for STLT?
JF. Already available now in our online shop are the EP’s from Esoterica and Sundealers. Closely following will be EP's by Licky and Living With Eating Disorders. The first EP by AudioDummi will follow later in the year. (click the links to read the first reviews by Side-Line)
SL. How does somebody like you, who is used to major indie label treatment, gets to start an own label against that very major label attitude that is now also present at the former indie labels?
JF. We are trying to get back to the business of making music and not just trying to make money. We can use all the knowledge we have picked up over the years to make it work. It’s very hard at the moment to get people to think in a different way. All the established companies are telling me it can’t be done this way, but they are only looking from their own company out look. Things can be done a lot smaller and cheaper than they do things.
SL. What is the vision behind Something To Listen To? What do you want to achieve?
JF. The Vision is to make affordable CDs of music that major labels don’t seem to know what to do with. As in the case of the “Sundealers” we’ve had people come to see the band after listening to music on CD and sit there and say, I love the music, think the Band are great live, but I don’t know how to market it, so I cant give you a deal. If I knew how to sell you I would sign you today. How can people like this have jobs? If its good music and the band are good live, surely you make a CD, put the band out on tour and the rest should be history.
SL. What does the name John Fryer do when it comes to business, is it a foot in between the door as we say in Dutch?
AJ: Yes, it¹s a foot in some doors, like yours, if it wasn¹t for my name John Fryer, would you still be doing this interview? Because I’ve been associated with some credible records in the past and hopefully in the future, that’s why you are talking to me.
SL. Yep, I can’t deny that… In what kind of degree will you be using the contacts you have with other bands to deliver support to the releases?
JF. I have found that since the begging of starting the label, I can call and ask for favours from all the people I know and don’t know, the worst thing they can do is say no, so far I have only been decline by one person, well I don’t think he was even asked, it was declined on his behalf. Even the other day I asked a favour from Daniel Miller and he said, he would be glad to help out and do a couple of remixes for me, and that is so cool as the bands are very big fans of him and his label and artists on it. There are still some very nice people in the music business and still have a passion for it.
SL. Anyhow, being a very young label, I think you've signed quite a lot of bands already, 9 to be exact. In what way do they reflect the diversity of the label?
JF. It really reflects my view on music in general, I just like music, well good music in my eye¹s, it¹s like the varied production career I’ve had, I’ve work with bands from the Cocteau Twins to Cradle of Filth and everything in between.
SL. Where did you pick them up?
JF. They are bands I’ve been developing over the last 2/3 years. I think they are all worthy of a release, but people at record companies don¹t quite see it my way.
SL. "The releases of the label will be sold at a reasonable price, not overpriced like the majors." Fact is that you sell the releases online at a very reasonable price, how did you accomplish that?
JF. Well in the first place you have to keep the recording costs down, records don’t sell as many as they used to. We can’t spend a million on making a CD if it will only sell 20,000. It doesn’t make sense, so we are starting small and hopefully we will grow and then the budgets can grow.
SL. May I presume that you'll be pushing the online sales in order to get as much direct money to fund the releases?
JF. Yes we will be pushing the online sales, direct money will be a big factor in running the label .The profit split will 50/50 with the bands, as we will be keeping the cost of CDs to be as low as we can make it, cash flow is all essential.
SL. Please explain how you see the online effort as a substantial part of Promoting the releases on STLT?
JF. The online world is slowly taking hold, most people I talk to now either download for free or they buy on line, I think in the last year I have only talked to 1 person who had gone to a record shop. Where I live they have even closed down the local record shop, so what are you supposed to do, why go miles when you can sit at home an order a cd or dvd and if the post is working you could have it next day or three. I can¹t reveal any future tactics; if I do, I would have to kill you of course.
SL. Errr, no thanks. What problems have you encountered so far when starting up the label?
JF. Mainly it's the same for all small business, its like the chicken and the egg, you have to have 1 before you can have the other, but you cant have the other till you have the 1, they don't make it easy for you at all. I hope you under stand that answer. We have had to open the shop on line so they can see we are trading, before they will let us trade, I know that doesn¹t make since, but that is what I was saying about the chicken and the egg. So now they have seen we are trading, they will give us our trading number so we can trade.
