Morrissey interview in Turkish paper Cumhuriyet by Zülal Kalkandelen

I know that you lost your faith in record companies. But your fans desperately want to hear your new songs. Would you consider releasing an album as a digital download self-released?

I only want it to be released by a label who cares about it, and who will promote it. If not, there's no point. It can be heard in the live arena and on You Tube. I won't beg a label to sign me. Fate has always come to the rescue somehow.
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That was an embarrassingly dumb, out-of-touch, selfish, and revealing answer.

He may as well have been blunt and said: "If my fans want to hear my new songs, they can continue to line my pockets by paying $100 a ticket to hear three of them that I've been playing for 2 years or listen to poor quality audience recordings from Youtube. If I can't get a chart position or earn critical praise and money from a wide release by a prominent label, I don't give a damn."
 
!Viva Hate! said:
That was an embarrassingly dumb, out-of-touch, selfish, and revealing answer.

He may as well have been blunt and said: "If my fans want to hear my new songs, they can continue to line my pockets by paying $100 a ticket to hear three of them that I've been playing for 2 years or listen to poor quality audience recordings from Youtube. If I can't get a chart position or earn critical praise and money from a wide release by a prominent label, I don't give a damn."
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It's hard to disagree. I know he has taken the role of the obstinate-but-charming anachronism so emblematically to heart, but this time, the times just may pass him by. In the dying days of radio dramas and comedies, voice actors had to figure out how to do their work on TV or film or else. He has to face facts with the digital age and changing music industry. It may not be right in his mind and it may lack the grandeur of old, but it is what it is - modify your approach or become redundant.
 
Found this on Twitter. A blogger based in Turkey conducted a thoughtful email interview with Morrissey, in advance of the show in Istanbul coming up on July 19th.
Check it out:

MORRISSEY : YOU SAVED MY LIFE
© Zülal Kalkandelen
Cumhuriyet / 14 Temmuz 2012

Original article in Turkish:

Morrissey: Hayatımı kurtardınız - Cumhuriyet

Ünlü The Smiths grubunun eski solisti Morrissey, 19 Temmuz'da İstanbul'da, Cemil Topuzlu Açık Hava Sahnesi'nde. Görüşlerinin insanlara sert geldiğini söyleyen Morrissey'e göre, çoğu popüler sanatçının belli bir görüşü yok.
 
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Jamie said:
It's hard to disagree. I know he has taken the role of the obstinate-but-charming anachronism so emblematically to heart, but this time, the times just may pass him by. In the dying days of radio dramas and comedies, voice actors had to figure out how to do their work on TV or film or else. He has to face facts with the digital age and changing music industry. It may not be right in his mind and it may lack the grandeur of old, but it is what it is - modify your approach or become redundant.
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It's not that simple, Jamie. He sees other people who he considers to be his peers (commercially at least) e.g. Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, getting really decent deals with major labels, selling substantial quantities of albums and attaining number 1 in the charts. These people do not have to go down the DIY, download-only route so why should he? They're not really affected by the changing music industry so he wonders why he should be.
The reality is that Morrissey has a small hardcore fan base (i.e. people who would buy anything he puts out) of probably around 50,000 (in the UK) and a lack of brilliant songs which will secure the airplay needed to shift albums. To get the kind of deal he'd be happy with, he has to show he can sell about 200,000 albums. As long as he keeps presenting People are the Same as the very best of what he's co-written in the four years since YOR was recorded, no-one is going to be believe he has the potential for a 200,000 selling album.
The only thing he has to modify is his perception of his own commercial clout in the absence of brilliant new songs.
Maurice
 
!Viva Hate! said:
That was an embarrassingly dumb, out-of-touch, selfish, and revealing answer.

