An few Irish bands seem to be splitting up at the moment. Dagger Lees, Green Lights, We Are Knives... Is there a lack of general funds available to keep the acts going, or is there something more sinister afoot?

Always sad to lose a Nick Cave-inspired act.

I get the impression that a lot of doors that were once open to bands are now being nailed firmly shut with a foreclosure notice on the door.

Virtually all the grants etc have been cut, venues are paying less and yet the cost of recording music doesn't appear to have fallen at the same rate. Band's starting out are like any small business, they rely on credit...that's gone too. I know one particular band that is considering not only calling it a day but may actually have to sell their equipment to pay off their credit cards/loans etc.

Here was me thinking that recessions/depressons were supposed to be good for music!

I'm sure the at least individual members will be back making music one way or another. Can't keep good folks down. :)

Posted By Idiot Kid on 13 Feb 2009 02:57 AM
I get the impression that a lot of doors that were once open to bands are now being nailed firmly shut with a foreclosure notice on the door.

Virtually all the grants etc have been cut, venues are paying less and yet the cost of recording music doesn't appear to have fallen at the same rate. Band's starting out are like any small business, they rely on credit...that's gone too. I know one particular band that is considering not only calling it a day but may actually have to sell their equipment to pay off their credit cards/loans etc.

Here was me thinking that recessions/depressons were supposed to be good for music!

I've actually heard from people that it's very hard to sustain a recording studio in Dublin. The cost of home recording has come down so much that it's not really a viable business anymore. There's more business in rehearsal studios.

Sad state of affairs. Often thought about the tonnage of amazing songs that have never been heard outside of a bedroom / studio / garage, and will never be heard. and labels that have squeezed the life out of bands and their song direction 'til the album is shelved or raped for the masses

pity, and more power to those who keep plugging away...keep her lit

PQ

Posted By Idiot Kid on 13 Feb 2009 02:57 AM

Here was me thinking that recessions/depressons were supposed to be good for music!

It will cut down on the amount of bands out there, to be sure, then the lower amount of bands left will get more coverage. Rather than being a blanket of good fortune for all musicians, I think that it's going to be very good for the ones who stick with it.

Delorentos gone too, albeit probably not for financial reasons.

Posted By IcaruS on 17 Feb 2009 07:35 AM
Delorentos gone too, albeit probably not for financial reasons.

Yikes: another good one gone.

Bands break up all the time, of course, but do you reckon that it's happening more these days, and with more 'established' bands than in recent years? Perhaps someone is studying this for their thesis, has some charts and graphs to whip out for us...

people will have more time to write and play music and the price of equipment is always coming down making it easier for people to record stuff. but unfortunately, very few people are paying for music and it seems to be pretty hard to make any sort of living unless you're established

I dunno. I see artists who would have a decent following (Patrick Wolf springs to mind immediately) actually struggling to get a decently recorded piece of music out. Recording music may be cheap and easy to do at home, but quality obviously suffers - it's why I can't listen to Wavves stuff. Equipment is more expensive than it was 10 years ago. Far more expensive, really.

My guess would be most acts quitting the business were doing it as a hobby and now it's just become too expensive. Whether you want to take the view that this makes the music still out there 'purer' would be a personal opinion, but it's certainly going to leave more stomping ground for less bands and possibly a little easier to get noticed than before.

Delorentos split because one of the band members is leaving, and they're still going to record one more album/ The other three are going to form a new act, I think.