February 9th, 2022. I'm sitting at the dining table in our producer Charlie Andrew's house in London. Charlie and my wife Sula, are in the next room waiting for me to finish up a quick phone call with management before we eat dinner together. Charlie and I have just finished the final tweaks on the album and are excited to send it off to the management and label team for feedback. When we arrived tonight, it felt like a celebratory moment, with Charlie’s Brit-Award gleaming from the bookcase as I entered the lounge, hopefully foreshadowing what’s to come for our own album.
I answer my phone and make awkward small talk for a minute before our manager drops a bombshell that goes a bit like this; "I'm sorry Matt, this is the hardest call we have to make to any of our artists. I finally got through to the label about the tour support issue, and it turns out that the reason you haven’t received any of those funds yet is that after much deliberation they've decided to release you from your contract. The industry has changed a lot in the last 2 years, and it's now become more focused on TikTok artists and their single releases” - Side note: I had read that exact same morning that our label had posted record profits for any financial quarter since the glory days of CD sales pre-Napster and they would be issuing a dividend of over $75 million to shareholders - “They don't want to pay the costs for this tour and album promotion anymore. Sadly it’s going to be impossible to find anyone else who can cover the bill at such short notice so we’re now going to have to pull out of the first 3 months of the US tour at least. I tried to tell them this is a bad move, you guys just need to be put in front of an audience and you’ll connect in a big way, but they've made their decision."
Silence. Nausea.
"…the good news is that you're going to get back the album you just made in the exit agreement. They don’t want to make this harder than it already is, so you’ll be able to find a new home for it and release it elsewhere."
I feel my stomach rise a little too far up my throat as the room gets fuzzy, but I don't allow this to develop into a second perceptible pause before I snap myself back into the call. "Wow. Wait, that makes no sense. Why would they do that when the album is only just done? They haven't even heard it finished yet. We're freighting our stuff to Seattle in the morning - in 12 hours! Ben just quit his job, Chris has cleared the next 6 months of work. Ed, our sound guy, just moved house. We have US visas!"
I can hear myself protesting against a decision already made, by people who aren't on the line to argue with and I realise I’m wasting energy that I'm going to need. Two years with a career on lockdown has killed the momentum and evaporated the flood of palpable excitement I had felt in that label office in February 2020 (See last weeks post).
I decide that it makes more sense to raise some questions that are still relevant: "So they’re out… how does this affect our relationship? You were managing a signed band, and now you're not. Can we make a new plan quickly? Do we need a new label? Should I announce this on social media tomorrow?" I count a few too many seconds of silence before the response; "Thanks for considering my position. It’s rare to hear that question in this type of moment. Let's just get through the exit deal, and then we'll see where we are in a few months. We completely believe in you. You're great! We'll talk once the dust has settled." That’s a red flag response, I thought to myself.
[We parted ways with our management company a few months later under mutual agreement. We needed new impetus and fresh belief, but it’s important to note that we still have good friends there who supported us right through to the point where we were on more stable ground and who continue to root for us today. The music industry is ruthless and despite this event leading to the end of our working relationship; they weren’t.]
We end the call, and Charlie walks in with a concerned look on his face and asks how it went. I speak in double time and my explanation to him is the start of a repeating loop, as I find myself explaining the bad news again and again, feeling a little more removed from it and my own body with each retelling. I explain the details to Charlie and Sula. Then, on a call with Chris and Ed our tour manager, having to relay the news I’d only just received minutes before and somehow find some hope and new direction to offer to the people who followed me into this mess.
Once that call was over, there was only Ben left to tell. He would get back from his “leaving dinner” with a friend later that night, luckily he was staying at my flat and I could tell him in person. After I dropped that final bomb of the evening, we both sat in disbelief. The disappointment and feelings of abandonment and what-the-fuck-ness hit hard. We each poured a whisky, and then another, and we talked in circles until the early hours, picking up where we left off the next morning with Chris, and again over many more mornings and nights. The day we got dropped turning into a long week.
In the coming months I’ll start to fill in the blanks of how we got from there to here, those of you who have been following on socials will know that we didn’t stand still and wallow, well maybe for a couple of weeks we stood still and wallowed but thats to be expected right?
As an independent band embarking on our debut album release we have a main goal of connecting more with the fanbase that we already have, and circumventing the many barriers placed between you and us by the social media platforms we all use. There’s one word on our lips for 2023…
Community 🫂 We're aiming to build a great community around our music and we invite you to be a part of it. In order to connect more with the people who truly resonate with our songs we’ll all need to step outside of the noisy, stuffy nightclub of social media platforms to meet out on the open terrace.
