Earache -no love for Ted Maul then?

Question: This is an interesting one, how come earache never picked up ted maul? If you look at its inital line up it had peter theobalds on bass who used to be in akercocke but he left if i recal because aks touring and recording comitments made it impossible to do both bands, who was also in ak at the time and also ritz who had a stint as akercocke\'s keyboard player. Also a large proportion of the band worked as roadies for ak. I thought a band that brutally heavy with that kind of association to one of earache\'s better bands would be on the label quite quickly. I mean as far as i know the band are still unsigned with their last album white label being self released by its members. From:

Answer: Hmmm very interesting one, as you say- on paper Earache SHOULD be working with Ted Maul..the band are obviously pushing the envelope musically, with the Drum N bass meets Death Metal angle, which is gaining great reviews, plus the Akercocke connection and we do seem to have a lot in common- it should make it a no-brainer, right?

The problem is Earache itself was experimenting with the Hardcore techno/DnB mashed up with Metal thing in the 90's and so its kinda pretty old news round these parts, and we also know how closed-minded metallers can be to such hybrid sounds- despite critics applauding it.Unless Enter Shikari have made it OK for metal fans nowadays to enjoy mashed-up genres?

Also we have never had any meaningful type dialogue/contact with Ted Maul,for some reason they keep their distance from us- maybe it was because Akercocke were already on Earache, we also know they have a strong DIY ethic within the band, which we can understand, and are aware they prefer to do their own thing, which is actually how a lot of bands choose to operate these days-myspace allows bands to interact with fans so much easier than in the even recent past.Many dont actually need a label.

To an outsider it probably looks crazy that we arent working with Ted Maul..but for various reasons the band and label never got together.We think they are a cool bunch of dudes, but its just one of those things.

Earache & Taint?

Question: Im just wondering did earache have any interest in welsh sludge/post metal/hardcore punk crew taint. My reason for asking is because everytime they have played nottingham the past few times there seems to be a few earache staffers at their shows were you guys checking them out as a possible future earache band or somthing? From:

Answer: Yeah quite a few of the staffers have always loved TAINT - in fact that whole ACRIMONY/BLACK EYE RIOT Wales Sludge/doom scene goes down well on thee Earache death deck.TAINT have a lot in common with CLUTCH to my mind, but I don't think we ever tried to sign them tho- they have been signed to Lee Dorrian's Rise Above label so we leave them alone.I notice they have a newie out now and are touring including a Nottingham show. We should be in attendance as usual, we are at most decent shows in the town after all.

CARCASS have reformed

Question: Hi there,is it true that Carcass reunion?as far that i know,ken owen are having badly brain tumor disease.Is he recover?If that all true,i will could pay thousand dollar to fly over seas to see Carcass play at ozzfest!-ma\'el-(malaysia) From: maelsick666666sense@yahoo.com

Answer: Well you better get saving up for your flights my friend, because it is true that CARCASS will reform to play some shows next summer at European festivals- we hear currently: TUSKA 2008, WACKEN 2008 & HELLFEST 2008, and maybe more to be announced. The band recently met up in London to be filmed for a series of retrospective DVD's which we are releasing next year.You are right about Ken tho- he suffered an accidental brain hemorrhage in 1999 which left him in a coma, literally fighting for his life- after an amazing fightback,and a lot of rehabilitation he is now fully able- but drumming a full live set would be too taxing- so the drummer on the shows will be Daniel Erlandson (Mike Amott's band mate in Arch Enemy).

Heres CARCASS video for "Keep on Rotting In The Free World"

What happened to Pulkas?

Question: What happened to Pulkas???? From: angharad.jones@orange.net

Answer:They were a fantastic band while they lasted were PULKAS.Earache signed the London band after they played a handful of gigs in 1998, and recorded them with famed producer Colin Richardson for the debut album "Greed".On its release -to rave reviews- it became obvious that the band could easily go onto great things, as their brand of groovy/alternative-leaning metal was breaking big, if you recall, 1998 was the era when Deftones/Tool etc were coming through on the world scene, selling lots of albums.

Sensing their greatness deserved better than the indie label they had just signed to, the band wasted no time in recruiting a manager who proceeded to shop them to major labels, even tho the band were contracted to us for 3 more albums.They broke off all contact with Earache so we were forced to spend 2 years wrangling via lawyers, defending our quite legitimate legal and moral position.At some point in the protracted process, the band split up.Almost 10 years on, the album was so ahead of its time, it still sounds contemporary-like it could have been released last week- but I dont think the ex-members have been in any notable bands since.

