I said on twitter this morning that I felt sad about HMV closing. Mainly because of the many hours I spent in there as a teenager, in DM's and a crushed velvet waistcoat, vainly trying to pick which CD to spend my money on when I couldn't remember the names of the bands John Kennedy played on XFM. It was also where I would go on those first formative "dates", heart racing as I pushed around the band T-shirts, wondering if I had food in my teeth. I don't know how much money I spent there over the years, but it was enough to feel invested. And even when I graduated onto independents and Saves The Day, I would still visit from time to time, picking up cut price VHS for my burgeoning collection of teen films.
I haven't been in an HMV for a while though. The last time was just before Christmas two years ago, desperately looking for something to buy my Dad. (Despite the rush, I am sure I found time to see if they were stocking our album...) As this excellent Clash article points out, HMV's closure had been on the card for a couple of years, but I never really thought it would happen, the same way I don't think I will ever actually poo myself in public. It could happen, but it probably won't, right?
As a selfish and egocentric human being, I can't help but wonder what this will mean for us. I want to be in a band for a long time. I want to have kids someday. I want to have the option of sending them to university. We could quit and get another job - well I could, but I don't think Jeremy would ever be able to do anything other than music. Not because he's really thick, but because he has this incredibly irritating need for it. I have to beg him for days off. He would be making music if no one cared. If he spent every evening doing open mic nights in High Barnet.
I know that HMV isn't just closing because of piracy. Online shopping is AMAZING. But it still makes me think about it. Full disclosure: I'm a hypocrite I've pirated stuff. I don't know anyone who hasn't. Except my parents, but they're obviously angels or something. It really is the future. And I get that it's going to happen, I don't mind it that much. It's just sitting in this studio making our second album I want to feel like what we're doing everyday has value. We get so much support and I love the people who come to our shows, and I feel so lucky. I really do, everyday. But sometimes it's so gutting when you go to a place, and the 500 capacity room sells out, people singing along, but you know in that country you haven't sold any records. (That said I would love to have a bootlegged copy of our album. Especially if the artwork is misspelled. Let me know if you have one?)
The people who are really suffering though, are the labels. Yep, those big corporate monsters. Those evil A&R guys getting huge pay checks, chatting shit in Bardens, promising the world to teenagers. We've had our fair share of major label horror stories, we know people who've had their dreams crushed. But at the end of the day those are just people. People living in weird music industry world, but still. And yes, they're gambling everyday. But they're just investors. They're not the devil. When they say a band is going to be big, they have every faith that it will be. They're not slinking off to their mansions and rubbing their hands with evil glee, knowing it's not going to work, they're probably slinking off to the mansions and trying not to consider that it might not work and they might lose their job. Again. I think it makes it easier to pirate when you hate labels. But if there were no labels it would be messy for bands. I can't imagine trying to deal with distribution and marketing, as well as writing songs and doing artwork. Never mind not having anyone to tell us that Jeremy rapping was a really, really awful idea.
I really hope that there is some sort of solution, and this all gets worked out. I have faith that it will. If it doesn't I guess we'll just be the new Von Trapps and make our poor illiterate children go on tour with us constantly.