Slaves Trash Their Record Label on Facebook for Taking Down Lyric Video
Last we heard from screamo band Slaves, guitarist Alex Lyman was providing an alibi for Falling in Reverse’s Ronnie Radke after the latter was accused of sexual assault. Now, it appears the band is causing a stir by publicly trashing their label, Artery Records, over a pulled-down lyric video.
The band recently posted the lyric video for their song “Winter Everywhere” to YouTube, and had it quickly pulled down by the folks at Artery. The band then posted it to Facebook with the following caption:
“Since this lyric video was taken off of YouTube by a label that apparently thinks they own OUR music you can now watch, listen, and enjoy it right here. We poured our heart into this song, we wrote this song, we spent months preparing and recording this song, and we aren’t letting ANYONE take that from us. This is our song and this is our fans song. this is a passion, not a business. No one can ever take that from us, especially a dude in a suit collecting every cent we generate. Scene is changing my friends.
“I’m sure somehow, someway, this video will be taken down. none of us are, or should be proud we are in a world where art can be taken away from us by greed.
“ITS TIME TO STAND UP FOR ART
“Music4L”
Yeah! Music4L! You show ’em, fellas!
But as the band predicted, Artery then yanked the video from Facebook. In response, Slaves posted this statement:
“Our new lyric video has been taken off of both YouTube and Facebook by Artery Recordings – they’re under the impression this song and this video apparently belong to them. Let me make this clear. Slaves is not under contract, neither album we have is under contract, Slaves wrote this song, Slaves spent months preparing and recording this song, We poured our hearts out into this song, We had the lyric video made ourselves. And NO ONE will take that from us.
“Our music belongs to us, and it belongs to our fans. Not some dude in a suit collecting every cent we generate. We have worked HARD for everything we have and it’s time to take a stand against CORRUPT bullshit labels like Artery and so many alike. It’s fucked up we live in a world where art we can all relate to, and that makes us all come together and feel at home can be taken by complete fucking greed.
“We make nearly no money creating what we love, we do it cause it’s our passion not a business. It’s time to take stand against the fucking mess we call a music scene. fuck your label, fuck you and fuck your money, we don’t need it to play music.”
Man, they sure do like the phrase “some dude in a suit collecting every cent we generate.”
Meanwhile, Artery Recordings president Shan Dan has released the following statement explaining why the video was pulled:
“Regarding rumors surrounding Slaves
“To fans that really wanted to hear ‘Winter Everywhere’ that Slaves uploaded to a youtube channel they created (without giving us a heads up). Please listen to that track and the entire album we uploaded last year (for free) here: http://smarturl.it/my7aj4
“It’s a great song, and has been one of our favorites for a while. The lyric video on their facebook looks great as well, and we would love to upload it to our 161,000 youtube subscribers to make sure as many people as possible can enjoy it as much as we did.
“We just wish we were told about it so it didn’t get flagged on their personal channel (which is what happens when you upload previously released audio to a new channel).
“This isn’t a grandiose story of an evil label trying to smash a band, just a story about a band that didn’t email their label so they could take care of their request through the proper channels.
“–Shan Dan
President
Artery Recordings“
Yikes.
This is obviously very ugly, and very public, and above all very stupid. If Slaves are right, then Shan Dan (what a name) has just released a bold-faced lie that may very well come back to bite him in the ass. But if Shan is correct, and Slaves have been railing against all those cent-stealing suit dudes when in fact they should have asked their publicist to clear the posting with Artery, then they have some serious egg on their faces right now. Rallying against the corporate machine when in fact you forgot to pass on a message and get a go-ahead immediately discredits your counterculture cred. Slaves obviously think they’re in the right, as they haven’t taken down the posts yet.
The good news is, the lyric video for “Winter Everywhere” is available below, so you can listen to the song and see the animated lyrics in spite of those Artery Recordings fat cats doing their best to rob the world of music! The bad news is, the song itself sucks a million asses. Enjoy!
[via The PRP]
