Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Focus on the Music, Not Debt

Posted on Dec 27th 2010 3:00PM by Linda Laban
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Tessa Angus

For Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, making ends meet has not gotten any easier this past decade. "No one knows anything anymore about the music business," bassist/vocalist Robert Levon Been tells Spinner. "No one has any idea how to make money. People used to think they knew and now it just seems everyone's like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, trying to guess what's going to be the future and how to make a buck being a professional musician, artist or label. No one seems to know what they're doing."

BRMC just wrapped a European tour and released a live CD/DVD, 'Live in London,' but Been says even all that wasn't guaranteed to put a penny in their pocket. "It's really difficult to make money to keep going anymore," Been says. "We toured around the world five times, the first time just on the one record. Every show was full and we were happy, doing what we thought we should be doing. We get off the road and every dollar went into that."

"The idea for this one, from day one of rehearsing it, was to keep costs down to zero for as long as possible," Been adds of the band's latest album 'Beat the Devil's Tattoo.' "The problem most bands get into and we got into is that you go into debt pretty much as soon as start rehearsing. You're in debt before you've written your first song."

Financial woes aside, Been says there's always the music to keep him going. "The advice I don't ever give to anyone, including myself," he jokes, "is wherever things seem hopeless, just to follow the music. Where the spirit is and the sound and the message, it usually will pull you in the right direction. I know it sounds simplistic, but it's the only thing that keeps me going when nothing makes sense anywhere else. Start from there and if you're drawn to a certain feeling or band, you follow that. You'll be all right."

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's 'Beat the Devil's Tattoo' Video