S: What I was gonna
relate that to was that you were in Greece shortly before there was
this economic collapse and Ireland had the same sort of problems. I
mean, it's been interesting I think for you to see some of those
countries before that has happened. The UK is sort of heading that
way as well. Do you think that'll change the... It's a
strange question I suppose but do you think that will change the
playing field for new bands and music in general. It's changing
people's spending habits and that kind of thing. In metal at least
the live concert has become the way for bands to make money where the
album used to be the way for bands to make money.
N: Yeah, of course it's
going to change everything. I mean, the less money means there's less
money... The less money around means the less money people spend on
things which are considered luxury items, like music. And we're also
living in climate, in an age where people, young people
assume[emphasis] that what is created by another person is their
entitlement for free. Um. And you mix that with the fact that
festival culture is actually, kind of killing tours. Ummmm, bands who
are coming across and doing twenty, thirty day tours across Europe
are bringing in less people because somebody's going, 'Well, am I
going to drive to Bremen from Hamburg for two hours on a cold, rainy
night on Tuesday, or shall I just wait and see all these bands at a
festival, in the sunshine. But what they don't realise is that, with
the exception of the top couple of percent of bands at festivals,
most of everybody else is, by and large... are very often being
screwed: most of their merchandise is being taken, a percentage of
them taxes and [pauses], you know, the counts of the festival
cattlemarket season, bands... You know, the kind of onus is placed
upon bands: well, you should be happy with your entitlement to play
our festival in front of all these people. But you know, just because
you play this festival in front of 10,000 people standing in a field
watching you, doesn't mean that more than 100 people are going to
come to your club show. It just doesn't work like that, you know? For
younger bands who don't have any - obviously - history, um... It's
very difficult. Bands in the future? I mean, I really don't know. You know, like I know a handful of bands who are being feted
by the press, touring both sides of the Atlantic, playing every
festival that you could imagine, have a quite a high profile,
still[emphasis] haven't sold as much as five figures of CDs, you
know? It's just not happening, you know? And I think the underground
is collapsing, very much like the mainstream did three or four years
ago, you know?
S: With the underground
collapse, do you think there's partly a fragmentation effect, because
people can make things so much on their own and distribute them on
their own?
N: Possibly. Part of it
is also there's too many bands, it's too easy to release music and
there's no quality control anymore and there's just an awful lot of
crap, you know, so something good? Does, um, make it difficult to
sell it and also of course this eBay/forum culture which is all about
who has the most limited edition of whatever vinyl and, you know, but
nobody seems to really[emphasis] be talking about the music anymore
and, you know, I mean, it all collapses <there is a part here I
cannot decipher, I need Nemtheanga's help> already go for 400 euro
in a day. I mean, it's only been out for a year and a half. It's
fuckin'... It's just retarded, you know? It's not[emphasis]. It's
actually, to be honest, it's sort of symptomatic of the hipster
culture which most metal people avoid[emphasis], you know? It's just
hipster fucking liking something because it's cool, you know? And
it's just everywhere. You know, people even ask, 'Why are you playing
that vinyl?' Well, that's what it's for, not to be piled away on a
shelf, and, you know, it's not an investment [said with sarcastic
scorn - laughs]. But I think a lot of people look at it like that. Or
they just don't, you know, they don't pay attention to the music
anymore, so... I don't know. It's all going in a weird direction, you
know? If people aren't showing up to club shows, they aren't buying
anything, if they aren't buying the shirts or... it's hard to know,
you know?
