Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 13:16:35 +0200 From: Frank Brinkhuis (brink2@XS4ALL.NL) Subject: Red House Painters/4AD Found this on ALT.MUSIC.4AD: >Various postings and news stories have been circulating over Red House Painters >and their relationship with 4AD. The real truth is, I'm afraid, far less interesting. The >band was certainly not 'dropped', and to say that Mark was unwilling to promote >the releases was untrue. Various financial criteria have to be met to make a tour >possible, and like the case for Lush's proposed US tour and Liquorice's UK tour, >these weren't met. Another reason for the 'split' was Mark and Ivo simply not being >able to agree on a tracklisting and certain edits, and we're not in the habit of >releasing a record a band is not 100% happy with. Red House Painters deal was >never 'long term' - they and us preferred to work record to record, again dismissing >the idea that they could be dropped. I hope this ends the argument, as some of >the pieces both ourselves and Mark have seen has done neither 4AD and Red >House Painters any favours. We are sorry not to be working with them and wish >them the best of luck. Down Colorfull Hill will remain, in my opinion, one of the >greatest debut albums ever recorded. >Cliff Walton >4AD Ltd + + + + + + + + ++++++++++++ brink2@xs4all.nl ++++++++++++ Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 12:46:51 -0400 From: Rich Holtzman Subject: RHP off 4AD it was mentioned that RHP were booted off 4AD because they were not selling enough. That's news to me. We have always had bands that have sold less. Anyway, there were many reasons, their record sales (which were respectable) was not one of them. On a side note I saw Kozelek the other day. Seemed rather good. He is just waiting for Supreme to release this next record. I think at first he thought it was going to come out in Sept. He was down in Austin recording the record in March and he seems anxious to get it out. Hopefully RHP won't get affected by any consolidation that will inevtiably happen. rich Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 12:47:02 -0400 From: Rich Holtzman Subject: dropping a band When a band gets dropped from a label there are usually no 2 that are exactly alike. Yes some bands are dropped because of monetary issues. That is pretty much unavoidable. Many bands today spend a lot of time trying to get as big an advance as they can from the record label. The downside to this is that it does not really allow the band the time it needs to develop. As you well know it take some bands years to ever get any notice. 4AD's pockets are not very deep and some times we are guilty of signing a band for too much money. That is a mistake on our part of being overly excited about working with a band or not wanting to be out bid by someone. It gets very difficult. The band collects more and more debt and eventually the only option is bring things to an end because there is no hope for recoupment. There is also the issue of a band not producing music that is of the same caliber to when they were first signed. Of course this is strickly opinion, but Ivo has pretty good taste. Sometimes bands decide on having less and less input from the label, which means 4AD ends up putting out a record that they have not been involved with. That is OK for Sony but for 4AD that is bad. Ivo has a keen sense of sequencing, production, sounds, etc. And probably what he is best at is bringing out the best creative side of the artists he works with. If that releationship becomes thin it is often a time to move on. And of course there is the rare example of a band leaving 4AD. Fortunately this does not happen to much. They often have the opportunity to get a lot more money elsewhere, but I guess 4AD has something to offer. You'll notice that most of the artists that no longer record for 4AD are still in close communication with 4AD. It definitely is an unusual relationship. And yes 4AD does make mistakes and sometimes sign the wrong band. A band that someone at the label thoguht was more than they really were. It is not easy, but there is a pretty good track record. I know these thoughts are a little scatterbrain, but I wrote this at 8 in the morning. that's my short take on it rich