And from that point on we just said, well wait a minute — there really is power in the internet with the fan base we have. And we feel — well, we're very fortunate. We're fortunate that they trust us enough to hand over that amount of cash and we won't go off to have a big party (laughter). And that led to the pre-order thing we did with an album called Anoraknophobia. The fans actually ordered the album before we'd even written it and that gave us the cash to actually record it. This gave us the kind of total freedom to do what we want without any pressure from anybody. It's a great situation to be in.
So how has that actually worked for you?
What happened was we originally were with EMI, and then we were with some independent labels and we weren't really happy. So it just came around to how about we do the internet pre-order thing? We sent an e-mail out to all our fan base and said "what do you think?" And the response was really pretty huge. Something like 14,000 people actually ordered the album, which gave us a big bag cash of something like 400,000 pounds. It paid for the whole record — the recording and the manufacturing. From that point on, we did it again with the Marbles album, and that worked as well. So all the time, we've been building up a fan database. Its an artist's dream come true to have the freedom and the trust of the fans. We're very fortunate.
Now this time around with Somewhere Else, you didn't do that.
No, we didn't. We had a convention a few months back. We've been having these conventions semi-annually and this last one raised quite a bit of money so this time around we didn't feel we had to do it. Next time around maybe?
Actually I noticed on the website you are already taking orders for the next one. That one is coming out in 2008, right?
Yeah it is. We have a lot of material we've been working on and we have nearly an album's worth now. So were going to go back in the studio and do a couple of more tracks and hopefully it will be ready to go. I haven't looked at the web site for a few days because we've been on tour.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
Great interview, Glen! I wish the band could hit the US again, but the never come to Arizona even when they do, unfortunately, so maybe they're just trying to save me some money and frustration.
I'm not a huge fan of the Fish-era, but I'm actually quite excited to see that he's going to do Clutching At Straws - it remains one of my favorites. I'll definitely be picking up the live album for that.
2 - Glen Boyd
Thanx Tom. Looks like it'll be next year before they get over here, if even by then. Rediscovering the band all these years later has been a real pleasure though. Ian was also a great guy to talk to and a great interview. Thanx for the comment.
-Glen