ION INDIE MAGAZINE March 2016, Volume 22 | Page 67

I had an opportunity to chat with RICK DEJESUS, front man of one of the best Rock bands to grace our
presence in the last ten years. We talked about the current state of music, million dollar recording contracts,
tour life, the band’s new music and the challenges the band had working with VIRGIN RECORDS before going
indie, Rick’s advice for aspiring musicians and much more. This was a very thorough chat that I hope you
enjoy as much as I did.
JP: I had some questions I wanted to ask you about the tour, then all of a sudden things start popping up on
line.
Rick DeJesus: Yeah, we’ve started to announce and we’re just ready to get things rolling. We definitely have
a little bit of a positive chip on our shoulder. We still look at ourselves as one of the top bands in all of Rock.
I still view us as a major force in this business. Even though we’ve had what people perceive to be ups and
downs the past couple of years, as far as our label and just where we are in general, we don’t feel that way.
We’ve been reinvigorated. We’ve been freed to really make a stamp on rock n roll today. We’re going to tour
according to the album cycle. We’ve got “Bad Reputation”, our new single that radio programmers are
already throwing into rotation. I believe it’s a one listen song. It’s a one listen hit.
JP: Speaking of labels…the million dollar recording contracts are kind of a thing of the past.
RD: I signed one. I signed one and it felt good. I signed one in 2007 and the times are just so dramatically
different. It’s only been eight years, but in eight years the business has shifted so much that it’s kind of a
crazy thing to see. It’s shifted from a YouTube, to a Spotify, to an Apple Music Land. Obviously record labels
can’t give you a million dollar deal now, with music being virtually free. I think the good things for bands is
you can do so much on your own. I wouldn’t recommend doing it completely on your own. I tried that with
the “Deserve This” EP and we had some limited success. We had a very successful pledge campaign. We
sold 8,000 EP’s. We had a great run. At the end of the day, I think you need a great team…a great manager;
a distribution marketing company. For a band that’s very forward-thinking, I think the possibilities are
endless. The days of the major label deal are gone. They’re long gone, unless you’re in a Pop band like ONE
DIRECTION, ADELE. There are Indie labels out there for Rock bands that fill the need. I‘ve seen a lot of those
deals and they weren’t very enticing to me. They were very, very one sided to favor those labels. I saw it kinda
as the labels taking advantage of the position Rock artists are in by locking them into poor splitting
contracts. So, you’re on the road. You’re famous. Everyone knows who you are. You’re just not making any
income.
JP: What would you say the one biggest change you’ve seen in the last 10 years is?
RD: Spotify.
JP: Spotify?
RD: Yeah, Spotify. Music has no value. No, not no value. I don’t want to say it that way. It’s very valuable to
the ears of your fans. The music is almost an advertisement to your t-shirts, an advertisement to your
tour…You used to play live to get people to purchase your new album. Now, the only people that are really
purchasing albums are people that want to collect everything a band does…the people that really love the
band. The majority of people just put you on a playlist. They listen to your ten song album, pick out their
favorite 3 to 4 songs and they throw it on a playlist with all of their other favorite artists and they listen to