We Came As Romans Guitarist: “Making Sacrifices And Having NO Money Was Part Of Trying Get Somewhere In The Industry”
We Came As Romans guitarist Joshua Moore isn’t a fan of the Kickstarter trend of having fans fund a bands music. Venting on the subject earlier today (September 14th) via his Twitter, he offered:
“When my band was broke and wanted to record an EP, I went and got a job and put almost all of the money I earned towards it. Making sacrifices and having NO money was part of trying get somewhere in the industry. My tour friends and I have all been there before. Sorry for the rant. But I just don’t get it. I’m not saying I’m better than anyone else, and I’m not trying to speak for anyone else. But at least I know we never took the easy route, and did a majority of it with empty pockets but full of pride in what we were doing. No I’m not subtweeting any band. If I had an issue with a specific band or person, I wouldn’t put that on twitter. It’s just the idea of it.”
COMMENTS
sorry if the big baby can’t handle fans paying for recordings, but shit happens. sounds to me like someone wishes their recording sessions etc. would’ve been paid for and now said person is jealous of others.
Yeah, except they’re headlining nationwide tours and doing pretty damn good for themselves. He’s talking about when they were just starting out.
Right? WCAR kicks ass man. 024 you fucking idiot.
024 has a point. some band(s) take to the internet to fund what they do, so fucking what? i understand the blood, sweat, and tears work ethic, and the pride in that, but are you going to refuse any additional funding out of some elitist principle? WCAR sells their shit online, personally i don’t care for them but i’m assuming at some point they’ve done a presale. how is kickstarter any different? you give a band money for an album you can’t get yet, band takes said money, band puts out album. it doesn’t matter if its their first EP or their sixth full length, money is money.
Kickstarter has the aurora of “if we don’t get $30k, we’re not doing shit!” whereas presales are used in the way you state, but also include a number of limited-press collectibles or album-specific bundles. For example, if it’s a t-shirt bundle it gives them an idea as to how many shirts they will need to press to go with the albums and how many they will need to press to take on tour with them – because you don’t want to run out of merchandise for either, but you also don’t want to have tons of leftover inventory. To me, KS just seems like the online version of panhandling, even though I fully realize it’s not – but that’s what it seems like.
Lars Ulrich uses the less popular Crowdtilt.com to fund his bands up and coming kick ass albums.
Frankie uses Bovada and always bets on the Jets. That’s why he has to sell his shitty hats for so much money.
Read about great bands and you will find how many overcame difficult, desperate situations to break through. And in alot of cases, when the good life came their music went downhill. Hard work and dedication makes great music.
i dont know man it seems that there is a ton of sacrafice that is involved in being an artist even if you get fans to help you pay for a cd your still out on the road away from familys with people you may not allways get along with living off of cheep food cramped in a bus with little personal time. i for one love diggin my music but i do it from the confort of my car and my house after eating steak and expensive beer. why cant they keep a little in pocket to at least get to hit up a buffet? in the old days u had a record label pay that dont happen anymore and those record paid albums where pretty damn good. and the good life ie record sales and tours still mean ur out all the time. i feel bad for the bands who give a better part of 10 + years out on the road to retire to have nothing to show for it but good memories and some cool cds and respect. respect does not pay for retirement or help u own your own house. everyone says the state of music industry is shit and bitch bitch bitch and before complained about record labels. this seems to me to be a good alternative to the labels. they are not going to get millions of dollars from the kickstart thing but maybe enough to have a confortable recording session….and btw i couldnt imagine that the road is very good on the artistry of a band with out down time. cramped on a bus has to cramp your thoughts which show in lyrics and playing style. i dont know i guess i am against the norm on this one but fuck i assume a few of my favorite underground acts got burried in it cause of a lack of funds.
i think kickstarter is more respectable then selling laptops and not giving them to the fans after they paid for them or selling racist shirts and hats.
Well Jonny & Frankie are both assclowns. They’ll both probably OD in the next few years so maybe those laptops or racist shirts could be considered collectibles. Probably not though.
I miss Five Pointe O
Fuck Ya, Still love their 1 album. Got fuct outta seeing them @ an $8 show where mushroomhead (of all bands haha) headlined. Started show early with no annoucement, shit has haunted me ever since
Joshua Moore doesn’t understand that “the Industry” has changed. I respect his hard work, but bragging about it or lamenting the current state of the industry has very little to do with making cool music.
For Joshua Moore and his band are to be taken seriously in regards to his statement then they must have never received outside support; this means no parents helping buy gear, no fans or friends letting them crash on a couch, no one offering free or cheap rehearsal space, no tax write-offs or refunds, no borrowin ofmnew
Sorry, it’s too easy to accidently hit “post comment” on a mobile device.
Anyways, Joshua Moore’s statement is is a disrespect to all artists who have ever had patrons in the history of art. He needs to read and study so that he can understand the “D.I.Y” and “punk/Indie/underground aesthetics and politics.”
Sorry about the damn typos, “auto-correct” is a misnomer.
This post doesn’t make any sense. This isn’t a “We built it!” situation – obviously they’ve had outside support, and it was their hard work that landed them items such as a label contract and sponsored tours.
This band sucks.
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