Hello kittens,

Thanks for coming back, or, if you are new, welcome! For this, our third issue, we have interviewed White Hotel and been to the Les Inrockuptibles festival, but what really set our minds going was our interview with Elysian Fields. The horror tales Jennifer and Oren told us about the music industry after their Paris gig last month left us in a severe state of shock (yep, we are emotional people).

It seems that every other artist we talk to have similar stories about what it's like being a part of the ‘music industry’, and we are starting to wonder why they put up with it.

At the bottom of it all seems to lie a desire to be a rock’n’roll star, and quick! A&R people have as their job to make young artists want this even more, and it is perhaps inevitable that they succeed. However, to buy into the ‘live fast, die young’ myth is not too different from telling yourself that you’re disposable, that you are willing to let your life be ruled by a record company exec who will replace you with a fresh-faced ‘up-for-it’ without liver damage at any moment. But, to quote your everyday fictional heroin addict: Why would anyone want to do that?

We don’t really blame the record companies - it is not surprising that they do whatever they can to make money. It doesn’t necessarily seem to have anything to do with experience or lack of money either. If it was, we wouldn’t have seen the amusing facial-hair-as-protest-forum trend.

Could it be that laziness or stupidity on the side of the record deal-signing artist is to blame? Surely no one nowadays believes that record companies are kind and benevolent organisations, whose main interests are to shower you with money and make sure that you have a long and dignified career? But if this is the case, why don’t more people go their own way? By starting up your own record company you would have that elusive and mythical thing - full artistic control - and you wouldn’t have to give most of the money you make to someone else. You can even do advertising on your own, as a web site is very easy to set up. Sounds better to us than having your music owned by a guy who refuses to release it because it lacks 'the sex element'.

Joakim Gleisner