SL. You started out at Blackwing Studio in London, do you miss the mentality of those days in today's music business? If so what was so different to it and what is the cause according to you that things changes so drastically?
JF. Yes I do miss the working mentality of those days, back then it was about making music with bands. People working in record companies were passionate about music; it was in their blood. It was all about making great records, whether it was commercial or not, you didn’t have to have six singles on it. Like one of our bands, Living With Eating Disorders, they would have been signed straight away back then, but now, they can’t get arrested. They will make a great album, and most likely not a single on it, but that’s not why we are doing this, they will sell enough to cover their cost and to start the second album. Now it seems that the record companies are being run by accountants, lawyers and marketing people who only talk about product, units, turnover and making the books balance. In recent times artists and their music have consistently taken a back seat to the greed of major label corporate ideology. ‘Some Thing To Listen To’ aims to put music back to where it belongs as the primary focus of artists and fans.
(...)
To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 47!
http://www.side-line.com/interviews_comments.php?id=1943_0_16_0_C
However, you must register with Side-Line (http://www.side-line.com/members/register.php) in order to read the interview.
(To save you the bother of registering, I've registered and am reprinting the interview below)
http://www.side-line.com/images/uploads/interviewsjf1.jpg
'Something To Listen To' ( www.somethingtolistento.com ) is the name of a new label set up by none other than John Fryer who produced bands such as Fad Gadget, NIN, Yazoo, The Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Depeche Mode, Die Krupps and many more. The UK based label so far signed the following bands: Esoterica, Sundealers, Audiodummi, Plastic Toys, Living With Eating Disorder, Kitty Stockings, Prince Jellyfish, Red Kid and Licky. Starting out at Blackwing Studio in London, John’s early career saw him working with several well-known 4 A.D. and Mute artists. He later on went on to enjoy massive success in modern rock with the likes of Stabbing Westward, HIM and Gravity Kills as well as with Jesus Jones for which he produced the US breakthrough album “Doubt”. More recently he mixed or re-mixed White Zombie and Sarah McLachlan amongst many others. An interesting move from one of the most renown producers around, and worth a serious talk… (By Bernard Van Isacker)
SL. 'Something To Listen To' seems to indicate that there is much out there that does not need a listen?
JF. All music has the right to be heard. It’s just that there is a lot of good / great music out there that¹s not being given the chance to be heard. Hopefully we can be a way for these bands / artists to be heard. What is good and what is bad? Of course it¹s all down to personal taste, but the general public aren¹t being given the chance to make up there own minds, they are just being force fed money making manufactured pop shit.
SL. And we have had lots of that trash already…
JF. Pop ideal, or more like Blob ideal for the last one in England any way , is killing the music industry , its making a mockery of all the real talent out there that have been slaving away for years and are still struggling to make a living from their talent , and the general public get another puppet shoved down their throats , well ears really , and I would just like to say that the sooner Brittany Spears moves over into making porn movies , as she is obviously moving in that direction , the better it will be for all of us in the music industry ...
SL. What are the imminent releases now for STLT?
JF. Already available now in our online shop are the EP’s from Esoterica and Sundealers. Closely following will be EP's by Licky and Living With Eating Disorders. The first EP by AudioDummi will follow later in the year. (click the links to read the first reviews by Side-Line)
SL. How does somebody like you, who is used to major indie label treatment, gets to start an own label against that very major label attitude that is now also present at the former indie labels?
JF. We are trying to get back to the business of making music and not just trying to make money. We can use all the knowledge we have picked up over the years to make it work. It’s very hard at the moment to get people to think in a different way. All the established companies are telling me it can’t be done this way, but they are only looking from their own company out look. Things can be done a lot smaller and cheaper than they do things.
SL. What is the vision behind Something To Listen To? What do you want to achieve?
JF. The Vision is to make affordable CDs of music that major labels don’t seem to know what to do with. As in the case of the “Sundealers” we’ve had people come to see the band after listening to music on CD and sit there and say, I love the music, think the Band are great live, but I don’t know how to market it, so I cant give you a deal. If I knew how to sell you I would sign you today. How can people like this have jobs? If its good music and the band are good live, surely you make a CD, put the band out on tour and the rest should be history.
