Reacting as I thought anyone would to an awful contract presented to us by Universal’s Farmclub.com, we generated more attention by saying "NO" then if we had said "yes". As a result, we were noticed by Robert Fripp's company Discipline Global Mobile (DGM), which also believes in artists' rights and so immediately became the object of our desire as the place through which to release our next record. It’s been quite interesting as the model we've designed with them allows us ownership of our master recordings, marketing for the record, Rykodisc distribution and tour support in return for a percentage of everything we make across the board (including touring, merchandise, etc.)-- which is fair to us because we own the record and can license it all over the world without having to worry about it being shelved or pushed back or our tour support being pulled somewhere in the middle of Montana. It was also easy to negotiate compared to a major label deal, because both sides were on the same team (more on that later). Hopefully, whether or not people like the record-- and if yer a fan of pop music we think you will-- they will support the business model, as it can help provide an alternative in the future for artists of any genre and stage.
Well, most of us know what that's all about-- pretty much been the same for the last twenty years without many exceptions: Label sends low man on totem pole to see band, then higher ups must gather at next show and even higher ups at next show and still there's no guarantee that the band will be signed. And even if they are, there's no guarantee the record will ever see the light of day. That's why the monetary advance becomes like morphine-- if it's a lot it'll last a long time and make you forget about your music ‘cuz you're paying your bills and taking your friends to dinner… all the while your record might be pushed back further and further ‘til four or five years pass with your music never seeing the light of day (happened to some friends of ours on Arista recently). Forget about other countless problems such as your A&R guy getting fired; or worse, your A&R guy's ego is so big that if you disagree with him you might find your release delayed six months to a year just ‘cuz he can do it (happened to a friend of ours on Dreamworks recently). Or what if you actually DO release a record and you tour behind it and everything's great… until your next record's ready to go and the label wants you to do a cover of a song they chose and make it the single and you KNOW it's crap and that it's the worst sounding song on the record but you do it anyway and they still shelve the release in favor of a new flavor of the month and it takes you two years and thousands in attorney's fees to get it back and when you do, you feel like you need a long vacation but you can't take one ‘cuz it's been 24 months since anyone's heard you so you need to get out there and play ASAP! (Happened to some friends on Elektra a few months ago). Get the point?
Anyway, that should help explain why did we not pursue a major label deal and instead jumped into bed with Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile-- Not that there was a bidding war for us, mind you, as we play power pop and do NOT sound like Creed. But in praise of us, there were a few labels circling around us and moving in for the kill.
Robert's been in a few legal battles of his own and started DGM with the belief that artists should retain the copyrights to their music-- period. So with that in mind, he and his partner David Singleton introduced themselves in March after New York City’s New Music Expo, and approached us with some very interesting ideas about working as a "team" to promote and work the record as opposed to most labels where when you sign you're basically creating two opposing sides between yourself and the company and it usually ends up being a "pushmepullyou.”
To be fair, I should point out that I believe the major labels are the best route for certain artists. It really depends on who you are. For example, when it comes to a case like Fisher who signed with Farmclub recently, I feel a major label is the only option they have if they are to be successful, because they are entirely dependent on radio hits. Sure they can do a bit of touring, but they're probably focused on the top 40 and their style of music does not lend itself well to jumping into a van and dogging it out on the road for a year. So turning their back on the major marketing machine available to them would not have been a wise decision in their case… plus I know their attorney and he got them a pretty good deal, as far as new deals go.
Let's just say it's been the craziest few months of our little lives. Neither side really had any predecessor to follow. Questions of financing and loans and management and separate companies; clauses in case we fall on our asses and clauses in case we don't. And during negotiations there were key people in LA, Chicago, New York and London at the same time-- so try getting something done when it's already nighttime in England but California's just waking up! Oy vey! But both sides trust each other and it's quite different from the standpoint that we both want the same things and are on the same side, as opposed to a major label negotiation, which is mostly adversarial. For the most part we believe that what we're doing is exciting and has tremendous potential-- and is yet extremely fragile compared with a major record company's muscle around the world (for example, we'll have five people working with us instead of 5,000). Anyway, now that it's all done for the most part, we're a much closer team than that of an Epic or an RCA because all our futures depend on it and if the record goes down the shitter on RCA, I don't think they'd lose too much sleep over it.
But we're still broke as expensive china, DGM doesn't have the money to give us a half a million dollar advance, and we're the first pop band to be on a label that is primarily "prog rock". I’m sure we'll have our share of problems and pitfalls. But they won't be the normal ones-- i.e. record getting pushed back a year or two, tour support pulled after three weeks ‘cuz we're not in Billboard's Top 20, band getting dropped in a month, etc. And as far as promotion goes, we feel a major label's elevator only goes up or down, whereas DGM's "wonkavator" can go up, down, sideways and slantways. Meaning that there might be some promotional ideas that a major would scoff at, but because of DGM's "risky business" attitude, these ideas can work well for us. This deal allows DGM to share in the profits of t-shirts, CD's, tour receipts, sync licenses, etc.-- so they have a bigger stake in the band doing well and not just selling the plastic disc, and in return we receive tour support, international distribution, promotion, etc. As I said before, we hope that whether or not people like the actual record, they will support the business model in which it was done, and that it will hopefully make other artists aware that although the majors won't be going anywhere anytime soon, there IS an alternative to the contracts being shoved in our faces these days.
We realize that this is a gamble either way but what we've hopefully done at least for our situation and the potential future situations of others is dramatically reduce the odds of all the ridiculous things that should NOT EVER affect a good record getting to it's audience. Whether it's an illusion or a reality is up to all of us.
Lately, we've been getting a lot of press about the recording deal we signed that allows us to retain ownership of our music and still receive major marketing and distribution. It's not that we've always been an indie “Do It Yourself” band from day one - but we're there now and it's been a gradual process of watching and reading about many bands falling way short of their goals for themselves and their music, while we ourselves were never getting any real interest from the big labels we so desired. Everything happens for a reason, and we couldn't be happier at this point that we never signed away our lives when we actually wanted to. Our position now leaves us tremendously more in control of our music and direction on both a longterm and an everyday basis.