Anti-Flag Part 2
September 16th, 2009 - Written by Angel—
Last week we posted part one of our interview with Pat Thetic of Anti-Flag, at the 2009 Vans Warped Tour. As it was a fairly long conversation, we decided to break it up into two parts to make it an easier read for the readers. If you have yet to read part 1, please scroll to the end of this page for a link.
CONFRONT: You’re probably one of the best people to ask this question to because you’re in the punk world and you’ve been there for a while..
PAT: You saying I’m old?
CONFRONT: I’m 32 so I mean…
PAT: Oh you’re old; thank God I’m not that old!
CONFRONT: [What are your views on the music industry as it stands now? Like American Idol and iTunes etc...]
PAT: Well here’s my thoughts: American Idol has no impact on my life at all, I have no understanding of it, don’t care about it, don’t know anything about it but here’s my social political vision of it: What are you doing? The major labels are getting artists free, they’re actually making a whole lot of money on them before they even become artists to make money on the record label so it’s this betting process that shows how pathetic the major label record world is that they can’t even find artists on their own that are talented enough to sell a record. They have to go through this whole television show to do it. Now again, the television show is making good money but these poor kids who win the American Idol, the record company already owns all their work, they have no value, they don’t make any money from this stuff. They’re all just slaves to this record industry. I think it’s just tragic and sad that people are duped into it but the other issue is there’s bands that we know that are duped into the same type of thing where a record company will come in and say “we’ll buy your record, we’ll give you $3000 for the next 7 records” and they’re like “woo hoo! they’re gonna give us $3000″ not knowing that in the next 10 years of their career they’re gonna make 20-30 times that but the bands not gonna get any money and the record company’s gonna get the money.
CONFRONT: But that’s true of any industry. It’s the same in the publishing industry. My husband’s a writer……
PAT: Well exactly and we don’t want to be involved in that, that’s crap. It’s not what we want to be involved in. We want to be involved in a world where people are compensated for their work and that’s the great thing in writing and the same as in music, you don’t need a record label now, you put your stuff on Myspace, you get a website, put your stuff away for free downloads, kids come to the shows and you know, you sell a few t-shirts and make some money and you continue that and then once you establish that you’re a band that people are interested in then you go to the record company and be like “listen dudes, I don’t need you but I’ll work with you” and you’re in a much better position. But these American Idol kids are like ‘I need you! You’re my only way of making any money”
CONFRONT: But that’s the argument then. Record labels turn around and say “well if these people don’t need us” and they’ll turn around and say…
PAT: Sure, fuck them. We don’t need them but they have this monopoly now, all the record companies, it’s either Sony or Universal… and you’re like well that’s the problem. When we had 50 or 60 small… And this is where we’re going because they’re realizing that these two entities cannot run the music industry. Why is the music industry in the shitter? Because they consolidate, consolidate, consolidate till they vaccuum a culture and we’ve got nothing left. Now that’s this is where the magic hand of capitalism actually works sometimes. When things consolidate too much then they become stagnate and die and then what happens is that all these little labels and little artists and little things are gonna start to percolate and come up and there’s gonna be true art created again instead of this crap that’s on the radio and record stores right now.
CONFRONT: How do you get out there though if you’re not on the radio and you don’t have a label backing you, giving you money for marketing?
PAT: That is the problem. It’s not about that; it’s about being people who care about music and are gonna play music no matter what happens.
CONFRONT: Sure but if you don’t have a following, and I don’t mean to argue with you…
*laughter*
PAT: No no it’s ok!
CONFRONT: if you don’t have that following…
PAT: Nobody had a following… You look on the internet and there’s this band playing next week so you call up your friends in Chicago and say “hey, can we jump on that show?” you get your parents or somebody to bring you. You can put on a show in your own town, sell tickets for $5 and get 200 of your friends to come and with $5 you get enough money for a shitty band. You put some gas, you go work at 7 eleven and you get some money for gas. I was scraping boogers off of desks in the summer just to get enough money to buy a van and to buy gas for our next show. And that’s the thing, the environment we were in, nobody cares so we were able to develop in a wolrd that nobody cared about and we just did it because we loved it. Whereas now, people are all like “oh I need to be a Myspace overnight sensation, if I don’t have a label then there’s no point doing any work because a record label does all this work for me.” Record labels don’t do anything; you have to do the work, the record label is just there to help you in the end. I have a record label too and record labels can’t break bands unless they got a shitload of money. You’ve gotta break your band if that’s what you want to do.
CONFRONT: How do you go about picking who’s on your label?
PAT: We seek bands who have a history of touring, who can get along with each other and who have a van that works. If you don’t have a van, nobody cares about you. If you can’t get along, you’re not going to be around long enough to be a successful band and of course you have to have some musical ability and some interesting element to what you do, it doesn’t necessarily have to be musical, ability but it has to be something that is interesting. But right now we haven’t released anything on A-F Records because kids don’t want to buy CDs right now and it doesn’t make any sense to put a record out that no body’s going to buy.
