I like our new distributor, 33rd Street Records. Yesterday I met some of the guys in Sacramento before our soundcheck. All of them have many years of music biz experience. 33rd Street appear to work very transparently and nothing is done without my approval.

The other day I authorized renting listening booths. Hey, you didn’t think that listening booths are there to introduce you to music the record store thinks is cool, did you? No, they cost a lot of money. A record store is a highly evolved place. Every inch of a record store makes money: placement of the album, “end-capping”, posters, listening booths – everything has a price that is paid by the record label and the artist.

I am working on the La Semana campaign with 33rd Street: the advertising, the PR etc…and today I rejected an internet marketing campaign, because it is simply not me. It is standard practice in the industry to hire guys to enter chat-rooms of a number of similar artists to chat up people there and specifically to mention that a new album by this or that band has just come out and is great. First of all – what similar artists would we pick? Second of all – I think this has happened several times on my own web site and since I think it is wrong, and therefore I can’t possibly turn around and do it to other artists. I think it is great when fans do that sort of thing, but to pay somebody go to a web site and pose as a fan just feels wrong to me…….that’s why I will never hit the big time, eh?