W: Zac Smith I: Conor Beegan
“It’s absolutely insane that the CEO of a streaming service is a multi-billionaire and instead of reinvesting in the artists he makes money from, he’s investing in the industrial military complex, that’s insane”.
For artists across the world, this creates a gut-wrenching problem, they must vicariously support the development of technology to be used in wars or face not being able to support themselves. The Scratch shared this distressing dilemma as they appeared from their homes in Dublin over Zoom, ahead of the release of their fourth studio album, ‘Pull Like A Dog'.
Connor ‘Dock’ Dockery, Gary ‘Gaz’ Regan and Daniel ‘Lango’ Lang make up three quarters of the Irish folk-metal band. The boys explained how the album’s name was inspired by Irish Olympic rowers, Gary and Paul O’Donovan when the athletes were answering questions on an upcoming race. The full quote, ‘close your eyes and pull like a dog’ embodies the idea of just sending it.
This attitude inspired The Scratch and has resulted in a raucous, high energy and frankly fantastic album. From the beginning of their career, the band have consistently thrown themselves into creating ambitious music. Their most recent project really hones in on this idea and has pushed them to new heights.
The band spoke openly about how they are now in a position where their career as musicians is now financially stable. Gaz only recently quit his full-time job and for a short period of time was balancing touring and working. Lango also gigs outside of the band in his spare time, in order to create a cushion financially.
They shared how challenging it can be for a musician to support themselves and pointed fingers at the industry and music executives. Dock pointed out that “the music industry’s rigged against the artist and everyone knows it. It’s just one of those things, it’s been like that since the dawn of the music industry.”
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“Wherever there’s money and there’s huge money to be made in music obviously, it’s never going away… it’s one of the biggest money-making opportunities…. so of course, if you’re a money crazed asshole you’re going to be coming straight for the music industry to make money and it’s been happening for decades.”
Dock and Lango explained in detail the way in which executives often prey on the vulnerabilities of an artist. Musicians simply want to create music and be paid for it. Men in suits know how to take a product and sell this.
Dock furthered this by saying: “The reality is, these people dedicate their entire lives to making money so they’re way better at it than we are. Since the birth of the music industry, they have taken advantage of the fact that artists don’t have the money-making knowledge.”
These foundations were set as the commercialisation of modern-day music began and continues to persist. Artists don’t have any other choice, they are forced to work for companies whose morals they don’t agree with and receive a fraction of what they deserve.
Dock used Spotify CEO, Daniel Elk’s decision to invest in the military industry as an example and shared the bands frustration with the fact that they have no other choice.
They applauded King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s choice to take their music off Spotify but stated that the Aussie band are an extraordinarily successful live band and have the means to do so.
Many artists, including The Scratch rely on Spotify as a revenue stream as well as a way to grow their music. Lango did share that if the opportunity to remove their music from Spotify presented itself, they wouldn’t think twice.
Dock said: “Something has to give, we’re not asking for much. If he (Daniel Elk) just reinvested a percentage of his billions back into, the actual percentage he pays artists per stream, it would be life changing”.
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Lango then summarised why it is so important for artists to receive their fair share, “you give an artist, the breathing space to be an artist, everyone fucking wins, whereas if you keep squeezing us, eventually we are going to be living in a world where it’s no longer sustainable.”
Lango suggested a unionisation of artists and a call for bands to come together to fight against problems within the industry. He said: “I’d love to see a world where we do take hold of the power that we do possess as artists and use that as leverage to get what we want.
“We’re not asking for the world, we just want a world where we can continue to create and I feel like if you give us that luxury, everyone wins.”
UK Tour Dates
March 16 Liverpool Rough Trade. March 17 London Signature Brew. March 19 Bristol Rough Trade. April 23 Glasgow SWG3 TV Studio. April 24 Leeds The Wardrobe. April 25 Manchester Academy 2. April 26 Bristol Thekla. April 28 Birmingham Castle and Falcon. April 29 Nottingham Rescue Rooms. April 30 London Electric Ballroom