I was thinking about how i should continue with CULTES DES GOULES (which is nothing special, i always do this), when i got a series of emails which made me think. A label i know has encountered serious health troubles and think about stopping; this sounded like a bad burn out problem (believe, i know this problem from the real world…). Another label sounded the same and actually stopped. That was quite a big label, wellknown in the scene.
A friend quitted from his band, cause “these guys always spoke of being professional with the problems of a professional, but without the money”. In fact, this “professional or not” issue is one of the reasons we finally laid THARGOS to rest. The following words are written in the eyes of a musician not of a label or distributor. For these guys the word “underground” must have another meaning than for a musician.

I thought about the scene today and before years; at the moment the promos and demos are welldone; every musician has his own label (so do i, but i am not active haha) and try to compete with all the other labels, including Nuclear Blast. Which means in the end that one has to pay 12 Euro or more for a welldesigned double-tray release, including poster, lighter and a big sticker what you can buy at the label too.
Compared to 1985: i copied my demo-tapes on my double-tapedeck, copied a cover at the copyshop (which means i really had to do lots, cause i had no computer with photoshop and everything was quite difficult until you got the master-cover).

However i made the mistake too and paid a painter for a cover (which is great!) and put a lot of money and efford in releasing the second THARGOS CD. Meanwhile i think, this act is not a contribution to the scene. This act was like stabbing the scene once more to death. I really should have told my professional companion that we are doing a demo CD-R, with efford, but not with money, and apply to labels we like with that. Cause they are trying hard to do everything well. We are musicians, not business man. If we don’t find a label, we are not worth of having one.

This enlightenment leads us to the next problem. Meanwhile it seems that everyone plays a guitar, and every forth seems to own a label (which means, every band is signed by its own label). Every label must compete with the others; we have releases to sell- way to much, if you think about the price. The price is 10 or 12 euro, cause of the unbelievable costs of a professional release. Who i ask you shall buy all that stuff??

I have no the money to buy everything interesting for 12 euro. I cannot sorry. I would like to, but it is simply not possible. In the end i buy nothing.
Well, if i would say a demo-cdr for 3, 4, or even 5 euro i could think about it. 5 Euro- thats the price of lunch. When i am not eating anything at work, i can efford it. It would be even ok to pay for a download (maybe 2,50?) when i can download the cover and make beautyful CD-R on my own.
Believe me, i don’t want to have a full-coloured booklet with lyrics, professional photos and a patch for my jacket in EACH CD. It’s enough when buy this from Iron Maiden for 20 Euro (prices in germany are quite higher than in ireland, i figured out), cause i probably like this band more than some underground band (except TEARSTAINED, which is at Barbarian Wrath- i must order this soon, damnit!)

I think the scene would benefit, if there would be less labels. And less distributors. Every label has its distribution, cause we are trading without money to spread our word. We call this “metal friendship” and “underground behaviour”. Wow, i think it’s the same game. This is shit. An example:
Assume that people have money for 100 CDs. If there is one distributor, he sells every CD. Money is enough to get in his costs and maybe to buy a beer at night in his local. If there are two, money is less, but i would assume it works for the two distributors. There is a competition and we benefit from good prices.
But if there are 50 Distributors, each sells just two CDs (in fact, if he has two best friends and he meets them in his local pub). Thats a way to hard. Nobody can do good work with that less money. This is not underground, this remembers me to some italian arena where christs and lions where used to play together…

What i am trying to say is: we are destroying our huge (!) scene ourself.
Play music, yeah, but we all should do demo-cds, until a label comes and gives us money to do a proper release. They CAN give us money when there are less labels, cause they don’t have to release low-budget releases anymore.

I really don’t know, why people always want to get “important” to the scene. Some are, some not, and for example, i am not. And i like it. I have freedom. Maybe i will go famous in some kind some day, but that’s not my wish anymore. I put a lot of efford to THARGOS since 1995 to get important to the scene. But it didn’t worked. For the reasons above. Just to much of everything. And the fact, that some bands are just not interesting for the scene day. That’s not sad, that’s ok, but a fact. I would have been more happier with THARGOS if i would have accepted this fact. I would have had fun.

Now i am finished with this article and i really hope that you get my point. I want the oldschool world back. Where there were just a few labels, and one get used to buy CDs from these guys, and if you were a lucky one, you recorded yourself for them. If not, you had enough feedback cause you sent tapes to fanzines. Meanwhile we would sent CD-Rs, and hey, for me that would be really fine!

A final word, guys: somebody said, “underground is dead” and I believe this now. Cause most of us out there act professional with buying lots of services and try to get their money back. I stop this and i am proud to be underground again: i just pay for my instruments, but do not produce any products anymore. There is no need for getting any money back. I have returned the underground, where i belong, and i really hope to meet some of you back here- with CD-Rs, self copied covers and that great feeling, that we are doing things with passion, not for money.

Please give me feedback for that article- it’s highly appreciated- but please note that english is not my native tounge and some expression could be meant in another way than written. Please stay fair. If you need more room for discussion on this article, go to http://tkf.possessed.de or to http://www.thebasar.org/phpBB2/index.php
where i am reading the posts on a regular basis. Thanks!