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The Mighty Mighty BossTones - Part 2
StarPolish: We also received a bunch of questions about
sponsorship, both in terms of touring as well as the Converse sneaker
ad you did a while back. Was that something that was very helpful
to the band back then, and would you recommend doing something like
that?
Dicky: That was extremely helpful,
but I think something like that would be tough to find. We weren't
walking around offering our eight-piece bar band to major sneaker
companies as a way to sell their product; that fell into our lap,
and we were glad it did. It was the right campaign, too, because
it was more about the band then it was about the sneaker, and the
sneaker was certainly something that we weren't embarrassed to sell.
Also, at the time it gave us money that allowed us to go on the
road as much as we did. If you can come across a sneaker company
that's willing to give you money to do a TV commercial, the exposure
and the money you get from it are definitely worth it. But I think
[those opportunities] are few and far between.
StarPolish: How did that come together for you guys?
Dicky: Tim at the time was working
at a film studio that helped make local movies in Boston, and they
were using the facilities to film the ad campaign with a couple
of basketball players. They were looking for a band, we tried out,
and they gave it to us.
StarPolish: That's great!
Dicky: Yeah, it was at the time,
certainly, and we didn't have to act stupid - at least no stupider
than we were already used to being. We just had to talk about the
band and play and show what we were all about at the time, which
was pretty cool.
StarPolish: What sort of considerations go into sponsorship
for tours?
Dicky: I am just learning about
that myself. I'm probably the wrong guy to ask, but it usually doesn't
get in your way. It's usually helpful. I'll use the Warped tour
as an example: whoever was involved in helping sponsor that tour
never got in the way. I wouldn't walk on stage and hold up a product
and wholeheartedly endorse it, but if they want to hang up banners
and give away free tickets to the show -- as well as give us money
to help us tour -- then I'm all for that. Most bands tour on something
called tour support, which comes from the label and that's all recoupable.
Which means that the company that you're tied to because they put
out your records will be willing to give you money that will eventually
go back to that company. Our label to this day is surprised that
we never take tour support. Once you sell a certain amount of albums,
the label goes, "OK, great job on selling the record, here's your
money. But before we give it to you, remember that the money we
lent you for the tour? Well, we have to take that back first." So
if you can avoid doing that, then there you go.
Now there are other corporations that have nothing to do with you,
and don't put out your records, and they say, "We're gonna give
you the tour support, but you don't owe it back to us; all we want
to do is take out a few ads." They will [let you know] the terms,
and it usually turns out to be a tour like "The Mighty Mighty Bosstone's
tour, brought to you by (their Name)." Down the line they'll want
to hang up their banner. I'd say, "You can't hang it over our banner,
but if you want to hang it up in the room, I don't give shit --
there's beer advertisements all over the room anyway, so what do
I care if your dotcom [banner] is up there. Besides the fact you're
giving me money." So after having thought it out, I guess I'm for
it. It's just a matter of what they expect from you, and in my experience
it's usually not that much.
StarPolish: The BossTones have had a lot experience with
both indie and major record labels. How do you look back at your
pre-major- label days in relation to where you are today? What advice
would you give to young bands today now that the situation between
indie and major labels is different from when The BossTones were
starting out?
Dicky: I am sure that the situation
is much different, but I can only go by my independent record label
experience. I was involved in one that was extremely crooked. Their
business practices were unfair to the people that bought their products,
to the people who made their products, to the artists on the label,
to the people that worked there, and so on. The guy who owned that
company was a buddy of mine, and it was my dream that hand in hand
we would build his company into a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately,
he was unable to be fair, so from there we went to Mercury, and
Mercury was very fair to us. Things are fair when you at least know
the score, you know what you're going to get, and it's all in the
contract. I am sure that there are independent labels out there
that are very fair and reasonable, in which everything makes sense,
but I wasn't on one. If you were going by my indie experiences versus
my major-label experiences, I would go with the major label.
StarPolish: That's interesting - many bands have had different
experiences.
Dicky: It's probably very different
[now]. And it's not what kids want to hear, either, about indies
versus majors, but the majors said, "This is what you'll make, this
your percentage, this is the deal." I looked over the contract and
that's what it's been, and that wasn't the case with the independent
labels.
StarPolish: Looking back at the breadth of The BossTones'
career, do you think it was important that you guys had those indie
experiences?
Dicky: I wish I had better indie
experiences. I wish I had the kind of indie experience in which
we collaborated our creativity to build up the company. I guess
I would take an indie over immediately going to a major, but our
experiences could have been so much better. There was a lot of unfair
game playing, and a lot of really really crooked, dirty dealings.
StarPolish: That's really interesting-- and definitely
a different take.
Dicky: That's just my experience.
I wouldn't have gone to Mercury or to a major label if things were
reasonable and fair and made sense. I begged the guy, we took meetings,
and it sucked -- it was the hardest decision we ever made. You gotta
remember the time; this was before Nirvana broke, so there was nothing
about a major label that interested us at that time.
StarPolish: What do you think it was about the band that
made Mercury interested?
Dicky: The amount of people
we were putting in a room, and also our independent sales were pretty
damn good. If you sold 25,000 on an indie release at that time,
it was considered pretty solid -- and that's probably a low figure.
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