Final story; In 2017, we released our EP Volume 1 entirely on our own, without the help of anyone in the industry other than our producer Femke and our independent one-man distributor, Shawn at ToneTree. We were told to wait and wait until we had a label and a manager but we were young and impatient and released it anyway, the motion of getting started combined with our excitement created a whole lot of heat and that heat spread like a wildfire; It’s a fact that the first EP has traveled further than anything we released with a massive team between 2020 and 2022. With this album we're a little less young, all out of patience and completely ready to surpass everything we’ve done before, to prove once again that you don't need a big fancy team and budget to connect with lots of people. How far can a band and their community reach when they’re directly linked?
So if our music has resonated with you and you're feeling a little revolutionary, we invite you to join us at this pivotal stage of our journey in the following ways:
Become a patron of our art via Patreon from today and directly support us while getting the inside scoop and meeting us for monthly zoom concerts and other benefits*.
For the future-focused and tech-minded we’ll be revealing more about our growing MusicNFT collector community soon.
Share this newsletter with someone who you think would enjoy the insight into our story.
(*We’ve come up with a whole host of benefits for each tier of Patreon membership and many of these will apply to our MusicNFT holders too - from exclusive song and album previews, livestream concerts and group chats to in real life listening parties and exclusive signed vinyl).
For those of you who have subscribed to this newsletter and supported us in a multitude of other ways, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. What we’re providing is another step closer, an inside track for those who find that intriguing. We value every fan, your support means the world and we'd love to turn this into a two-way conversation by having you as some of the founding members of this new thing we’re building, participating in the next chapter.
I’ll be continuing to share more of our story right here, thanks for reading.
So much love 🖤
Matt
[Belle Mt.]
Our Patreon page just launched.
Head over to Patreon and take a look by clicking the picture below ✌️✨
Life Support - Live Session
Recently we released a new live session with the three of us playing ‘Life Support’ on acoustic guitars. Chris learned a new instrument especially to play his part. See below…
London Headline Show
Going to be in London this April? We’re playing a headline show and we’d love for you to join us. It's going to be a special night with a chance to meet us afterwards. Don’t miss out 🎫
***Necessary Disclaimer: Nothing in the text within this email/blog post is intended in a disparaging manner towards any major record label. I don’t disparage anyone from working with a major record label and I don’t dabble in disparagement full stop actually. Partly because there was a non-negotiable “non-disparagement clause” written into the label exit deal I signed in 2022. Would I disparage if I wasn't legally bound not to? ...Don't be so cynical.
- Matt
Thanks for reading. Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below or join the Belle Mt. chat in the free Substack app ✨🫂
Hi Matt,
Thank you very much for sending me this latest very sad update.
Awful to hear that you were dropped by your record label. Trying to work out the logic + reasoning as to why record labels drop their artists is like trying to resolve a Gordian knot! As you know the music industry is notorious for being fickle on steroids! That doesn’t help you I know! I have also thought that your music very well crafted, infused with beautiful haunting melodies that I think is somewhat unique. So it is terrible to hear that you (and the band) have been dropped by your record label! Awful! As you mention the next stage is going to be difficult to commercial develop your music without any funding. More importantly not least trying to recover from this emotional punch in the guts news! I think that what your Manager told you that your label had told him about focusing on TikTok releases is going to massively back fire on the record labels! From what I have read the “Music Industry” is going to have a huge reality check about the avalanche of professional Legal opinion that the CCP (specifically) Beijing use ALL data from TikTok! In the USA ALL government employees are banned from using TikTok this is not a light decision! Therefore, I would not be surprised when the legal noose closes tightens around TikTok usage within the next couple of years you could find it’s usage banned! The record labels will then probably cack themselves! I wouldn’t be surprised you would then receive a call back asking if you would kindly consider sign a new contract! After a few well, worn expletives you might relent!? I agree with your incredulity that your record label letting you go after you are producing music of such a high order is absurd! This is no consolation at the moment. However, I really wish you well in being able to navigate the release of this new album you have created.
Sending you lots of Good Vibes in your quest to launch your latest album! If you are performing in London at some stage please let me know!
Sending my very best wishes
David Austin (aka "Ungrateful Dave!"
(veteran Trams 'Open Mic' performer!)
I think I’ve heard only one of your songs, probably via my FB friend and ex colleague Jonny Belmont. My own son continues to struggle in the music industry so this was a really interesting read. It’s a brutal industry and I don’t know what the key ti success is, but battling on the way you are has to be a big factor in every success story. You’ve inspired me to listen to more of your music and I look forward to seeing and hearing what happens next. All power to you.