#flipsyde

Pixel Mabinogi Characters and Devcat Logo belong to Mabinogi, this work is purely for fanart purposes :)

Quite informative interview with Dave Lopez from Flipsyde recounting what getting signed in 2005, getting a huge push and then being put at the bottom of the priority pile was like. Lots of things that have been discussed already but interesting to hear the chronological story of how label support can wither and what it looks like. Notable bits:

For their first album they received little to no direction on how they should sound (they were signed after the label heard one song) but when it came to the second album the label tried turning them into Black Eyed Peas, adding a female vocalist and trying to influence their sound, paired them up with specific producers etc. 

“If you’re lucky enough to get a record deal on a major and to actually have them support you, turn the green light on? There’s nothing like it. When they’re down with you and they’re pushing you, there’s nothing like it. You see yourself everywhere. When we were going to Europe, on the radio, tv, video-- it was just bananas. The power that those guys have is crazy. It starts messing with your head a lil bit, that’s why people lose their shit.” They were also backed directly by Martin Kierszenbaum who was the head of the label.

They were due to go on a stadium tour with Eminem & 50 cent, it was going to be the big European push and the States would follow. However the tour was cancelled because Eminem went to rehab. And after that the brakes were put on the band promo; it was turned off instantaneously as the timing was now off so all that was planned was shelved and the band never recovered.

Their manager was friends with the label and didn’t question any of their decisions, rather tried to get the band to comply with them as he was pro-label. He’d gotten many artists signed to that label (managers’ deals with labels have been discussed before, this certainly seems to be one of those cases where the manager is more interested in providing artists to a label rather than supporting the artist.) 

Because their lead single didn’t blow up in Europe they were close to being dropped. However the NBC Olympics picked the song up for the show and the song got a life in the US and they got a chance to perform on late night. However because the label was no longer supporting them they received no radio play; the Interscope radio promoter had no interest in pushing them.

“It's you and me against the world.”

Anxiously waiting for Season 5 to Strike Back (pun intended, not sorry) now.

Miraculous: Café D’ Mari