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Would you say you re now determined to stay independent?
As you know, at MIDEM this January, we celebrated our 25th anniversary and in that time, business has never interfered with the pleasures of friendships, the pleasures of travel or the pleasures of tennis! And while those things remain constant, I can see no point in changing them.
There's got to be somebody who's still accessible to writers, because nobody else is interested in songs now - they're interested in groups, they're interested in records.
But having said that, I'm 56 now and I don't know that I might not want to cash my chips in ten years down the line, because I might not have the energy then.
The business is changing. The laws are changing. The pressures are changing. It's now a business where you need enormous stamina to see yourself through the vicissitudes of it.
We've been taken over by lawyers. They've taken over to an extent that is, frankly, horrendous. Their idea of a good deal now is to squeeze the humanity and the relationship out of writers and publishers totally.
Their first rule is never to allow the parties to meet. So there's no relationship - it is strictly business. And the lawyers run it.
And you speak as a lawyer!
I speak as a lawyer. I think what they've done to the industry is enormously damaging and self-serving. I'll give you a perfect example of what I regard as utter lunacy.
Recently, cases have emerged in which the law has been established that if a writer did not have his contract vetted by a music business lawyer, it is, on the face of it, invalid. Now in the days when you and I shook hands on whatever it was we exchanged, that was a deal - that still is a deal by law.
Anything that two people agree on is an agreement at law. Barter is part of our way of life. Now how can the lawyers write into the law that unless the lawyers were involved in the transaction, there is no transaction?!
That means, for example, that the transaction of buying a packet of sugar can be set aside on the grounds that you took no legal advice! Have you ever heard of anything so ludicrous? We've reached absurdities and I don't think we've reached the final absurdities yet by any means. The only area of growth I see in the music business currently is litigation.
What advice do you have for the writer within today's very difficult industry, then?
Establish relationships. I absolutely believe that if you hang around a 'song factory' long enough, someone's going to take you in and feed you, someone will take you in and teach you, someone is going to give a break. But leave your lawyer at home. Because by and large, they create an atmosphere that pollutes the possibility of success.
My advice is: try and meet the publishers you want to have help you. Try and establish a personal relationship with a publisher or producer who is interested in your talent, anxious to ee you succeed, and pleased for you when you do. It's got to be the way.
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