He may as well have been blunt and said: "If my fans want to hear my new songs, they can continue to line my pockets by paying $100 a ticket to hear three of them that I've been playing for 2 years or listen to poor quality audience recordings from Youtube. If I can't get a chart position or earn critical praise and money from a wide release by a prominent label, I don't give a damn."
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And time will prove you wrong. Though I get the impression that you aren't the kind of person who would be at all embarrassed about it!
 
there are 5 years old more informed than Morrissey on Northern Ireland
 
Anonymous said:
And time will prove you wrong. Though I get the impression that you aren't the kind of person who would be at all embarrassed about it!
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Did he not say fans can hear his new songs live or live versions of them on Youtube?
Do his tickets not cost nearly $100 each? I paid $97 to see him in LA last year.
Has he not played "Action Is My Middle Name", "People Are The Same Everywhere", and "Scandinavia" on both the 2011 and 2012 world tours?
Are there not many poor quality audience recordings of the above stated songs found on Youtube?
Has Morrissey not made it clear that he continually lusts after a #1 single and a #1 album in interviews and leaked e-mails?
Has Morrissey not made it clear that he continually feels he is treated unfairly by critics and journalists because they don't like him or his music?
Does Morrissey not earn more money with a new album in the charts and a tour payed for by his label as opposed to a self-financed tour and no new album?
Has Morrissey not chose his stance over offering material to his fanbase that has supported him and his career for decades?

Prove what wrong exactly?
 
Jamie said:
It's hard to disagree. I know he has taken the role of the obstinate-but-charming anachronism so emblematically to heart, but this time, the times just may pass him by. In the dying days of radio dramas and comedies, voice actors had to figure out how to do their work on TV or film or else. He has to face facts with the digital age and changing music industry. It may not be right in his mind and it may lack the grandeur of old, but it is what it is - modify your approach or become redundant.
Click to expand...

I think when it comes down to it, it has less to do with an aversion to change and more to do with he thinks he stands a better chance at getting a #1 single and album if he has the full support of a record label (with money to spare), the press, and the radio...regardless of the quality of the single. I do believe he would die happy if he finally got a #1 single. He's gone on about not having one for so long, I can't remember a time when he wasn't complaining about it! Realistically, though, unless he gets a savvy manager and has a better song stashed away, that ship has sailed.

In spite of what most around here would claim, since 2004 the ONLY song he has released as a single that could have been a #1 was "First Of The Gang To Die". He had the momentum of a new album, tour, and single after a 7 year absence from recording and he totally wasted it on a song that, while good, wasn't going to have mass appeal...as most political songs never do. Considering the demographic most single purchasers fall in, you aren't going to find the majority of them driving around singing out loud "...and spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again - want a guaranteed number #1 single, Morrissey? Release "Art-hounds" (best new song I've heard that he's currently got but not ideally a good single choice) as the usual CD and two 7-inch vinyl single, release a combo package of your autobiography with the single, and release a digital download with some exciting live b-sides all on the same day. Basically, making people get the same single multiple times during the same sales week.
 
"I don't want it published this year".

Goddamn it! That's tipped the balance... evening well and truly ruined.
 
!Viva Hate! said:
I think when it comes down to it, it has less to do with an aversion to change and more to do with he thinks he stands a better chance at getting a #1 single and album if he has the full support of a record label (with money to spare), the press, and the radio...regardless of the quality of the single. I do believe he would die happy if he finally got a #1 single. He's gone on about not having one for so long, I can't remember a time when he wasn't complaining about it! Realistically, though, unless he gets a savvy manager and has a better song stashed away, that ship has sailed.

In spite of what most around here would claim, since 2004 the ONLY song he has released as a single that could have been a #1 was "First Of The Gang To Die". He had the momentum of a new album, tour, and single after a 7 year absence from recording and he totally wasted it on a song that, while good, wasn't going to have mass appeal...as most political songs never do. Considering the demographic most single purchasers fall in, you aren't going to find the majority of them driving around singing out loud "...and spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again - want a guaranteed number #1 single, Morrissey? Release "Art-hounds" (best new song I've heard that he's currently got but not ideally a good single choice) as the usual CD and two 7-inch vinyl single, release a combo package of your autobiography with the single, and release a digital download with some exciting live b-sides all on the same day. Basically, making people get the same single multiple times during the same sales week.
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First of the Gang is easily his most radio-friendly (or simply just his best) single of the last 10 years but the closest he got to number one single was actually You Have Killed Me. It would actually have gone to number one if it had been released the week before as it sold more in its first week than Orson's No Tomorrow (which sold 18,000 - lowest ever for a number one). 2006 was a time when downloads were still on a small scale and the singles market was in serious decline - it was Morrissey's best hope.
But he could put out the best song of his career now and wouldn't stand a chance of a number one. Thanks to downloads, the singles market is booming but, for whatever reason, indie-type bands no longer fare very well. Bands like Oasis and U2 were almost guaranteed number one singles for the first release from a new album up until about 2005/2006 but since the downloading phenomenon kicked in, that's no longer the case. Even the first Take That Mark 2 single with R Williams (Holding Back The Flood) failed to make number 1 despite masses of airplay and it being a really good song (if you like that kinda thing) which attracted universal acclaim .
Number 1 albums are still pretty easy to achieve (album sales are historically at a low point) and potentially within Morrissey's grasp but he has no chance at all of a number one single, unless there was some very unusual explanation (featured in an advert, a film soundtrack, X Factor etc).
 
