Tom McRae Interview: The Future
Lack of record label support for King of Cards won't keep him down
Just before King of Cards was released, Tom McRae received a bombshell from his record label. In the last part of our interview he tells Suite101 how he plans to continue
- Genre: Alternative / indie / acoustic
- Tom McRae (vocals / guitar), Sean Genockey (guitar), Ash Soan (drums), John Hogg (bass), Oli Kraus (piano / cello / violin)
- Sounds like: Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Damien Rice
- Home: Chelmsford, Essex, UK
- Tom McRae
End of the World News for Tom McRae and V2
There's a common belief that if an artist is on a record label, any record label, then they must be making a decent living. However, as Tom McRae tells Suite101 in the final part of our interview with him, the truth is often a far different kettle of fish.
My sincere thanks to Tom for being such a genial host, and to Jon Uren at Fruitcake Management for organising everything.
Tom McRae interview
Suite: Now that King of Cards is out, what are your hopes for it, and how will that determine what the future holds for you?
Tom: Well, before the record came out, the label sat me down and told me they’d already f***ed it up. It was too late to save, and they weren’t going to do anything because they’d be wasting money. So it was a case of “we’re really sorry and good luck”, and I haven’t heard from them since. So everything we did from then, from promoting to paying for the tours, we did ourselves. I kind of half respected their honesty in admitting they got it wrong; but honestly, I’ve got zero expectations. It’s got a couple of songs being licensed for some TV shows over here which means some people might hear it, but I expect to sell 2,000 or 3,000 copies, maybe 20,000 if I’m really lucky. But I do have zero expectations on it after what happened. I mean, half my fans don’t even know I’ve got a new record out!
Suite: That’s got to be really frustrating.
Tom: Yeah, I could get angry about it, but what can I do? I haven’t got £250,000 to market it properly, but I have got a mate in a car who’ll drive me up and down the country, you know (laughs)? It’s a bit Pollyanna-ish, but you’ve got to do whatever you can. The industry really doesn’t know anything anymore, and I’m not even joking. I was talking to a guy at a big, big label in New York the other day and he was getting out to join the police force, because the industry is done – there’s no way they can figure out how to make it pay anymore.
Suite: And the industry’s so languine at the moment, how do you change it, right?
Tom: Well, the trouble is, the people who do buy music are the 35-45 year olds but they’re only buying a certain kind of music, and they’re not really buying any new music, and they’re also a dwindling audience. Then you have the kids, who aren’t buying music, and they’re the lifeblood of the industry. And in a way, it serves the industry right, because they’ve exploited 15-year old girls and that’s come back to bite them. If you exploit a person, that’s what’s going to happen, you’ll end up with shit product – what did they think was going to happen? So, we’ll see – maybe we’ll all be flipping burgers at a place near you and singing (laughs)!
Suite: Okay, so, without putting too much of a hex on you, if this was the last Tom McRae album, what song would you look back on as being the most proud of?
Tom: That’s a really good question (pauses). I really like different things. My telling point is songs that I play live night after night because it’s a song that I enjoy playing, and there’s a song called The Boy With The Bubblegun from my first album that I still enjoy playing. Other than that, it’s still quite hard for me to differentiate – it doesn’t seem like it’s been 8 years since the first record. To me, that seems like the starting point just a few weeks back, so hopefully I’ll continue to go on and make continuously better stuff.
Suite: And finally, we have a tradition where we ask a fun question to round things off with. So, if you had to describe yourself as a fruit, what would it be and why?
Tom: (laughs) Okay… I’m probably one of those Heritage apples. You know the things they have in shops now, where they’re just coloured balls of water that taste of nothing? I’m one of these from the 1920’s – you have to peel it, because it’s a little grungy on the outside, and there are a few worms in it, but the flavour’s pretty good (laughs)!
