Post by luceluna on Apr 3, 2002 15:08:42 GMT 10
on touring solo: There’s no solo career in the works. I’m not going to put out a record by myself. It’s good for me to play shows by myself when we’re working on new material, because I can work out how I want to sing them; I don’t really sing at rehearsal. We’ve probably got 80 or so songs to choose from and we probably don’t play 50 of those very often, and I just like to go out and play them, and throw in new stuff. It’s liberating to play by yourself: you’re not competing with any other instruments on stage. You can play whatever you want, sing however you want, hear everything perfectly. You can hear a pin drop in the audience. It’s just much more intimate. I’ve done solo shows before where I’ve ended up talking to the audience for ten minutes.
on all-ages shows:We’ve been looking for ways to do that, and frankly it’s really difficult and really expensive. The fact of the matter is that the turnout at all ages shows is never that great. You usually end up losing a lot of money, because you have to spend money to organise the thing. You very rarely (basically never) cover your costs, because you don’t want to charge 15-year old kids thirty bucks. It’s not about making a profit: we’re happy to play for nothing. But if we’re even gonna cover the cost we’re gonna have to charge thirty bucks, and we think that’s unfair. We’d rather not do it. We’d rather do instores. Or they could go to these outdoor festivals that are usually all ages. We’d rather wait for the next festival to come around than charge kids too much money.
We were getting a lot of e-mails and letters, so we thought maybe if we asked the kids to help us, and try to involve them in the process, then maybe it could work out. Maybe some of these kids are part of council groups or whatever, that can actually say "Well, I’m a member of a local youth group and we’ve got a hall," and if we can come up with a PA, then that half-solves the problem. If anyone has a viable suggestion and it sounds like we can make it work, then we’re all for it. It’s just that every all-ages show we’ve put on has run into massive problems, and we’ve either not been able to do it and we’ve done and it’s basically cost us a couple of thousand of dollars. We’ve paid for the advertising, the venue, the PA and stuff, and despite loads and loads of kids complaining that we don’t do a show, not that many kids turn up.
on increased popularity:I don’t think that we’ve become less accessible. People are always saying to me, "You’ve done so well, you’re getting so much bigger, blah blah," but that doesn’t register in my life in any way. My life hasn’t changed. I don’t live in a castle all of a sudden. Maybe the shows we play are in bigger venues now, but I don’t feel suddenly different. I don’t feel like all of a sudden I’m successful. And I still feel the same way about the band that I did five years ago. I still approach everything the same way.
I think intimacy can be 20, 000 people. It’s about the contact that’s taking place. If you can engage 20, 000 people then I don’t see how that’s any different to engaging 200 people. Intimacy is a state of mind. It’s what you bring to the event. It’s how much you’re willing to engage in what’s happening.
on all-ages shows:We’ve been looking for ways to do that, and frankly it’s really difficult and really expensive. The fact of the matter is that the turnout at all ages shows is never that great. You usually end up losing a lot of money, because you have to spend money to organise the thing. You very rarely (basically never) cover your costs, because you don’t want to charge 15-year old kids thirty bucks. It’s not about making a profit: we’re happy to play for nothing. But if we’re even gonna cover the cost we’re gonna have to charge thirty bucks, and we think that’s unfair. We’d rather not do it. We’d rather do instores. Or they could go to these outdoor festivals that are usually all ages. We’d rather wait for the next festival to come around than charge kids too much money.
We were getting a lot of e-mails and letters, so we thought maybe if we asked the kids to help us, and try to involve them in the process, then maybe it could work out. Maybe some of these kids are part of council groups or whatever, that can actually say "Well, I’m a member of a local youth group and we’ve got a hall," and if we can come up with a PA, then that half-solves the problem. If anyone has a viable suggestion and it sounds like we can make it work, then we’re all for it. It’s just that every all-ages show we’ve put on has run into massive problems, and we’ve either not been able to do it and we’ve done and it’s basically cost us a couple of thousand of dollars. We’ve paid for the advertising, the venue, the PA and stuff, and despite loads and loads of kids complaining that we don’t do a show, not that many kids turn up.
on increased popularity:I don’t think that we’ve become less accessible. People are always saying to me, "You’ve done so well, you’re getting so much bigger, blah blah," but that doesn’t register in my life in any way. My life hasn’t changed. I don’t live in a castle all of a sudden. Maybe the shows we play are in bigger venues now, but I don’t feel suddenly different. I don’t feel like all of a sudden I’m successful. And I still feel the same way about the band that I did five years ago. I still approach everything the same way.
I think intimacy can be 20, 000 people. It’s about the contact that’s taking place. If you can engage 20, 000 people then I don’t see how that’s any different to engaging 200 people. Intimacy is a state of mind. It’s what you bring to the event. It’s how much you’re willing to engage in what’s happening.
Bargain!
from the "old bag" ;D