Interview With Blogger Toneandwave On The Fun And The Politics Of Sharing Free Ska mp3s

This interview is part of the story “Should All Ska Music Be Free – Two Sides Of The Same Coin”. For the introduction to the article go here. If you like to read Matzge Broeckel’s (Pork Pie Records) stance on the subject, follow this link.

1. When did toneandwave start sharing mp3s/links to mp3s? What made you start?

I started Tone and Wave at the end of December 2007. I had just had internet hooked up for the first time. Prior to that I was never really a computer person.

I started building my music collection around 1987. It was cassettes at first but then I discovered that local bands were still putting out vinyl. Back then (much like now) I really didn’t have any other interests in life outside of music so I built up a ridiculously large collection early on of all types of things that I found in thrift stores (charity shops). Mostly 30’s and 40’s jazz, big band, and swing which later lead to jump blues, Delta blues, and early rockabilly which lead to doo-wop and early r&b. I had friends that got me into punk when I was about 17 which lead to me becoming a regular at local clubs. Every so often a local ska band would play. Most of them were punk bands with a ska influence but the first real ska band I saw live was Let’s Go Bowling. I already had some Specials and Toasters on cassettes that friends had made me and I had a copy of Madness’ “One Step Beyond” that I found in a bargain bin for one dollar but “Music to Bowl By” is pretty much when I started collecting ska music. Anytime a band had something for sale at a show I had to have it whether I liked them or not.

My house was full of milk crates that were filled with records and tapes. It took several years before I ever bought a cd. Some bands started putting out cd-only releases so I had to give in at some point.

As 1995-1996 rolled around I started losing interest in the scene because of the third wave contamination. Of all of the bands that were out at that time it was impossible for me to buy something from each of them. The comfortable atmosphere of the clubs had faded. By 1998 I was done with it.

The times changed and the people I knew changed. I stopped going to shows and hanging out with the same people. Some of my old friends became addicted to meth and became thieves. My house was robbed on three occasions and, of course, they went straight for the music. The last time was the worst. Whatever they couldn’t take they destroyed.

I didn’t realize at the time everything that I had lost.

After a while things settled down, I got married, got a 9 to 5 job. Started living a life I never saw myself living and I began reminiscing on the old days and since music was the central theme of my past I wanted to hear all of those old songs again. Every now and then a song that I hadn’t heard in years would randomly pop into my head and it brought back memories.

I decided to find some of the things that I used to listen to but I never really believed that I’d be able to find it all.

I discovered ebay about a year prior to starting T&W but since I had no computer of my own I would have to go to other peoples’ houses to use theirs. I would often lose the auctions because they couldn’t be bothered to bid for me. But, in about a years time, I was able to build up a good percentage of what I used to have but some of it seemed impossible. Then I discovered file-sharing sites and made friends with some other users. We did a lot of trading and I decided that there has to be a better way of sharing these treasures. I had just met Gabe from Pressure Drop Soundcast and I set out to do a podcast of my own but I didn’t have a clue on how to go about doing it. I wanted to share my excitement of finding these long-lost songs with other people who also believed they would never get to hear them again. But a podcast is limiting. I didn’t realize at the time its capacity for interaction. I wanted to let the listener hear the music that means something to them, not just the song or two off the album that I think they should hear so I decided to podcast full albums. It was more complicated than I had anticipated so I gave up on the idea.

Then I met Soulfool who later started Reg-A-Matic Sound System and he pointed me to the blog Skankin’ ‘Round the World. I had seen other blogs before (like You and Me on a Jamboree) but it never really clicked yet that I should be doing one myself. I got to talking to Monica from Skankin’ ‘Round the World and I realized that it wasn’t beyond my capabilities and it was exactly what I wanted to do.

I had just transferred some old records on my new usb turntable and I decided to just give it a go. I signed up and started posting right away. I think I made four posts that night. Nothing was planned out. I just posted things that I had on my desktop that I was listening to at the time. Skavenjah’s first cd, The Mangy Dogs’ “Itsy Bitsy” 7″, a local band called Low Pressure, and The Graduates’ “Elvis Should Play Ska” single.