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I enjoyed this interview, as I always enjoy listening to Morrissey, and although I want nothing more than to hear new Morrissey material properly recorded, I would feel cheated if it wasn't on a record or CD that I could hold in my hands and own. I am not a fan of having music only in MP3 format.
 
Morrissey said:
People seem to make music simply because they can, and all of the techo hip-hop kids do exactly the same thing with no variation, and they think it's great. The mystery and intrigue in hip-hop is zero, and the people who make that kind of sound usually can't even speak, know what ah mean, know what ah mean, know what ah mean? Do THEY know what they mean?!
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:lbf:

If it wasn't already...

GRUMPY OLD MAN STATUS: OFFICIAL
 
Whoever used Noel Gallagher as an example, has failed to realize that the album was 100% funded by Noel himself. If Morrissey bankrolled an album and offered it to labels to distribute, it'd be a much different conversation. Alas, he'd rather not have to foot the bill for craft service on the video shoot. Fair enough.
 
Hey there Morrissey. We all know you read this stuff, so here goes. Yo want a number 1 record? Write a song about what brings people together and that's, "Love". Nearly all number ones and chart toppers have that very strong human emotion as their focus. What tears apart relationships is also a good idea .
You already know this stuff Morrissey and songs like Break Up The Family and Love Is a Miserable Lie, kinda show the point.
Rely on your past successes to continue and build future songs. A trusty note book or better yet, a handheld recorder to stash away thoughts and dreams to be that number 1 hit.
By the way Moz, Vicki Lawrence had a number one hit with, That's the Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia???!!! Give it a listen and ask yourself, Are Number One hits really that good anyways?
"How Soon Is Now" was not a number one and it's played because it's memorable! Only the Anthem Pop Song of the 1980's is all.
 
Dead Girl said:
I enjoyed this interview, as I always enjoy listening to Morrissey, and although I want nothing more than to hear new Morrissey material properly recorded, I would feel cheated if it wasn't on a record or CD that I could hold in my hands and own. I am not a fan of having music only in MP3 format.
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What difference does it make? Turn your back to the record player as it spins and you have the same thing you have with an Mp3: a wave form conveying a recorded message; data that your brain decodes as sound, as music and words, into your brain.

I hate when pretentious assholes talk about how they need to be able to "hold something"...vinyl, CD, etc. Well, you can "hold" an MP3 player. How is holding a CD different? Either way the content, the essence, is intangible...it's tiny pieces on encoded data that a laser or a stylus or a spinning hard drive in your iPod reads, and transmits to you.

And I don't want to hear anything about how "compressed and flat" digital files sound. That's bullshit. In a Pepsi blind taste test you wouldn't know the difference between a CD and a 320 file. You'd know with vinyl but only because of the annoying pops and scratches once it's been played more than ten times.

I bet a million dollars that kids in the 50s and 60s, who listened to all those glorious hit singles on their shitty tinny AM transmissions on their transistor radios, never thought twice about how bad the sound was...it was the song that mattered, and how it affected them to hear it...

I hate everyone.
 
I rather like having something to hold or to look at. It's nice.but not necessary to enjoy music.I'm in love with spotify :). Having the physical stuff though is preferred and in my opinion better and more fun
 
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