What UK band or group do you see as your biggest competition, and why? Do you still have a competitive edge to get the highest chart position?

I wouldn’t say I see any UK band as competition, because we are all in it together. I know most of the players in the UK Synthpop scene, especially bands at the level that Parralox is, and we are all supportive of each other. You can see that from how many remixes we’ve done for each other LOL.

 

That’s not to say there’s not a competitive edge. That’s ALWAYS there for me. I will listen to other bands’ music and watch their video clips and be very inspired to do as good as them, if not better. But all musicians have that really, don’t they?

 

It’s always great seeing your songs in ANY chart, and yes I do try and get as much promotion happening as possible. But the reality for bands like Parralox is that we have a very niche audience, and will never hit the commercial Top Ten. Not because we aren’t good at what we do, but because the commercial Top Ten is full of well….commercial music. And the radio stations have their format, which is sourced from the major labels. That’s not to say we don’t get radio play (we get lots!). I’m interested to see what happens with Electric Nights, as we are running a Club Campaign, so I’m hoping to see it get a position in the club charts. Fingers crossed!

 

The music landscape has radically changed over the last few years. Has this made it harder for you as a group? What are the fors and againsts? And do you feel YouTube has played a big part in music piracy?

When I got started in the music business, vinyl and cassette were king. And then the internet happened, and that all went to shit. And then we had iTunes and digital downloads and everyone complained that the revenue from that was crap. And now we have streaming (stealing?), which is making everyone realise that digital downloads aren’t so bad after all!

 

In the “good old days” when I was signed to major labels, you had the pressure of generating sales, and if you, the band, didn’t perform (i.e. generate sales), then you were dropped. Which is only natural, because it’s a business after all. But you also had proper A&R people who would take the time to develop an artist and then hopefully reap the rewards of that grooming and cultivation (Kate Bush is a prime example. Although in her case it’s more due to Dave Gilmore than an A&R person, but you get my point).

 

As the musical landscape changed (hello internet!) the revenues dropped and the major labels took a real hit, and naturally they had to cut costs. You can just see how many Record Shops have closed down in the last 20 years to see what’s happened. So the labels cut down on A&R people and stopped developing bands, because there just wasn’t the time or the money.

 

So instead the labels looked to find bands that had already done the hard work for them, that is, create a fanbase and a vibe. And THEN they would sign them.

 

But the major labels themselves are slowly disappearing and becoming one big master corporation, while at the same time the smaller labels and independents are flourishing.

 

So on the one hand, it’s harder than ever before to sign to a major and get exposure, but it’s also now easier to sign to a smaller label (or create your own!) and create your own exposure and vibe. Mind you, you’re competing with a million other bands trying to do exactly the same thing you are. But like anything else, if you have something original or unique, then people will be attracted to it.

 

If this was the 90s, then Parralox may have been signed to Sony and dropped after our first single (it happened to me when I was in a band called Nova!) and that would have been the end of it. But the musical climate nowadays means you can have a 2nd, 3rd and 4th chance that you would never have had if you were signed to a major. Bands these days are now self-promoting and doing all the things that a major label used to do. We basically create our own fortunes now J.

 

And yes, Piracy will always be there, and you just do the best you can to navigate around it. I use a third party company that scans the net and removes illegal downloads. I just logged in and saw that so far 96K pages have been removed. And Parralox isn’t exactly a worldwide name, so you can imagine how much the major acts like Beyoncé and Gaga are being pirated!

 

As for YouTube, I see it as a promotional tool. I pretty much put EVERYTHING we release digitally onto YouTube as well. “But won’t people copy that instead of buying the album from iTunes?” I hear you ask…Yes, people can rip our stuff from YouTube if they want…but the sort of people who do that would never have paid for it in the first place anyway – and if they are ripping it from YouTube then they must at least be a “fan” of the band, so the best you can hope for is that at least tell some of their more honest friends and share the word about the band.