Did anyone listen to the band The Format? I probably was into them for a little bit a year or two ago. Apparently, they broke up a year ago for hardly any reason it seemed. Now, the band manager is touring around the world researching for his book. On his blog he wrote about the demise of the band and how much they went through just trying to get the band to where it was before it broke up. It's a very interesting look inside the industry and it's all together a good read. I want to read his book when it comes out. I don't even care what it could be about.
http://waywardlife.posterous.com/on-drowningThe story amounted to these two kids bashing their heads against a wall for three years, knowing that they had something worthwhile but unable to find strong support, beyond their booking agent and lawyer (it should be noted here that the band’s new label had some solid supporters but were caught in an industry quagmire, what with eleven year old kids becoming able to get music for free - for eternity - on their six hundred dollar computers). On the surface, especially to the music biz, the album was a complete flop. It didn’t matter that they had been swept under the rug, nor did it matter that “The First Single” was a mega-hit waiting to happen. The data showed that this horse had run its best race and come in second-to-last (always more pitiful than loser).
Sitting in front of me were two young men who were nothing short of desperate. They both smoked an extraordinary amount of cigarettes, perhaps one for every minute in an hour. Their knees shook through the holes in their jeans and they both picked at their food in a way that suggested apathy for the thing that might keep them alive for the next day. It wasn’t sadness or despondency; it was pure depression.
We agreed to work together and they were dropped from their label within a few months...
Click on the link to read the whole thing.
