Dear friends,
I’m writing this as I’m in the middle of nowhere in the countryside reflecting on things while spending a bit of time with my family.
Thank you for your incredible support of the past few days.
I am overwhelmed by the big amount of comments and reactions that I generated in the first days of this funding campaign. And by the fact we reached over 10% of the goal in less than 2 days.
I’m sure there’s a lot of questioning and I saw a few comments and conclusions made by people who don’t know much about my story. I feel like I owe you all an explanation because with a bit of time I thought my way of communicating about this matter was awkward.
I would like to make it as short as possible and don’t want to name and shame anyone. The action I’m taking was made of nothing but good intentions towards anyone involved. And I wish I didn’t have to involve any of you.
First thing to clarify is the “donations”. As I’m not allowed by go fund me to promise you anything in return, I had to pull lines stating that your money will never be used by myself. As of today I have no access to this money and I don’t want to. My goal is to get a loan for that exact amount and your support is exactly showing investors that the asset is worth it. After which, I’ll pay everyone back. Due to my situation I couldn’t get a loan from my local banks. So whether we reach the goal or not, people will get their money back. It wasn’t possible to create anything like a Kickstarter campaign at this point because it takes time that I don’t necessarily have. My rights are on borrowed time. Read on for further explanation.
The second thing I need to address is my social and financial situation. Most people know me for my records but have absolutely no idea that the past two years on top of making records, I have had a few jobs on the side to pay my bills and my taxes in the country with the highest tax in the world. During COVID I was happy to have a day job as a public school teacher, was really happy with it, I’m not ashamed by this situation at all. Many people in the comments spread the idea that I’m super rich and that I’m playing people. Nothing could be further from the truth. I spend the past 20 years covering losses for some very nasty people who actually abused me. I kept reinvesting the money I earned into my career and not into stupid cars and toys. My family and I live with the bare minimum and I don’t even own a compact car to cut the costs. I got rid of most of my music gear to pay bills. Some people mentioned that I’d make ten grand per gig… which isn’t true at all. My MainStage gig at tml 2018 brought me 800€ gross ( 40% taxable). I have evidence of it. And I never complained about this either. I never made big money throughout my career and never openly complained about it. That’s life and I accept it very well. Not jealous at those who do make big money, either.
The third thing I have to address is my purpose and the origins of my action. While I have no problem giving my rights to a record label, said record label has to take care of my catalog as a serious asset. In 2016 it was still the case. Three years later the situation started degrading. Only a few % of my tracks are being exploited. And here comes the worsening event. The catalog is owned by two entities fighting possibly to court as we speak, and because I don’t want to be part of a court case, or a possible takeover of the entire catalog including mine, by future third parties in the case the catalog needs to be sold to actually stop the legal fight between the owners. Further, the value of my catalog is degrading because both parties fighting for ownership aren’t in state to actively exploit it. As a piece of evidence, I have several people claiming they wanted to use some of my music on their label with top remixers features, labels are big fans and friends, and they never got a reply. I can’t let this happen without taking action however I wish I didn’t have to. I’ll spare you the abusive events I’ve been through during the 25 years of business relationship, because I don’t want them to have their weight in my actual campaign. As much as possible I want to avoid giving some people ammo.
So I’ll conclude by saying this. Had I really wanted to play my fans, knowing I’m not even touching the money on go fund me, taking all the business and financial risks on me in the future, and knowing that I have a day job or two just like you all to cover my costs and keep my family safe… knowing all that, I would try to play my fan base differently, don’t you think?
My only goal is to get out of this legal fight I don’t want to be involved with as an artist, asking temporary support to my fan base before rewarding it with future music plans such as 8 new tracks on top labels, plus a sequel album that’ll make noise in 2024 and that’s nearly half done, while reimbursing every penny that my fan base has donated so that we could celebrate 25 years airwave next year in full.
I was young and stupid enough to believe in some people for over 20 years who purposely gaslit me, however it’s my responsibility, and I admit it. Weren’t it for this involvement into something no one needs to be part of, I wouldn’t even bother asking anything from you even temporarily because indeed, it’s technically my “fault” that I got gaslit.
Last thing I wanna tell you is that re-recording 800 productions minimum isn’t an option in my case. And I don’t want these productions to sound inferior either. A risk I can’t take. I know that many mentioned the idea, but technically far from possible.
Knowing all this, I hope I informed you well, that’s as good as I could at present time. I believe I’m not good at communicating, especially on such short notice, but at least I’m trying my best.
And here’s Myla, my daughter, 14. Say hi to her if you like. Remember that behind this business thing, there are people too and not machines. I’m just another individual trying to move on, so thanks for respecting this. And I know that some disagree with me and my methods and thats fine, I just would like you to consider respecting my choices whether the above convinced you or not.
Many thanks once again to the all of you. Having a community like you around is invaluable, and like expressed before I wish I didn’t have to get you involved into this.
if you feel like helping me out: check in the comments for the
gofundme link.