Three Cheers for Fleet Foxes
Some days you read stuff that makes your heart feel good. That’s what we felt today when we read Hypebot’s article on Fleet Foxes. Singer Robin Pecknold definitely hasn’t let success go to his head, saying among other things that illegally downloading songs helped his musical growth and that Fleet Foxes would never, ever sign with a major label.
Fleet Foxes bringing light to the indie music world
Here’s a quote from his blog that Exclaim picked up:
“Fleet Foxes will never, ever, under no circumstances, from now until the world chokes on gas fumes, sign to a major label. This includes all subsidiaries or permutations thereunder. Till we die.
“I just don’t see the point. Most major labels seem anti-music. We’ve pursued no such deal with Virgin (or been pursued to my knowledge, I think it was just a bit of news they reported) and would be idiots to be unhappy with our fam of label folks. It is true though that all copies of the CD LP will now include a free copy of the EP (like it is currently with the vinyl), but that’s not a ’special limited edition,’ it’ll be that way in perpetuity, no extra cost or packaging change.”
Unlike other successful artists (cough, cough, Metallica) Fleet Foxes say they don’t give a fig if fans download their songs illegally:
As much music as musicians can hear, that will only make music richer as an art form,” singer Robin Pecknold told the BBC. “I think we’re seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing, and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster.”
“I’ve downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records – why would I care if somebody downloads ours? That’s such a petty thing to care about,” says Pecknold. “I mean, how much money does one person need? I think it’s disgusting when people complain about that, personally.”
This makes us glad that we bought their first album and makes even more excited for the next one (which, BTW, they are recording now in a northwest home studio). We’re all for legal downloading and use our Rhapsody subscription to listen to tons of new bands, but honestly, if you don’t have the money why should you be deprived of hearing new music? Support artists as much as you can but keep listening by any means necessary.
We’ll leave you with a clip of Fleet Foxes video for White Winter. Funnily enough, tried to put a link to their appearance on SNL but NBC had blocked the video–kind of makes the case for them being better off on Sub Pop rather than working for a major media conglomerate, doesn’t it? Peace.
