THE FINGERTIPS Q&A Andrew Spencer Goldman (Fulton Lights) September 2009

Every month, the Fingertips Q&A sends five questions about the state of music in the digital age to one actual, working musician. Way too much time and space is taken up online by pundits, writers, and other sorts of talking (writing) heads who think they know where the music industry is headed. I'd much rather hear the thoughts and feelings of the people creating and performing the music. This month, Andrew Spencer Goldman, who is the mastermind and driving force behind the Brooklyn-based Fulton Lights, answers the five questions. Fulton Lights has been featured twice to date on Fingertips, in February 2007 and September 2008. Fulton Lights has a brand new EP entitled Healing Waters, which you can listen to and find out more about on the Fulton Lights Facebook page. Q: After all is said and done, what's your favorite thing (if any) about digital downloads? What's your least favorite thing? A: My favorite thing is the portability and the lack of need for physical space. But then again my least favorite thing about it is probably also the physical element--the lack of something tangible to relate to, not having even the illusion of permanence. It's not a good thing as far as developing a lasting relationship with music as something more than just a disposable song of the day. See Carrie Brownstein's great post on the end of Touch & Go and the idea of listeners these days being "tourists." It's a slightly different permutation of this idea, and it was, I thought, a moving piece. I'm with her. Humans like things. We like to make them and we like to have them. We gather around these things, we make friends and sometimes enemies because of them. Societies are built and destroyed around these things. And somehow, as we've fallen in love with the technological things that we've created we've maybe forgotten a little bit about the importance of some of the physical ones. Q: In the future, people won't buy and own music, they'll just access everything they want to listen to online. This, in any case, is a theory that's gaining traction among the sorts of people who like to think they know what the future will hold. How do you feel about this idea? Does it matter to you if people specifically buy your music or not? A: It matters to me that artists are compensated. As long as whatever system you're imagining (whether ad-supported, or subscription service, or whatever) is seeing its revenue flow through to the artist and the labels that support them, I couldn't care less if someone specifically "buys" it or not. As I said already, I do think it's problematic that people have what seems to be a more superficial relationship with music these days, and I think there are some unfortunate consequences that come with that in terms of where people's decreasing attention spans are drawn to, what forms of music are being edged out, etc. Does it matter to me if the money comes through to me? Making music costs money. Until the day comes when I say "Well screw it, no one else cares about the sound quality of the finished product, so why should I?" (not happening...), the reality is that there are costs tied up in every step of making a recording and getting it to listeners. Maybe it would be a different story if I were exclusively making songs consisting of one guitar and one vocal, maybe there's more wiggle room there in terms of how it can be captured and transmitted. But for the kind of music that Fulton Lights is? It's impossible. Q: How has your life as a musician been affected--or not--by the existence of music blogs? A: It's hard to say. I suspect that blogs have helped--maybe greatly, maybe only somewhat--to get my music out to people who might otherwise not have heard it, or maybe redirect some people to it. But who knows how many people are actually listening if a blog posts something? I don't have a way of tracking this stuff in an accurate way. My sense is that blogs today aren't even as relevant today as they were just a few years ago. Q: What are your thoughts about the album as a musical entity-- is it dying? Or are reports of its death greatly exaggerated, as the old phrase goes? A: While I do personally think that on the macro level we're seeing the decay of attention spans accelerate rapidly, things surprise me sometimes. Look at how people reacted to the new Dirty Projectors album. That's not an easy album to digest by any means, but people have responded to it enthusiastically and not just on the basis of one song ("Stillness is the Move" is pretty great), but as an entire album of risk-taking, well-executed stuff. From the outside it looks like they're doing very well. So who knows? Maybe it's just that periodically there's an album like this that gets hoisted up, the Radiohead syndrome, while meanwhile on the whole "the album" is pretty much already extinct. Or maybe things are fine. All I know is how it feels. And it feels like--generally speaking--people are spending less and less time with albums and more and more time just constantly browsing. From the creative side, that's frustrating. But I do what I do. As far as making my music, it's probably healthier not to worry about these things. From the perspective of someone who is interested in the assorted ramifications of all this stuff, though, I do think it's important to think about. Q: Here's another thing that people are saying about the future: that artists will only be able to make a living via performance, not by selling their recordings (because, again, the theory is that no one will be buying them). How does this idea strike you? A: Very problematic. What happens to musicians who don't play live, either by choice or because it's not possible, whether for technical or physical reasons, or other limitations? Not everybody can just get in the van. It's easy to imagine how much of a losing scenario this could be for both musicians and for listeners, and not just in hypothetical situations. Can we really expect everyone to play live? Do we even want that? Nobody talks about basic supply and demand principles as they might apply to live music. Let's say everyone could and did play live as their exclusive way to make a living through music. Some bands might become very successful, but it couldn't be all of them unless somehow a million other venues opened up. There just aren't enough venues and aren't enough days in the week. Most bands are not going to make their living even if they follow the prescription, just as is the case now, but worse because in the scenario you're considering here there is no alternative. Previous Fingertips Q&A interviews: Brian Sendrowitz (Beat Radio) (August 2009) Local Natives (July 2009) Haley Bonar (June 2009) Jill Sobule (May 2009) David Harrell (the Layaways) (April 2009) Joey Barro (The Traditionist) (March 2009) Dave Derby (Gramercy Arms) (February 2009) Shane Nelken (The Awkward Stage) (January 2009) Mark Northfield (December 2008) Mike Reisenauer (Pale Young Gentlemen) (November 2008) Brad Armstrong (13ghosts) (October 2008) Dirk Darmstaedter (September 2008) Jonatha Brooke (August 2008) © copyright 2009 Fingertip Productions