White Lies on the biz

London trio are optimistic about the state of the industry

23 May 2009 - White Lies have told 6 Music they’re not joining the ranks of doom merchants when it comes to the music business.

They played last night at Liverpool Sound City, which kicked off on Wednesday this week.

The festival is a mixture of industry talks and gigs, with bigwigs in the business discussing its future.

In an era of declining album sales and illegal filesharing, White Lies weighed in – drummer Jack Lawrence-Brown told 6 Music the band have no complaints about the state of the industry

“We’ve had the most successful year of our careers, and it doesn’t seem to have slowed us down at all, and I think it’s the same for other new bands. If you believe in what you’re doing and it’s good enough, then it won’t affect anyone”

With a number one debut album already under their belt for the year, frontman Harry McVeigh, told 6 Music he doesn’t really relate to all the pessimism in the business:

“Apart from the people we work with, we don’t see a lot of people in the industry – the labels and publishers. They’re the ones that are really losing out – they’re the people who are really starting to panic.

“Maybe the music industry wasn’t quick enough on the uptake in terms of downloads – if they’d jumped on a bit more, then maybe they’d be a bit more successful”

He also thinks musicians will always be able to find an audience, even if record labels falter, saying: “people will always make music; people will always listen to music, so there’s demand out there. You’ve just got to figure out how to make enough money from it to do it full time.

“It’s what the music industry needs to figure out – it’s not really our problem. It’s nothing that we worry about.”


Elizabeth Alker