The Fingertips Q&A: Brad Armstrong of 13ghosts

THE FINGERTIPS Q&A

Brad Armstrong
(13ghosts)

October 2008

For all the online discussion in recent years about the so-called "future of music," it occurs to me that we rarely if ever hear a lot about what musicians themselves have to say. And I mean work-a-day musicians who are out there seeking a living wage in the middle of the indie jungle. Fingertips would like to correct this problem, via a short, recurring Q&A feature. Here, each time, a real, working, album-making musician will answer a few direct questions about the current state of music in the 21st century, and where things may be going.

In August, the Fingertips Q&A kicked off with an email conversation with singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke. The series continued last month with Hamburg, Germany-based singer/songwriter Dirk Darmstaedter. This month, I urge you to read the articulate musings of Brad Armstrong, one of the two principal singer/songwriters in the Birmingham, Ala.-based band 13ghosts. I especially love his take on the first question; if you read nothing else, be sure to read the second paragraph. Oh, and 13ghosts, you should know, have been twice featured on Fingertips, for the songs "Robert J" and "Beyond the Door."

Q: Let's say you're in charge of everything, and the music industry will work, moving forward, exactly how you want it to. Do digital downloads exist? Why or why not? Anything you would change right away?

A: In the first place, digital downloads are only the logical evolution of what we did when I was a kid, which was dub tapes for each other. I guess the critical difference is that we had to make an investment in blank tapes, then listen to the record in real time to dub it for our buddy, and there was something a lot more precious about the process than there is today. I know that I, for instance, might receive a link to some band or other from a friend, and I probably won't visit it, but if I do, it's a real quick thing, and I'm inclined to make a judgment in the first ten seconds or less and zap it or not. But when I was a kid and my buddy made me a tape, I listened to it. Part of it was the fact that I was broke and couldn't afford that many tapes, but mostly I think it was that if my buddy had made the investment in buying the tape and then dubbing it for me, he felt pretty strongly about it and I owed it a listen.

So, I guess my answer to this is that I think I'd live in a magical world where you had to buy a blank download tape and put it in your analog download machine, and you had to listen to the whole thing while you were downloading it, and the only way you could get the link is if your friend told you about it and then sat with you while you downloaded it, otherwise it wouldn't exist.

Q: Talk about one or two things that people who work in the "music industry" don't seem to understand about musicians in the 21st century.

A: This is a rather loaded question, because no matter how I try and answer it, I'm drawn to talking about what's wrong with the state of music today. And it seems to me that the population at large is what the problem is. We've got such a video game mentality at this point that there's no way for anything to take longer than 10 seconds. I remember that song by that horrible product Avril Whoever, and I remember being blown away by how goddamned fast the chorus happened. I mean, pop music has always been about the chorus and all, but that, coupled with how she was promoted, you know, buying ad space on all the radio stations late night and putting her song in there and forcing it to chart that way, it was so, oh Jesus Christ how can this be? You know? There was really something pure and beautiful about some Mafia bastard showing up at the radio station with a bag of cash and a hooker and a sports car and getting his band played that way. The Avril Method just seems so cheap and lame and ridiculous, and yet it worked, and who's fault is that? I didn't answer this question. I will now. The answer is that the music industry understands all it needs to about musicians in the 21st century, which is the same thing they understood about musicians in the 20th century. We can be bought, because we don't have any money, and we'll sell cheap. I think that it's absurd to believe that the music corps will die because of digital downloads. Phillip Morris would be fine even if everyone in the land quit smoking. This is a problem that has nothing to do with rock and roll, I guess. Wow. That was probably the most discombobulated answer to a question I've ever given, but it's all I've got...

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