I saw that Nourished By Time's Marcus Brown had given an interview to the always pertinent Tone Glow, and I took some highlights off it.

Any mention of Spotify, new distribution methods, label politics & economics, etc. will trigger my attention.

TG: You’re very much tied into this kind of outsider, left-field pop tradition for me, but I was thinking about that and… there’s not really an “inside” anymore.

MB: That’s true, it’s a strange time. The streaming model eats a lot more, and it’s never satisfied. The previous model wasn’t great — it was gatekeep-y, it was slower, more expensive. There were tons of problems, but this model is new and it doesn’t work for anybody. It really only works for the streaming companies. Labels are still making money, but I don’t really know how (laughs). Even with Spotify now, I’ll talk to label people and they’re talking about monthly listeners. It blows my mind that a private corporation can have so much sway over an entire industry, and they’re just like “okay, this is the new thing.” Even YouTube, a million views is much harder to come by now than it was ten years ago. In America we have so much smoke and mirrors and, like, fuckin’ day-glo and “aaaahhh” hiding the real truth, but with streaming we’re seeing the reality of how easy it is for corporations to just change everything.

As for the following quote, I enjoyed the confidence on becoming one of the greats, recognising that song writing & performing is a craft to be practiced and skilled at. Erotic Probiotic 2 is certainly a highlight of last year — and there's some new work coming soon.

TG: What’s your experience of music press been like? You had a pretty informal rise to recognition.

MB: It’s been pretty chill, I just say how I feel in general. I think I see it as a creative medium, because things have changed so much—artists have more say in how they’re perceived and how they come across. I’ve been meeting really cool people, really cool writers; I get sad when I see stories about Pitchfork, all these other publications getting bought out and changed. Because it’s an ecosystem; there’s artists, there’s DJs, there’s labels, distribution, there’s record stores, there’s writers. It all has to work, we all need each other, and we all have brains that are specialized for our craft. I respect everyone’s craft the way I would want them to respect mine… it’s the same thing we were talking about before—I’ve seen really good writers, and I’ve seen the machine. For a long time people were just cutting and pasting shit from the Pitchfork Rising interview. I was like “oh, that looks familiar” (laughs).

I think earlier it was harder, because certain people took me seriously, and others… I always joke because they’ll make you do playlists and shit, they’ll have you do the entry-level stuff. I’m still growing as an artist, in my head I’m way up here, but my reality is still catching up to how I see myself in a couple years. But I been havin’ fun—none of this stuff is really hard to me, to be honest, and I feel really confident. I guess I know what I want in this industry, and it’s not about fame or money… it’s more about stuff that’s gonna happen after I’m dead. I wanna be one of the greatest artists of my generation, and that’s just a personal thing I’ve always wanted since I was a kid. I don’t really feel like I’m competing with anybody, I’m competing with me. I just want to outsell, or outperform, or make a better song than what I did previously.