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Friday, Feb. 6 -
"Lollapalooza of a Business" - Perry Farrell
Not
only do I love to download, but I love to look at other people’s
music. I love looking at what they’re listening to and I tell
you that the flavors change quicker than Baskin Robbins. I can tell
you what music is being passed around in the individual groups, what
individual groups are collecting. I can tell you now that Thievery
Corporation works with Sound Tribe Sector 9. You don’t know
that until you enter into these little groups.
Write that down. Sound Tribe Sector 9, Thievery Corporation.
The only trouble is, my eyes hurt. That’s about it. So –
Visine, computer, five minutes, take a break, go outside. That’s
my system.
And you know what I found? I truly believe that people are listening
to music more now than ever before. Do you all think that? Record
companies might be having a hard time, but I think that, these days,
every company that’s selling crackers wants to put on a festival
because they see there’s money in it, first of all.
And Tom went away and couldn’t stop Wall Street. Where the hell
is he?
Some cats come up with the idea of “theme packages.” A
theme package would be like, “OK, man, we gotta be metal. So
everybody’s gotta be metal and it all’s gotta be about
metal.” And the other packages would be, “Well, we’re
gangsta and we’re gonna be about gangsta.”
And I think it’s all crap because, when you think about it,
when it dies, your festival dies alongside it. I think you can put
OutKast with Loretta Lynn. I swear to you, it could work, but you’ve
got to be savvy.
I think the most important way to do it is: You’ve got to think
like a DJ. You’ve got to love music like a DJ loves music. Any
of you have DJ friends and you know their collection? The cat’s
workin’ it out in the morning, workin’ it out weekends
at the club, you know? DJs are always listening and they’re
combining mixtures. It’s beautiful; it’s pure sound and
artistry. It’s a wonderful hobby to have, to be a DJ. I think
you’ve got to love music like a DJ loves music and you have
to treat music like she’s a woman that you would never cross,
that you’d live to protect her.
So, where do we think this industry’s going now? Are we going
to abolish downloading in the next few years? Now, if we’re
going to abolish downloading in the next few years, I believe that
it is very important to work with the United Nations and Jimmy Iovine,
who may have the only label left on the planet. And, eventually, we’ll
end up calling this planet MP3.
I love MP3s. I think MP3s are hot. I like to take MP3s, load them
into my iPod and I love to go snowboarding.
I just did that. Awesome. Through Colorado, of course.
I like to take MP3s, chop them up and remix on airplanes. I used to
shlep record boxes through the airport, and I’m little. My back
used to crack. Now I load up my music in software they call Tractor,
which allows you to take all these files and DJ with them. So I’ve
got thousands of records on hand and I can watch the crowd and see
who I’m playing to, as a DJ, and say, “Oh, they like country
& western!”
I don’t have country & western.
Or, maybe I do. Let me look in my country & western file. “Don’t
have much country & western, but I’m willing to learn!”
I’m willing to go online tonight.
But I think the digital revolution is wonderful and it only enhances
what we have today, and I think that today we’re all in this
room in a great position because live action is where it’s at.
It’s back to the ancient art of public assemblage. Putting on
festivals is dramatic and traumatic. I realize that every year when
I’m traumatized.
Some people say, “Well, you know, I think what you should do
is come up with a good headliner.” Now, headliners, that’s
music to a sponsor’s ear. They love to hear “headliners.”
But I’m going to tell you what I do. I’m going to tell
you how I put Lollapaloozas together.
I try to imagine the musicians eating together. I think about how
they’re going to interact sitting at a table and I start to
imagine the friendships they’re going to develop, the backstage
friendships.
My greatest memories of festivals past have been backstage and the
antics and the things that I’ve witnessed. I’m not going
to mention what those antics were, but I was No. 23 in line, I swear
to God!
And this is what I believe, too: That you’ve got to make your
shows sexy, because if the girls come out and the girls are happy,
then the boys are going to be happy. And I love to watch people dress
up when they go out. I like to watch fashion movements, too, because
I believe that fashion follows music.
