Tigersushi
1
Can you explain the whole tigersushi-masterplan?
Well we had a great masterplan, I’m sure of that, but I woke up
yesterday with a bad headache and just can’t remember it...it was
something about R&B and Nina Hagen but...??
2
How did the three of you get together?
We met on a trip to the Galapagos. We were all very Tiger-friendly. Charles
and I liked music, we captured Julien, the IT guy, and forced him to develop
Tigersushi’s website.
3
What was the reason to start the tigersushi-project?
We thought that there was nothing interesting to do except in the Music
field. We wanted to create the resource we would dream of and talk about
all that music we love. The internet was the perfect medium for this.
The label came after though we always wanted to start a label. First we
thought that the label would help promote the website, but it is the contrary
that is happening as the website has now a lot of visitors per day.
4
What was the true motivation to start a label. And
why didn’t you start an online-label?
We always wanted to start a label, even before starting Tigersushi, because
we really loved the music, going to record stores etc. And though we think
the internet is a great tool for music diffusion, we still like the good
old CDs and Vinyl. Plus, as you may know it, it’s merely impossible
to make a living from selling digital music online.
5
Can you live of tigersushi.com?
From the website, no! We sacrifice our health for it!!! The label should
bring some meat in our dinner...
6
Then how do you finance your site? Have you got some
adventure-capital of others to make it happen?
Unfortunately, no. Thus we’re not millionaire. We’re linked
to the Russian Mafia that we met while visiting the Galapagos.
7
Why are there no ad-banners on tigersushi.com? You
could make some money that way.
Maybe we’ll put some banners some day, we just don’t look
after banners for now.
8
Are you sponsored by Microsoft?
No, are you sponsored by Yahoo?
9
So what´s the driving force behind your activities?
We have a sexy version of Tigersushi hidden somewhere on the net.
10
Do you see the danger of making “a bible of
modern music” when so much is concentrated on your page and how
do you work with the responsibility this might mean?
I see what you mean, but the people that think our website has something
of a bible are fools. We just want to share something and make people
discover music they don’t know. We are very often wrong, and sometimes
not very professional because our passion is stronger than our professionalism.
Our point of view is just a point of view, anyone who wants to argue is
welcome.
11
Can you agree that opinions say more about the one
saying the opinion then the subject of it´s criticism?
Yes, but objectism sucks. Objectism is boring. If you want objectism,
Go to the record store and listen to music by yourself.
12
Do you sometimes feel bad about what you wrote?
No, I don’t write.
13
Let me take an example of your critics - say the
harsh words on Ursula Rucker and then lets put this in relation to your
Gina X-highlighting - can you understand that this is a controversy?
Of course, I understand. Well, you may not believe us but we wrote the
thing on Gina X before even thinking about re-releasing the track. It
was a track we loved, we wrote that, then we thought that we may re-released
it. Besides we have a strict policy about the dissociation of what we
release and what we write. We’ll never review our own releases nor
put a rating. But We know that we’re in a difficult position as
we’re critics and a label at the same time...Regarding Ursula Rucker,
we liked the record even if our words are a bit “harsh” as
you say, we just had an opinion on her song-writing to express. Do you
have any link with her?
14
How do you make sure that your view on things is
not just your view to see things based on lots of knowledge, which is
great but also is in danger to be used for hiding the matter of “opinion”?
The knowledge is just a clue. It’s like a ruler that we use. But
first is our opinion, we try to listen to the records as if it was the
first time we listen to music. For instance, we thought that this Ursula
Rucker record was a nice one to listen to but if you keep in mind what’s
been done in the field of soul-spoken word music, you can feel a little
bit disappointed.
15
Do you analyse your own believes in what is good
music?
No, simply because I don’t have any idea of what is good music (do
you?). We try to have the purest ear, which is more and more difficult
as you know more and more music.
16
Again: you do seem to be sceptical with the consciousness of Ursula Rucker
and her wants to move things - I would see the danger, that you deconstruct
something that might be good for the people to work on, based on that
you believe something else you promote - how do you work with this, being
involved as musicians yourself, and your own relation with the musicians
you criticise and some of them might feel at least misunderstood?
I hope we don’t have the power to deconstruct Ursula Rucker. And
it’s certainly not because we believe something else we “promote”.
As I said before we try not to give any opinion about the things we promote
on the website. Besides we’re not criticising music based on what
the wants of the artist are, the matter is the music not the wants.
17
What is your own believe for doing this?
We believe in fun though we’re not surfers. I think, for instance
Xenakis’ Electronic Music is funnier than Rucker’s Supa Sista.
One of our favorite magazine is The Wire, but the problem is that it’s
almost unreadable. We’re not professors. We admit that sometimes
we’re harsh and even unfair, but in a way we’d rather be unfair
than express the same opinion than “advertisement-based” press
where you can read the same point of view, the same interviews etc. anytime,
anywhere.
18
What’s so bad about being “advertisement-based”?
Don’t you think one can obtain his own opinion and still get money
through ads?
Of course. We’re not criticising advertisement. We’re criticising
the fact that very often - at least here in France - ads settle the editorial
focuses. If you tell a magazine that you’ll take a full-page,there
are big probabilities that you’ll get great coverage. But that’s
no news. That partly explains the fact that every magazine talks about
the same records and same artists.
19
Who is contributing to the tigersushi-radio-mixes
and what are the criteria for choosing tracks?
I make the radio playlists, helped by Charles’ and some other people’s
suggestions, and we receive a lot of mails from people asking for specific
tracks. Today our database has 20,000 songs available. But sometimes we’re
a bit late in updating the playlists. Sorry for that. Regarding the mixes,
we receive some at the office that we put online when we like the artists
involved.
20
Is there any music or are there any musicians that
you are related to that you think need to be more publicly present and
therefore you feature them on your label?
Actually we were not related to any of the artists present on the label
before putting out their tracks. Now, we know some of them and we’ll
release more music from Maurice Fulton soon. All we do is listening to
the music people send us and put it out if we like it, isn’t that
simple?
21
Don’t you care about your site not working
properly in any browser but Internet Explorer?
Yes we do, but we haven’t found the solution yet, there are so many
compatibility problems between all the platforms, unless you do a very
basic html website. The problem is simple and complex at the same time.
Regarding the Windows Media thing, our priorities were :
1. to have the cheapest streaming server, this excludes Quicktime and
Real, which are very expensive.
2. to have the most secure server to protect the music from piracy (because
that’s something we guarantee to the labels), this excludes
Shoutcast servers.
3. to have a technology that allows inhouse developments in order to build
our dynamic player which shows what is played. Therefore, Windows, which
is free, secure and provides developers with toolkits was more or less
our only solution.
And I’m sorry but you’re wrong when you say that the site
only works properly in IE. On PC it works on both IE and Netscape. On
Mac OS 9.x it works better on Netscape (especially for the radio) and
on Mac OS X, we don’t know exactly because we don’t have it.
22
Who’s doing the cartoon-characters and what
else is he doing?
The cartoon-designer is a mysterious guy working here. He also made all
the Tigersushi records’ artwork.
23
Some questions about your own music and your productions:
what’s your background?
I don’t like so much to talk about my own music when I talk about
Tigersushi because I don’t want people to mix everything between
Tigersushi, my music and the label that puts out my music (which is Versatile).
24
What are the next steps and what’s the plan
for the future?
Next step is signing Ursula Rucker. Then we’ll try other artists.
][ neon tse tse, mb
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