Bunbury
Refugee
POWERMAN 5000 frontman Spider One recently spoke to the Boston Herald about the group's split with major label Dreamworks and the recording process for their new CD.
Regarding playing clubs, Spider said, "It's where I feel most comfortable. We've sort of run the gamut from doing the smaller clubs in the early days to opening for METALLICA in stadiums. It's a lot of fun playing huge venues, but there's something about that sweaty, 120 degrees, kids right in your face that can't be replaced."
When the bottom fell out of the record industry around the turn of the century, POWERMAN 5000 became just another casualty. Dreamworks — launched as a creative label that was supposed to keep the politics away from the artists — was ultimately folded into the Universal conglomerate. POWERMAN 5000 became a footnote amidst the big-business mergers.
"All I know is we sold them two million records and apparently that wasn't enough," Spider said. "They dissed a bunch of bands that made them a lot of money.
"It's not really a bitter thing because I think it's what had to happen to make the band survive," he added. "If we had made the jump over to the (Universal) family, it would have been a disaster."
"We snuck in there right before everything started to collapse at the major labels,'' Spider said. "We got ourselves a nice hit record out of that. It all was a great experience, but this is a different time. The great thing about music is there really are no rules. Half the battle is always just staying in there and swinging and that's just what we do."
A brand-new POWERMAN 5000 track, entitled "Heroes and Villains", is available for listening on the band's MySpace.com page.
this guy cracks me up. he always makes it up like they were the victims of changes in the industry--either mergers or downloading--but just can't accept the fact that his band fucked up bigtime. i mean after you record two albums for them, and the one that is actually released sells less than 100,000, the 2 million copies sold prior isn't going to mean jack shit. what did he expect them to do? be loyal? he is clowning himself
Regarding playing clubs, Spider said, "It's where I feel most comfortable. We've sort of run the gamut from doing the smaller clubs in the early days to opening for METALLICA in stadiums. It's a lot of fun playing huge venues, but there's something about that sweaty, 120 degrees, kids right in your face that can't be replaced."
When the bottom fell out of the record industry around the turn of the century, POWERMAN 5000 became just another casualty. Dreamworks — launched as a creative label that was supposed to keep the politics away from the artists — was ultimately folded into the Universal conglomerate. POWERMAN 5000 became a footnote amidst the big-business mergers.
"All I know is we sold them two million records and apparently that wasn't enough," Spider said. "They dissed a bunch of bands that made them a lot of money.
"It's not really a bitter thing because I think it's what had to happen to make the band survive," he added. "If we had made the jump over to the (Universal) family, it would have been a disaster."
"We snuck in there right before everything started to collapse at the major labels,'' Spider said. "We got ourselves a nice hit record out of that. It all was a great experience, but this is a different time. The great thing about music is there really are no rules. Half the battle is always just staying in there and swinging and that's just what we do."
A brand-new POWERMAN 5000 track, entitled "Heroes and Villains", is available for listening on the band's MySpace.com page.
this guy cracks me up. he always makes it up like they were the victims of changes in the industry--either mergers or downloading--but just can't accept the fact that his band fucked up bigtime. i mean after you record two albums for them, and the one that is actually released sells less than 100,000, the 2 million copies sold prior isn't going to mean jack shit. what did he expect them to do? be loyal? he is clowning himself