Primordial RAW transcript part 3

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?