If you pick up the current issue of Hot Press (Longitude cover), you'll find returning alt. rock heroes Ash talking about going back to album-making with the ferocious KABLAMMO! and how, these days, they're only competing with themselves.
During their conversation with Craig Fitzpatrick for that piece, they also discussed the state of the industry and new ways of consuming music. Firstly, they weren't terribly impressed with how the relaunch of TIDAL was handled in March, when a bunch of well-paid superstars gathered on stage to support their buddy Jay Z...
Tim Wheeler: I think they did the wrong thing, making mega millionaires look even greedier.
Rick McMurray: They should have got new bands, had a label, promoting new bands so it doesn’t look like it’s just millionaires.
Tim: A lot of streaming services pay so little. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed but I think they just went about it the wrong way. But someone needed to take a stand at some point and I suppose the only people who are powerful enough to do it are the biggest ones.
What do they think of streaming muskc in general? Does it make for a less immersive experience in the long run?
Mark Hamilton: When people used to buy albums there was a lot of discovery involved it and a lot of ownership. You’d find stuff yourself in record stores...
Tim: You were on a quest.
Mark: If you were a kid and you had 10 quid to go and spend at the weekend on a new album, even if didn't get it on the first few listens, you were going to give it a chance because you put your money into it. While now you can download entire catalogues and torrents in seconds, go to Spotify and have millions of songs.
Tim: There’s no sense of ownership.
Rick: Vinyl seems to be coming back.
Tim: But it’s so expensive! If you were a kid could you afford it?
Funding for KABLAMMO! came through PledgeMusic. How did they find the crowd-funding experience?
Tim: It’s great. It’s very lucky if you’ve got an established fanbase so it’s definitely perfect for a band like us. It’s really fun; a good way of connecting with fans. There’s definitely people saying they’d love for us to do it again. Even just the simple thing of getting a signed CD, it arriving in the post a couple of days before release – I think that means a lot to people.
Mark: Yeah, like putting people’s names on the credits as well.
Tim: That goes a long way. People can really connect with it. But I wonder... it’s probably a bit tougher for upcoming bands.
When you stopped doing albums was it because of how labels were handling them?
Rick: People weren’t buying it. It felt like record companies were in denial about what was happening. There was a crisis in the music industry, what are you going to do? Keep doing the same thing! You need to address it creatively and from a positive angle so that’s what we wanted to do with the A – Z thing.
Tim: It was very frustrating. If the first single didn’t get on the radio they’d just pull the plug on the marketing for the record. That happened to us with Twilight so we were like: 'gotta change things up here!'
KABLAMMO! is out now