A few people have asked about the ‘theory’ behind Pith, and a post in one of the threads over in the new politics+activism forum at SBM has finally convinced me to get off my ass and write a bit about this stuff. This stuff changes continually and I’m terribly bad at explaining it, however the following is what I managed to bash out today, sorry for any hideous spelling/grammer.

Okay… by ‘theory’ I’m talking about the thoughts behind the actions that makes me/us do what I/we do. To be perfectly honest I’m not entirely sure to what degree the other crew-members agree with me on a lot of this stuff, they have their own reasons for joining in and whatever they may be there is some overlap, and that same flexibility of ideals is I guess part of what it’s all about anway.

So. Originally the ‘pith’ idea was born out of relatively selfish goals - we wanted to release records and have our bands ‘go somewhere’ without having to go chasing for a contract with a larger label. All the usual concerns about the ties said labels have with unsavoury characters and the way they treat their artists were all part of the thought process though I think the biggest pull for us was that we liked the idea of being able to do just what we wanted and not be accountable to anybody in a suit.

Since then and now I guess a lot has stayed the same, but a few bits and bobs have fluctuated. One is the degree to which we’re openly ‘political’. To start with I wanted a blatantly pinko website full of leftie propoganda and stuff (inspire social reform and all that crap) however the other guys on the crew didn’t like this idea and we settled at a middle ground of ‘not openly promoting any one particular political agenda’. This was kept in balance by me continually pushing left left left and the rest of the guys keeping me in check. Among other things, this prompted a slow realisation that I didn’t particularily like blatant leftieness all that much, and it seemed that spending a bunch of time ranting about politics and “fuck the system” and all that, whilst signing bands who did the same was time that could be better spent actually doing something that does make a dent in said ’system’.

It seems a bit of a dissapointing irony that there are so many people ranting and raving about fucking the system, whilst - knowingly or unknowingly - supporting the system they spend so much time ranting and raving about. Not just in the obvious sense many folks see - underground bands spouting leftie propoganda whilst signing to a record label owned by some global conglomerate juggernaut and eating at maccas - but in the sense that there are punk, metal and hardcore kids all over the world supporting what is obstensively a vibrant, emotionally and politically charged scene. That scene is a marketing goldmine. Just like everything else viewed through the dollar-tinted glasses of advertising and marketing execs that anti-establishment, anti-corporate fever is just ripe for the plucking and is inadvertently responsible for the mockery that is pop-punk, fashioncore and all the associated bullshit that goes with.
This is where everyone yells “hey fuck you at least we’re taking a stand for what we believe in and not being sheep like the rest”. Well good on you, I too much prefer that train of thought from the alternative, and it’s true that the marketing machine will find a way to pervert everything that gets in it’s path, so what’s the point right?

The thought that repeatedly crossed my mind was “We can be politically inclined, environmentally responsible and all that good stuff without wearing slogan t-shirts and writing damn-the-man songs right?”. To quote someone on a random web-board: “Environmentalism is about politics, not group drumming”.

There will always be people in suits latching on to any kind of culture they can find and puking out a bastardised version of the same, so I wonder why not worry about latching onto the idea of being indie and DIY in and of itself, and instead worry about having a good time and playing good music?

I guess it’s a ‘quieter’ side of revolution, and it’s one that could well be a little more likely to spread than the more agressive form you see coming from folks like the guys at G7 Welcoming Committee Records…

When all the kids were angry at Rage Against The Machine for signing to Epic (a Sony subsidiary) Morello said this

A lot of labels contacted us, and lots of them just didn’t seem to understand what we wanted to do. They kept talking about the message of the music as a gimmick. They were interested in us just because there was a buzz… They saw us as the latest local rock band to be hyped. But Epic agreed to everything we asked–and they’ve followed through… we never saw a conflict as long as we maintained creative control. When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that’s where people buy their books. We’re not interested in preaching to just the converted. It’s great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it’s also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart.

Whilst I don’t particularily condone RATM signing to Epic, you can see where they’re coming from in not wanting to spend their time preaching to the converted… It would be fantastic if every good band out there decided to sign to indie labels and support their roots and all that but fact remains that the function of our society is a little more complex and it takes different strokes for different folks…

So where do we sit?
I know it may sound like somewhat of a copout to some, but we sit on whatever side of the fence we feel like at the time. There is no hardened agenda to what we’re doing and I don’t think there should be. Yelling at people that they’re sheep and they’re not attending enough rallies or being DIY enough may seem worthwhile for some, but realistically that method of thought can create quite an insular environment.

By the same note I also think it’s a good idea to refrain from throwing up your hands and saying “we’re all going to die, there’s no way to stop the machine”.

I guess if we end up in some kind of massive voilent global war between the corporations and the indie kids I’d prefer to be a friendly face on the side of the latter than an angry un-approachable dude raging against the machine.

One problem that has faced the left-leaning side of things, especially in recent years (even more so in Australian federal politics) is that whilst the goals of the left are on the whole quite ultruistic there is a lot of interbickering and nit-picking which results in a divided front. That’s one thing the right has down pat, i.e. the radical right will support the not-so radical right as a means to an end and I think that’s something we rampant lefties could learn well from.

And what conclusions does this all lead to?:
To be annoying, I’m not sure. But I think what’s working is a friendlier, less damning approach. People seem to like getting behind something when it’s not being noisy and complaining a lot. So far it’s working. Also, reasonable compromise of ideals is a neccessity. Working too far outside any system removes your ability to influence it.

Anyway, there’s a lot left unsaid there but I guess that’s as simple an overview as I can manage… I’ll get back to more stuff about the actual practicalities of all this stuff next entry.

BTW: If you want to flame/berate/comment on this please do so in the forum, I’m going to set up a commenting system for these diaries soon as I get the time to…

Edit: Just another thing I realised needing noting a few months after writing this entry, while I take it for granted a large part of being ‘indie’ is my own sanity. The freedom of my own mind is just as important to me as making the arrogant assumption that this kind of thing will make some kind of actual change in the rest of the world.

This entry was posted by Will Dayble on Sunday, April 10th, 2005 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Start an Independent Record Label. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.