xjsb125 wrote:He never mentioned selling out. Can you cite what part led you to draw that conclusion?
Good article, though. Thanks for the link Christine.
It's pretty clear, between the article, Raine's solo album, Bob Rock leaving, steve's progression as the lead guitarist over the years, and the way OLP started to develop as a live and a fan oriented band in 2006, that they at the very least somewhat sold out or conformed to mainstream music's standards, and that they have moved on from that. The fact that Raine hasn't liked the last two albums should tell you that something was up. Joel was a nice addition as well.
Maida: Well, we've done that already. This record was the complete antithesis of what we've done on the last two records we made with Bob Rock in Maui, that just did not suit me at all. So with OLP, with my solo record and the negotiations for that, we managed to own most of our next record, our seventh record, for Sony. So in that we've decided to just kind of record the same way I did my record.
Every three months we get together and we take ten days and write a few songs, record them right away, to capture that instant thing where we haven't been able to find ourselves since our first record. Because your first record, even if you're signed to a major label, you don't know or give a shit about the business, you just care about the music. It isn't until you taste what the music business is, that it affects you on any level.
Unfortunately -- or fortunately now -- we're in a place where we feel really energized, where it's amazing to be making a record just the four of us in a room, no one hearing it again and not having to worry about expectations. Right now my expectations are: "Did that feel great? Is that a take? We just played the song live, are we proud of that? Is it good enough? Did it move us?" I'm not worried about radio and all that other bullshit.
Maida: No, what we lost sight of I think as a band is that, with the business of music, everything got more serious, with record sales declining. And a lot of bands will toe the line, a lot of bands on a major label -- I wont name names, but big names who everyone knows -- all of a sudden they're coming to outside songwriters for the first single. I'm still an artist first, I'm not some hired gun bullshit songwriter. So what happens is, and we fell victim to that as well, we had to keep writing and writing and writing for the last record because Columbia was like "we really don't hear a first single."
And we kind of lost sight of the fact that it was never about that at first. That's the damage that's done to a band once they do have a big single or a couple hits. You get that pressure, where if you're in the middle you're in trouble. If you're a band like the Chili Peppers, you're okay because you're going to sell a certain number of records regardless. But even for those bands the stakes are higher now. It's just a tough place to be when you're on a major label. I think ownership these days gives you a whole different perspective on your music. It feels like it's bringing it back to being about art again.