Strange things are happening and the band is getting a bit of attention lately in 2009- 11 years after the album- so heres the bands only video clip, LOADED.

The Freezing Fog & Beecher

Question: If a band breaks up under contract to earache, what normally happens in regard to the former musicans new projects does earache have rights to first listen to decide if they want to pick them up or not, for example the band of ex beecher members the freezing fog would earache have had first rights to check the demos out to gauge interest or not? From:

Answer: The usual contract is such that the individual members are signed, not the band-so when a band splits mid-contract, Earache has the option to continue with any members' new outfits, or not.In the case of Beecher, the band split up quite suddenly and unexpectedly, soon after the release of their first album for us, while promotion was still ongoing infact.The band persevered through a couple of gruelling Euro tours making seemingly little or no headway in terms of building a career, which kinda made the guys re-think their priorities.
Earache chose not to pick up the option to continue.Now some 2 years later, ex-Beecher members are back as THE FREEZING FOG and while they have mutated into a more stoner/cathedral rock vibe, its not something Earache would be interested in right now.Beecher were cruelly under-appreciated when they were going, and in many ways spearheaded the UK screamo/death scene which many bands have embraced with much greater success since.

Gallows & Earache?

Question: Is it true that earache turned down Gallows, Aparently on the
night they got signed they were playing a gig at rock city according to them
reps from all three of the nottingham metal labels were there and they said
that iatde were the only ones that offered them a deal, do you regret this
decision now being as they are being scene as \"saviours\" of the uk extreme
metal/punk/hardcore scene. From:


Answer:Earache never really even knew about Gallows until after the IATDE debut.I dont remember there being much of a fuss about them in our office, their 'greatness' was'nt recognised by us at all until quite recently.You could say we were slow off the mark.

I don't regret not getting involved in them, we have enough on our plate with the bands we already signed. We think fair play to mark at iatde records for taking the chance and he has earned the kudos that his decision deserved.Both Gallows and IATDE are both doing great it seems, so more power to them.

The Music Biz- it's what we do..

Question: hi there, my names Mark and I\'m studying music at college and I just wanted to ask a few questions about Earache as a record label.
Has Earache always been a completely independent label or have there ever been any occasions where they have helped bands with more than just promotion or distribution. For instance, have you ever organised tours/gigs or cover art for any bands.
How do you usually find your acts and do bands often send their demos to you?
Do you handle the royalties for music you‚ve released if it gets played on the radio or some other form of media?
Thanks.
From: smets.mark@gmail.com

Answer:Earache has always been an 100% Independent label.Meaning its ownership is out of the hands of the big 4 Major music labels which between them control approx 75% of the worlds music output- labels like Universal, SONY-BMG, Warners and EMI.We are not part of them so do not have to pander to shareholders and such like.In this age of myspace and free Mp3s, promotion and distro is often overlooked-- i mean, Earache's Cds are currently available in over 20 countries of the world.This is no mean feat, we oversee the manufacture and distro of Cds into basically 20 warehouses across the globe from which shops obtain the cd.If you visit stores in Melbourne,Manchester, Madrid, Moscow, or Michigan you find Earache CDs in stores.

What we basically bring to the table is knowledge and experience of career development for bands, and the means and finances to carry it out.For touring we usually hook the band up with an agent ho deals with clubs and bookings on behalf of the act, but if they are too new, we do it instead. For artwork bands have creatiuve freedom, so they supply art - or if not, we usually carry out the bands wishes. we help out all our bands especially in the early stages of a career.

We find bands all over- not usually from demos in the mail tho..we scour myspace for great new bands who are original and talented and who wanna work hard to acheive a career.Some bands are signed after we see them perform live, we are always checking out opening bands, the ones on the bottom of the bill are what we like to see..On a typical week I personally can see 5 new bands, between our A&R staff its gotta be 20, in clubs in Nottingham, New York, London and further afield.

For royalties, we collect the money from sales in all formats, CD, Digital downloads and as the song publisher from radio airplay too.This is paid to the artists twice a year according to contract, if the bands recoup the recording costs.

hope that explains how it works.