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: Youāre very much tied into this kind of outsider, left-field pop tradition for me, but I was thinking about that andā¦ thereās not really an āinsideā anymore.
MB: Thatās true, itās a strange time. The streaming model eats a lot more, and itās never satisfied. The previous model wasnāt great ā it was gatekeep-y, it was slower, more expensive. There were tons of problems, but this model is new and it doesnāt work for anybody. It really only works for the streaming companies. Labels are still making money, but I donāt really know how (laughs). Even with Spotify now, Iāll talk to label people and theyāre talking about monthly listeners. It blows my mind that a private corporation can have so much sway over an entire industry, and theyāre just like āokay, this is the new thing.ā 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, fuckinā day-glo and āaaaahhhā hiding the real truth, but with streaming weāre 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 ā and there's some new work coming soon.
TG: Whatās your experience of music press been like? You had a pretty informal rise to recognition.
MB: Itās 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 muchāartists have more say in how theyāre perceived and how they come across. Iāve 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 itās an ecosystem; thereās artists, thereās DJs, thereās labels, distribution, thereās record stores, thereās writers. It all has to work, we all need each other, and we all have brains that are specialized for our craft. I respect everyoneās craft the way I would want them to respect mineā¦ itās the same thing we were talking about beforeāIāve seen really good writers, and Iāve seen the machine. For a long time people were just cutting and pasting shit from the Pitchfork Rising interview. I was like āoh, that looks familiarā (laughs).
I think earlier it was harder, because certain people took me seriously, and othersā¦ I always joke because theyāll make you do playlists and shit, theyāll have you do the entry-level stuff. Iām still growing as an artist, in my head Iām way up here, but my reality is still catching up to how I see myself in a couple years. But I been havinā funānone 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 itās not about fame or moneyā¦ itās more about stuff thatās gonna happen after Iām dead. I wanna be one of the greatest artists of my generation, and thatās just a personal thing Iāve always wanted since I was a kid. I donāt really feel like Iām competing with anybody, Iām competing with me. I just want to outsell, or outperform, or make a better song than what I did previously.
URL | https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-133-nourished-by-time |
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