Those in the know will guess who I am. I am tweaking and fettling a friends album, due out for release next year.
I handed in the preliminary mixes at a club night a few days ago to the charming A&R guy, who I like a lot, with a view to a meeting today to discuss what needs changing.
So Mr A&R and another man from the label came round today to my humble abode for said discussion, with Mr. Artist in tow. Other Guy is also half of a Norman Cook wannabe act who have had a couple of minor hits and one or two very high charting remixes. All of which are soulless, lifeless attempts at cash, cash, cash with no redeeming features.
After a bit of small talk we get down to "business". A&R keeps quiet (he can't piss us off - he must be friendly). Mr. Other Guy is happy with 80% of the tracks. Cool. Better than expected. His suggestions on the other are picky, specific and horribly subjective.
He backs up his arguements quoting the trials of Coldplay and talking about Sarah Cox. We fire back with references to MBV, Suicide, The Pixies. He demands a radio edit of the first single. For complicated reasons this is nigh on impossible. I've already cut a lot out of it and doing any more will impinge on an incredibly complex lyrical structure which I think is genius. Most of his other problems are that mix the vocals up shite.
I know I'm being a bit green here. I always knew it was like this, its just more upsetting when it's sat in your house telling you what you should and shouldn't be doing to one of your dearest and oldest friends records. There is no other person in the whole world who could make this record what it is, and thats not ego talking. I know his psyche like the back of my hand and I know audio shit as well as I know my own cock. I am proud of this record and I know they hate lots of it because its not commerical radio material yet they can't look me in the eye and tell me it's not fantastic. And from what he was saying I can see he's trying to muscle in on some of my job too vis a vis the edits and a few other things. Wanker. And he's being shirty about my payment too. Wanker.
Is there a silver lining? Yeah. There's two, in fact. Firstly, the tiny label who were also interested in my friend are now going to put out a record which is going to be me, my mate, the label boss and all my friends having a fucking laugh and making a racket. The boss of this label is being wonderfully supportive and has got me a DJ gig in Manchester next month supporting one of my favourite bands. I'll post details under my real name soon. With any luck MY stuff may actually come out on his label too. I was beginning to forget that I've been making my own music since I was seven and thats what I do. This has reminded me who I am in no uncertain terms.
Number two follows on from this. I know now that I am right. I know that I'm part of the Shakespeare Squad. I have seen the devil and he's a simpering little shit from Fallowfield. I'm right. All my self-confidence problems are fucking dead. Fuck this guy who is basically the equivalent of McDonalds counterstaff. He makes soulless fattening shit for the braindead masses. And I'll be dead before I become even one percent like him. Fuck conforming to radio, fuck conforming to this idea of "polish" (how fucking VH-1 is "polish"), fuck conforming to anything. I am motherfucking L*nskey and compared to 99% of this industry I am a fucking angel.
Kindred souls, drop me a line. It's not hopeless. All we need are bigger weapons than these cunts and where the weapons are ideological, all it takes is a thought. Anyone can do that. The bullshit attitude of Other Guy and these monoliths will shatter like a wine glass if we rub our fingers the right speed round the rim.
To quote PJ and Duncan, Tonight I'm Free.
― mightlosemyjob, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)
what are your contractual obligations at this point? are you able to back out? how will this set you back if you don't come to the party?
unless there was mad dollar involved, it doesn't seem like it's worth compromising.
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 26 June 2003 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)
the edit is solely for radio and will never be commercially avaliable, so fuck it. the current idea is to make a horribly disjointed and obvious cut masked with the sound of someone shouting "CUT!" over the top. I like this idea. I would like it even better if was patently ridiculous, as in "Yo, cut that shit!" or something.
Consult Eno's Olique Strategies in cases like this, and this one seems to cry for "sometimes it is better to let the seams show" or words to that effect.
― kate (kate), Thursday, 26 June 2003 10:57 (twenty-two years ago)
Just recieved Other Guys idea of an edit. It's stripped the heart out of the track. There are breakdowns (drums to half tempo, samples of japanese girls) after each chorus and he's stripped them all off, making the piece dynamically stale.
Cue Gandalf here having ago, I've sacrificed a bit of the intro in order to put one back (my theory is that DJ's tend to talk over the intro til the vocals come in anyway and they've still got about 15 seconds there to talk with the "possee"). I still feel like Hitler, mind.
― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 26 June 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)
two years pass...