SL. What does the name John Fryer do when it comes to business, is it a foot in between the door as we say in Dutch?
AJ: Yes, it¹s a foot in some doors, like yours, if it wasn¹t for my name John Fryer, would you still be doing this interview? Because I’ve been associated with some credible records in the past and hopefully in the future, that’s why you are talking to me.
SL. Yep, I can’t deny that… In what kind of degree will you be using the contacts you have with other bands to deliver support to the releases?
JF. I have found that since the begging of starting the label, I can call and ask for favours from all the people I know and don’t know, the worst thing they can do is say no, so far I have only been decline by one person, well I don’t think he was even asked, it was declined on his behalf. Even the other day I asked a favour from Daniel Miller and he said, he would be glad to help out and do a couple of remixes for me, and that is so cool as the bands are very big fans of him and his label and artists on it. There are still some very nice people in the music business and still have a passion for it.
SL. Anyhow, being a very young label, I think you've signed quite a lot of bands already, 9 to be exact. In what way do they reflect the diversity of the label?
JF. It really reflects my view on music in general, I just like music, well good music in my eye¹s, it¹s like the varied production career I’ve had, I’ve work with bands from the Cocteau Twins to Cradle of Filth and everything in between.
SL. Where did you pick them up?
JF. They are bands I’ve been developing over the last 2/3 years. I think they are all worthy of a release, but people at record companies don¹t quite see it my way.
SL. "The releases of the label will be sold at a reasonable price, not overpriced like the majors." Fact is that you sell the releases online at a very reasonable price, how did you accomplish that?
JF. Well in the first place you have to keep the recording costs down, records don’t sell as many as they used to. We can’t spend a million on making a CD if it will only sell 20,000. It doesn’t make sense, so we are starting small and hopefully we will grow and then the budgets can grow.
SL. May I presume that you'll be pushing the online sales in order to get as much direct money to fund the releases?
JF. Yes we will be pushing the online sales, direct money will be a big factor in running the label .The profit split will 50/50 with the bands, as we will be keeping the cost of CDs to be as low as we can make it, cash flow is all essential.
SL. Please explain how you see the online effort as a substantial part of Promoting the releases on STLT?
JF. The online world is slowly taking hold, most people I talk to now either download for free or they buy on line, I think in the last year I have only talked to 1 person who had gone to a record shop. Where I live they have even closed down the local record shop, so what are you supposed to do, why go miles when you can sit at home an order a cd or dvd and if the post is working you could have it next day or three. I can¹t reveal any future tactics; if I do, I would have to kill you of course.
SL. Errr, no thanks. What problems have you encountered so far when starting up the label?
JF. Mainly it's the same for all small business, its like the chicken and the egg, you have to have 1 before you can have the other, but you cant have the other till you have the 1, they don't make it easy for you at all. I hope you under stand that answer. We have had to open the shop on line so they can see we are trading, before they will let us trade, I know that doesn¹t make since, but that is what I was saying about the chicken and the egg. So now they have seen we are trading, they will give us our trading number so we can trade.
SL. You started out at Blackwing Studio in London, do you miss the mentality of those days in today's music business? If so what was so different to it and what is the cause according to you that things changes so drastically?
JF. Yes I do miss the working mentality of those days, back then it was about making music with bands. People working in record companies were passionate about music; it was in their blood. It was all about making great records, whether it was commercial or not, you didn’t have to have six singles on it. Like one of our bands, Living With Eating Disorders, they would have been signed straight away back then, but now, they can’t get arrested. They will make a great album, and most likely not a single on it, but that’s not why we are doing this, they will sell enough to cover their cost and to start the second album. Now it seems that the record companies are being run by accountants, lawyers and marketing people who only talk about product, units, turnover and making the books balance. In recent times artists and their music have consistently taken a back seat to the greed of major label corporate ideology. ‘Some Thing To Listen To’ aims to put music back to where it belongs as the primary focus of artists and fans.
(...)
To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 47!