I told myself that I’d be happy if 20 people download these things in the next year or two.

I honestly believed that nobody in the world listened to ska anymore.

2. Are you doing this on your own? Or is it more of a network of like-minded people?

I started out on my own and it remained that way for the first year or so.

I think the first thing that somebody else submitted was when Billy from Dave’s Big Deluxe sent me their first release. He sent me more of their stuff and then Ronan from the Irish band Gangsters started sending me lots of great things including the Baby Snakes EP. Somebody asked if I had the Baby Snakes 7″ which I did not. After seeing that post Rikard emailed it to me. Since then he has made many regular contributions. Ronan mailed me a parcel full of cds and cassettes – almost all of which I have posted. There have been several other people who have sent me things that have kept T&W going longer than I thought it would have.

It has certainly become a network. In the end though I am still deciding what gets posted and when. If someone sends me a number of things on the same day I space them out in the postings instead of putting everything up all at once. It gives me time to get other things together.

I originally started the Tone and Wave Myspace with the hope of people submitting things in the comment section but it didn’t work out that way.

I have recently started another blog with all of the things that I don’t have and the response has been incredible. Lots of people are submitting lots of things. Very few of the posts are from my own collection anymore so it really has become a group effort.

3. It’s quite a bit of work I guess. What motivates you?

I like doing it. There’s nothing behind it…I just like it. Knowing that I ‘have’ to post things means that I have to rip this vinyl that I haven’t listened to in a long time and I get to hear it again. If I wasn’t doing this blog I might never get around to transferring my music.

There have been a couple of times in the past where I didn’t want to deal with the blog at all and I was just going to let it go but then somebody submits something or comments on something and I get a second wind.

It is a labor of love. The passion is already in me but when it seems nobody else cares the passion fades.

I don’t mind so much whether or not people thank me. I don’t do it for that. But to get a sense that nobody is interested is discouraging. Any feedback is good. People being rude or insulting is better than them being silent.

4. How do you get material?

The greatest percentage of it comes from my physical copies. Some CDs and the occasional cassette, but mostly vinyls. There are some things that I have cheated on like the Del-Tones “Nana Choc Choc in Paris”. I do own the record but I wasn’t getting a good rip of it. I told this to a friend who had downloaded a cd copy from a file-sharing site and I posted his version.

There are some things that I bought MP3s of (Lancaster Band) but if there is a hard copy I’d rather spend my money on that.

I think everything that other people have shared came from their physical copies – just about all of it is from vinyl.

5. How do you select the stuff you publish?

It’s almost always random unless it’s something new that I just bought or something new to me that somebody contributed.

I try to fill requests as soon as I can but I have so much stuff that looking through it is an event. I’m very disorganized but that’s good in a way because I’m always stumbling across something that I forgot about.

Almost every time that I hurry to post new things that I’m excited about it’s with little ado. When I post something that I find less interesting people jump all over it.

I’m pretty bad at guessing what people want to hear so I just put it all out there.

6. Have you ever turned down to publish good/rare stuff? Let’s say for ethical reasons/for fear of prosecution?

The greatest part of my music collection has not been posted and it probably never will.

I play music myself and I have friends in the industry and we all agree that this day and age it’s a bit silly for a band to think that they’ll make money from their music. I do, however, want these bands to continue playing and if they can sell a few cds at a show for that little bit of money that will get them to the next show I do not want to interfere with that.

I was naive when I first started out by thinking that nobody listens to ska anymore anyway and it would be cool with the bands if I put their music out there. I was wrong and that’s a good thing. Ska is alive and well in the underground. As long as a band is still playing and selling their own music I will not post it. Not anymore.

I don’t really fear prosecution all that much. Realistically the worst that would happen is that the blog will be taken down. If that happens I’ll rise up again doing something else and make it well known why it was taken down.

I do intend to move in a different direction that is more beneficial to active bands.