Let me ask you a question. Do you think we’ll see a time when
the fresh baseball cap isn’t a guy’s idea of going out
on a date? No? Well, if life imitates art, then I believe audiences
imitate artists. So, as a producer, I eat from the same fashion plate.
Is the guy with the tight jeans going to hang out with the guy with
the baggy jeans? Or, is the guy who’s wearing Adidas going to
walk next to the kid wearing the Birkenstocks? These are the kind
of things I think about and the problems we have to solve.
The hardest person to figure out is the girl with the stilettos.
So, anyway, I know one thing. I don’t know how they’re
going to sell music but I can tell you one thing: People love live
action. They love going out on a Friday night. They’re always
going to go out on a Friday night, even if they’re tired, because
their girl’s got a new dress and she needs to be shown off.
We’re going to go out there, we’re going to hope to witness
the remarkable, the magical, the musical.
Now, I speak to promoters every time I go out to play clubs. They
say, “You know, man, I do nine shows in a row just to do one
show that I really want to do.”
So, now I know the ratio out there is nine to one. That’s crap.
That’s crap ratio. It feels as if there’s a huge gap in
talent. Nine to one, man? So, what happened to talent? Why does it
take so long for this guy to get a good show that he really loves
and believes in? Did God stop making the talent for a few years? Do
you sense that there’s a lack of talent in the world today?
It’s not possible. I think there’s got to be, from time
immemorial – an even level of talent; even level of dreck –
that’s got to be how it is. There’s balance in the end,
right?
I think what we’re suffering from is in marketing.
I know a guy; this guy is a record executive. He’s a label genius.
He swears he’s never wrong. He does call-out research. This
is how the guy decides what’s going to fly and what’s
going to get shelved. He says he swears that call-out research is
never wrong.
If you don’t know what call-out research is, it’s when
you take your unreleased record, you give it to a group of young people
and they get to hear 30-second snippets of a record and they decide
if they like it or not. Does it sound like a Kool-Aid commercial or
not?
I ask you guys, do you think Lou Reed, in his day, would ever make
it with call-out research? You guys remember the time you first heard
the Velvet Underground or Lou Reed? Rock N Roll Animal?
When I heard Lou Reed for the first time I thought, Is Lou the lead
guitar player? Because the singer is horrible! I’d never call
the guy back! He’d never make it!
But it was the DJs back in those days who knew what was going on.
They were there, in the studio, ’round the clock. They knew
what was going on, off the streets.
Now you’ve got your little brothers in the clubs programming
the music. When I was a kid, all I ever listened
to was what my big brother listened to. I didn’t know better,
but my brother liked it, so it’s got to be cool.
It would be like having a school and the kids are telling the teacher
what they want to learn. It doesn’t work out. You’d raise
a race of dummies.
Whew! I need some grass. You like grass? I love grass. Grass is perfect
after a keynote speech, lemme tell ya.
Grass is the feelers of the earth. Somebody dropped an atomic bomb
and still, grass grew right back.
Musicians love grass. We’re a lot like grass. We like to take
the vibe and make it a divine sound. You can have a record business
that is deaf, you can have radio stations that are corrupt, you can
say to yourself in a fit of road rage that music sucks! Then, out
of nowhere, growing up you’ll hear something that you love.
Musicians play in their rooms first, then they graduate to parties
with kegs, then they go to clubs. Then we hear about them and we instantly
claim them as Land of Our Own.
I’d like us to all remember there’s two ways that a field
can grow. You can garden it and manicure it. But most consistently,
it’s going to grow anyway. It’s going to grow wild, it’s
going to grow gnarly and frighteningly truthful.
I see new grass on the musical landscape. Young people are always
going to search out a good time. They’re often spoon-fed a lot
of crap but there’s always going to be a smart one amongst them
who’s going to lead them out into the field and teach them about
grass ... and great music.
Thank you.
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