It won’t be alright! Don’t live in the past.

You have to look into your things while they matter. I just bumped into a guy that let a manger take care of all his business 10 years ago. This manger I know is not the sharpest knife in the box. She didn’t’ really know the business and was very hard to make a deal with because she said one thing one time and another thing next time. In the end I know that people in the office forced her to just write e-mails so they can prove backwards that she had changed things. People like this usually want to speak in the phone. They agree to something and when you later do it then they come and say that was never said. If you like to talk on the phone but a company all the time force you to write e-mails , then you know that you might be one of those people.

 Usually they are not mean, it’s just that they don’t take in the info or make their own conclusions. Also these are the people that you often see on facebook getting in trouble in certain situations and it’s never their fault and they are whining about how stupid this company is.

I had a friend like that. She always got into shit and it was always someone else’s fault. One time she was arrested for a bank robbery. Of course that was the banks fault. What she had done was walking into a bank wanting to put in money to her account. She took a note where you fill in the number, account etc. She filled it in and then she saw that someone had written on the back of the note “This is a robbery”, probably a kid making a joke. She thought that, well she looks so innocent and doesn’t wear a mask so the cashier can’t take it seriously. She waits for her turn and handle the note, of course with the side where is says “This is a robbery”. What do you know, of course they pushed the button and the police came and arrested her. It took her 24 hours to get out of the situation. But of course it was the banks fault that they hadn’t checked that some didn’t had written on the notes. And second they could see that she was not a bank robber.

Back to my guy. This manger did a lot of things nobody know. After a couple of years they guy left her. And was not doing so much artist stuff any longer. Then now 10 years later he wants clear things up. Money that never went through. Deals that might be still ongoing. The problem is that some of the labels he did deals with are no longer existing. Some records went along with buy ups and many don’t keep the records for ten years. Like IFPI and Stim they only hold they money for 5 years. And in Europe it’s usually just 3 years so it there were things abroad it was even shorter. Now he has spent over a year tracking down different things claiming that he should get out the money or getting the information where it might have gone.

I asked him why? It’s just started over write some new stuff and forget about that old catalogue. He likes his old catalogue so much that he wants control over it. He was totally stuck in the past and this took all his energy understand all deals this manager had done and all the consequences it made. I guess my advice would be not to be stuck in the past. It usually not working out. The deals are done and the papers are signed and nothing really you can do about it. The second is to deal with the shot direct. In this case he should have done the work when he parted with that manager. But I see this all too often when bands split up and we get member wonder about things several years later when things calm down. Even if it hurts take action direct. But in many cases, just look forward it’s much better.