7. How many links to mp3s have you put on the Web?

More than I can count. Not including all of the posts that I removed at the demand of Megalith Records I have 250 posts that are either 2-song singles or partial discographies so it’s really hard to give an exact count or even make a reasonable estimate.

8. How are the reactions by fans, bands?

The fans are great. I haven’t received a single negative word. It has all been positive.

I have posted some misinformation a few times and I have been corrected but that is not negative at all. As much info is on the internet there are still a lot of things I can’t find. I appreciate when people take the time to share information. That, and especially all the wonderful music people have been sending, is a definite bonus.

There have been only two bands (The X-Streams and Culture Shock) that have asked me to remove their music. X-Streams said I could stream it and Culture Shock made me aware that [at least one of] the bands members were still making money off the sales. It was posted later in the comments that not every member was aware that money was still being made.

I used to track down band members via Myspace or some other route to ask permission before I posted their music but only once did I ever get an answer back and that was from Mike from the band the Velvetones (and they’re not even a ska band). So now I take it upon myself to put the music out there and hope I have the bands’ blessing.

I have had numerous responses from the bands themselves that were in favor of people hearing their music.

Some of them off the top of my head: Dave’s Big Deluxe, The Suspects, Agent 99, Punch the Clown, The Sheds, Skavengers, and of course Ronan from Gangsters who has become quite important to T&W, etc…

9. Any negative comments from writers? Labels? Publishers?

I met a band at a show who gave me their cd and asked me to post it because they felt their label wasn’t doing anything to promote it. By the time I got home (about 2 hours later) I had already gotten an email from their publisher full of all sorts of cute little threats – and I hadn’t even posted it yet.

And of course there’s Megalith who gave me a long list of bands that they claim they own the rights to just because they put out a comp with one of the band’s songs on it. A few of the bands wrote to me giving me permission saying that they haven’t gotten a penny from Megalith in years.

Those are the two ridiculous ones.

I have been asked to take other things down and had it pointed out that they were still available for sale.

I don’t care much to promote record companies but when people are mature about it I will link to them.

10. And if: What would be your say on that?

Naturally I fully support the bands and I encourage people to buy directly from them.
Record companies, on the other hand, I have conflicting views about. Even if the head of an indie label is still a music fan their bottom line is to make money. Not to get rich, but to try and at least make back what they put into the music. Sometimes they’re able to sustain themselves on the meager profits that they do make but when that happens they put themselves in a desperate situation. The money aspect becomes their main focus. Not because they’re evil greedy corporate types, but because they really do need it to support themselves. At this point I don’t think they can relate to the bands the way they did before. They begin focusing on what’s going to make them money and they have to brush the others off.

That’s totally normal. I don’t think they’re bad people for hoping to make a living off of what was once a hobby. I would love to be able to do that myself, but I’m not foolish enough to try.

I just wish they were more honest about the whole thing.

I’ve heard the platitude “so the bands can pay their bills and keep playing” so many times it’s become a prattle. I’ve never heard one band validate this statement. Especially those that aren’t playing anymore.
I somehow doubt that my posting of the NY Citizens is what kept them from playing.
They like to put it all on the bands because they know the fans have respect for them.

When I post something there is the potential for millions of people to download it. That doesn’t mean they do though. I do have a few things that were posted for about 2 years with a total of 30 downloads. If anybody is able to sell something that nobody really wants for free then they are doing much better than they realize.
Not only that, but just because somebody downloads it it doesn’t mean that they were ever going to buy it. Most of the time the only reason anybody gave a band a chance in the first place is because it was free. Record labels have it in their heads that if people weren’t downloading the music then they would certainly be buying it brand new. They ignore the fact that most people buy used cds for a fraction of the price of a brand new copy.

There are a few record labels that I do support though. Asian Man is the most reputable label that I know of and I have bought so much from them over the years. It’s too bad that Mike seems to be losing his interest in ska. Do the Dog and Jump Up are good ones to deal with.

This interview is part of the story “Should All Ska Music Be Free – Two Sides Of The Same Coin”. For the introduction to the article go here. If you like to read Matzge Broeckel’s (Pork Pie Records) stance on the subject, follow this link.