The number one mistake that bands make is to think that they can outsmart a system.

Like, they think, well, if we get involved in this sort of professional way of doing things,

a sort of mainstream way of doing things, like if we get an account, if we get a manager and a booking agent,

and a record label and a promotions person, you know, a public

relations person. You know, we pay all of these people to facilitate different aspects of our

career. Somehow we can outsmart the pure mathematics of that and keep our heads above water. And that system exists to support itself.

It doesn't exist to support the bands. Steve Albini, he's one of the world's greatest producer

recording engineers. I had worked on other bands that were sort of attracting a lot of attention,

were, you know, had hit

records and finger quotes and that kind of stuff. But Nirvana was the biggest band, I mean,

the biggest band that I will ever work on is Nirvana, clearly. Within the music industry,

my business practices are somewhat unusual. Normally, bands would be paying a royalty to the producer

engineer or whatever. From an ethical standpoint, I think it's an untenable position for me

to say to a band that I'm going to work for you for a couple of weeks, and then for the

rest of your fucking lives, you're going to pay me a tribute. If I spend a certain amount

of time on a record and I'm paid for the time that I work, then I'm content. I just don't see any reason to extend the band's obligation to me beyond that.

That's an unusual position within the music industry.

Totally normal if you're a fucking plumber or a carpenter.

You spend X number of hours working on a house.

You get paid for your time.

You know, oh look, the house is still standing in 20 years. Maybe I should get a little bonus for that, huh? Well, hey, everyone,

welcome to this week's episode of The Vinyl Guide, the podcast for fans and collectors of vinyl

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