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during your many years in the music business, I'm sure you've been made countless offers that would require you to compromise your values in order to accept. Have there been any you were particularly tempted by? Were there any you seriously considered accepting? (Or did accept?) Share as many details as you like.
The common stuff, offers of management, major label deals for bands I've been in, that sort of thing, I've never been tempted by. It's obvious to me that I handle my affairs better than anybody else could, I get all the work I need, and my bands have not been limited in any aspirations. Getting more involved with the mainstream showbusiness industry would be a step backwards.
While Shellac was a new band, we played a few European festivals and were disgusted by the whole scene. The promoters were offering a mixed slate of bands, some of whom they were obligated to have because of backroom deals with agencies and labels, some of which were flavor-of-the-month crap, and the rest were just generic light entertainment, where any old band will do. The bands were using these non-critical (but lucrative) gigs as a kind of subsidy, the fans were not being treated well, and the whole thing was a grotesque abstraction of the legitimate band-fan relationship. After a couple of those, we decided that we would be unavailable for festival gigs.
A few years later, we were asked to play All Tomrrow's Parties, under the pretext that "this festival is different." We declined. The promoter and the curating band who nominated us asked again, with a very generous offer. We explained that we didn't care about the money, we just didn't play festival gigs out of principle. That led to a conversation about the festival, and we were persuaded to play.
As it turns out, this festival was different. It was curated by a band, so all the acts were being vouched-for, the patrons got a weekend ticket including a little apartment (rather than a space in a field for a tent) with a private kitchen and bathroom, and the shows were in proper indoor venues rather than in tents exposed to the weather.
For the first time in history, someone said, "but this one is
different," and it actually was different. Not only that, but its success as a festival fostered a whole trend in curated, civilized festivals, and now some of the curated festivals are quite good.