CONFRONT: Do you have an issue, especially now with your record label, do you have an issue with people illegally downloading music?
PAT: We’re in a unique time in history and it’s not going to last forever; it’s a short period of time and people haven’t figured out how to make music and art and it starts with music because we write 3 and a half minute rock songs that are easily downloaded but it’s gonna happen with movies and it’s gonna happen with everything. So the goal is for artists who continue to be able to create the things that they do, because I don’t want Bob Dylan to have to work at 7 eleven to be able to feed his family. I want him to be able to create new music so I can enjoy it. So there’s gotta be some way of compensating Bob Dylan from making his music. Now that doesn’t mean that I think Bob Dylan would be driving a Ferarri and have 5 mansions and I think we’re all starting to come to grips with this and that’s why I know it’s only a short period of time where people are gonna say “hey, I love this band. They need to go to the next town, they need some money. I’m gonna pay him for what he does because he’s important to me.” And once we figure out how to do that again, the systems going to figure itself out. Before now, the record industry was like “well I’m going to charge these kids $25 or $20 for a CD and I’m gonna take all this money and we’re gonna go do coke and the band is gonna make a dollar off this record” and that system fell apart because people were like “why am I spending $20 when I could get it for free off the internet?” But there’s going to be a point where people are like “ok well I’m willing to pay a dollar for this band’s song, I think they deserve that amount and I’m willing to do that.” So it’s sort of coming together but it’s gonna take a little more time. Sorry for all the long answers…
CONFRONT: Oh no it’s good and these next ones are quick. What was your first and last album purchased?
PAT: My first record was, I don’t know how I got it, I’m sure I didn’t buy it but somehow I got ‘Let’s Get Physical’ by Olivia Newton John
CONFRONT: Nice! That’s awesome!
PAT: Ha, yeah I don’t know where it came from but I had it in my house.
CONFRONT: It was your favourite I’m sure. And your first and last concert attended?
PAT: Um, well my last concert was obviously Warped Tour
CONFRONT: Warped Tour doesn’t count
PAT: Oh it doesn’t count? But I do enjoy these shows, you’ll notice and I’m sure you’ll hear also cause you’re a fan of music… all these bands and people are fans of music but I went to see the Jane Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Street Sweeper Social Club and Tom Morello is in Street Sweeper Social Club and he is a phenomenal guy and we got to see him. The first show I ever went to was there was a concert at Beatle Mania that my mom took me to, it scared the piss out of me, I was probably 6 years old. It was overwhelming but that was the first concert I’ve ever been to.
CONFRONT: Ok so now you have to finish the sentence…
PAT: Ok
CONFRONT: I would never…
PAT: kill an animal to eat it… Actually I have…
CONFRONT: You killed an animal to eat it?
PAT: No, no, not to eat it but… I collect goldfish, I’m a big fan of goldfish and one of my goldfish was sick and as a vegan I didn’t want to kill it but I was doing some research and they were like “well this goldfish is only suffering and isn’t going to get better so I was looking at this goldfish and was doing research on how to kill it humanly which there’s never any way to kill anything humanly and so they say to put baking soda in water and what it does is it takes all the oxygen out, the other one was to put him in the freezer but then I did some research and they said that that’s not a very pleasant way for a fish to die either. So then I found out that the most effective way to kill it is to cut its head off and me being a vegan and not wanting to kill things, it was a challenge for me to do it but ultimately I said to myself “well, are you not doing this for you or are you not doing this for the animal?” and I was just not doing it for my own belief structures and that’s not helping the animal so I had to chop his head off.
CONFRONT: Yeah I understand the theory behind it and I agree with you but I wouldn’t be able to do it myself. But I have a husband to…
PAT: Yeah I didn’t have a husband. I need a husband to take care of it!
*laughter*
PAT: And the other thing was I don’t have any sharp knives in my house so I got this knife and it wasn’t very sharp and I’m holding this poor little goldfish and he’s such a nice goldfish and I was trying to cut its head off and it was just a disaster. It was a very bad experience.
CONFRONT; Aww!
PAT: So I have killed an animal
CONFRONT: but for a good reason
PAT: Yeah
CONFRONT: I have never…
PAT: …done drugs in Montreal! I’ve never done that!
CONFRONT: Oh yeah? Apparently it’s a good city for it
PAT: I’m not into drugs at all but it is a great city for it. And Montreal and Amsterdam are pretty close for drug use.
CONFRONT: Yeah. Alright, well I’m good with this
PAT: Yeah
CONFRONT: Well great, thanks
PAT: Thank you
To learn more about Anti-Flag visit the websites below.
And if you haven’t already read part 1 you can do so here:
http://www.confrontmagazine.com/web/2009/09/09/anti-flag/
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