After acclaimed Columbia Records artist Cults claimed independent labels were “robbing” bands, we couldn’t help but thinking “what are they talking about?” We checked in with Chicago’s Geronimo! to find out if they were being robbed. We also asked Jeff Meff of fellow Exploding in Sound artist Fat History Month what his thoughts were on the state of independent music. Jeff sent us a very honest response, and he asked that we print it in full. We’ve gone ahead and done just that. Check out Jeff’s thoughts below.

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Hey, I thought long and hard about your questions and came up with this screed. Since it’s not all sunshine and roses, I have to ask you to use it in its entirety or not use it at all, because I think as a whole it’s a fairly balanced appraisal of how things seem work in the wild world of the music biz as far as I understand it, but taken in pieces it could come across more negative than I intend it to. I don’t claim to know everything, these are just the facts I’ve been able to put together from scraps of information gathered over the years of bumping my head on the ceiling trying to figure it out. I think it’s important that this shit gets talked about, because the myth of independent music needs to die. Here goes:

The music biz is a frightening realm of shadows and intrigue, so if you’re lucky enough to get help from someone as sweet and incredibly capable as Dan from Exploding In Sound, it definitely makes it easier to press on through the murk and misery.  As the wise and benevolent Puff Daddy once almost said, “It’s all about the Publicists, baby”.  I didn’t know what he meant by that until recently, but apparently there are mysterious entities out there who you pay to convince people that your band is cool in the hopes that they’ll buy your music. The only problem is, aside from the obvious moral quandary, most PR company’s stated policy (as well as most labels) seems to be something along the lines of, “Fuck off we don’t wanna hear your shitty band, don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Which is understandable cause we all know how many shitty, shitty bands there are in the world. So what’s a poor little unknown not-so-shitty band to do? As luck would have it, the music biz works on principles similar to the criminal justice system: money and connections can buy you freedom. If you don’t have money or connections, hopefully your record label does. The PR ducks weren’t all in a row when Bad History came out, but Sad History Month (the band’s second record) got some pretty royal treatment. It wasn’t that the music was suddenly better or more worthy of attention, the label just suddenly had better connections. It seems to be a pretty simple mechanism but I doubt that I could ever make it function myself.

It’s not all smoke and mirrors by any means though. The label (Dan) helps with mail order stuff when I’m on the road. He mailed out all the pre-orders of our last two records when they came out, which would have been pretty much impossible without him cause we were touring. Doing a pre-order never crossed my mind before being on this label, but it works like a charm. It also seems to help to have someone that appears official in certain situations. I just call in Superdan and shit gets done right. The money setup is more than fair to the bands too. He’s clearly in it for the love of music and works his ass off to make sure people hear the bands he puts out.

I hope all this hasn’t come across as totally ungrateful and biting the hands that feed, etc. There are music fans out there who really care and support music and go to shows and pay bands and know what they like without needing the internet to tell them they should, there are labels that give a shit about bands and treat them right, and there are even music writers who write about what they like, even if it’s from some band nobody ever heard of. I thought I’d be paying out of my pocket to do everything this band did forever, and I’m not, and that’s incredible and lucky. That’s more than I ever expected when I started this. Bandcamp is awesome, it makes it way easier for people to hear the music and mail order stuff and I actually sell things which is amazing. I’m also lucky enough to be on a label that’s run by people who love good music and know how to make shit happen for bands that is impossible for them to make happen for themselves. I just think all the cards should be on the table and everyone should know how the gears turn and what greases them, because I didn’t until recently and it caused me a lot of frustration and self doubt that wasn’t really necessary.  Knowledge is power. Fame is the game. Art is secondary to Hype. “Let’s get out of the romance”.

-Jeff