Interview with Barry McCabe
An excerpt from P.L. Miller's interview with Irish Celtic-blues guitarist Barry McCabe:
"It’s great to see that more and more artists are either taking control of their own careers these days or wrestling them back from the various companies that abused them for years. To be honest, I was never that busy with chasing the ‘big deal.’ I always felt the deck was rigged in that sense. You’ve seen acts that had ‘made it’ but then everything seemed to go wrong for them. You've heard the horror stories of bands sinking deeper and deeper into debt even though they were selling lots of records. You’ve read reports of artists who’d been ripped off since day one (especially the old blues guys).
"So basically I stayed outside of all that. I’m a very independent-minded character anyway (some might say too much so) but if you care enough about what you create, how can you then just throw it to the wolves? My songs and my music are my babies and I treat them as such. I know I’ve got to put them on a record, or a disc, or available for download but I do it with the utmost care. They are not just means to an end. I don’t write or play music so that I can own a big house with a swimming pool or whatever else some guys chase. I have no problem with it if it comes along on my terms, but I’m not going to change what I do just to get it."
Of course, you know Barry has lots more to say. You can read the rest of the interview at www.gatewoodjournal.org/mind26.html.
"It’s great to see that more and more artists are either taking control of their own careers these days or wrestling them back from the various companies that abused them for years. To be honest, I was never that busy with chasing the ‘big deal.’ I always felt the deck was rigged in that sense. You’ve seen acts that had ‘made it’ but then everything seemed to go wrong for them. You've heard the horror stories of bands sinking deeper and deeper into debt even though they were selling lots of records. You’ve read reports of artists who’d been ripped off since day one (especially the old blues guys).
"So basically I stayed outside of all that. I’m a very independent-minded character anyway (some might say too much so) but if you care enough about what you create, how can you then just throw it to the wolves? My songs and my music are my babies and I treat them as such. I know I’ve got to put them on a record, or a disc, or available for download but I do it with the utmost care. They are not just means to an end. I don’t write or play music so that I can own a big house with a swimming pool or whatever else some guys chase. I have no problem with it if it comes along on my terms, but I’m not going to change what I do just to get it."
Of course, you know Barry has lots more to say. You can read the rest of the interview at www.gatewoodjournal.org/mind26.html.
Labels: Music, Think Tank
# posted
by Rob Colfax, Senior Editor @ 12/03/2006 03:59:00 PM
