Aaron Harris (Palms, Isis) Short Interview on Illegal Downloading from Nov. 20th 2012

     I did this short interview last year while going to college. It was an assignment I had to address for a business class. I was lucky to be able to interview Aaron Harris who has played with the bands Isis and Palms as well as being a drum tech for Tool and The Deftones. I just thought it would be neat to throw it up now that I have this blog. Thanks for checking it out.
   

     Patrick Houtz (PH)---The first question I have is how did illegal downloading affect your band "Isis" and secondly how do you see it affecting "Palms" as well?

     Aaron Harris (AH)---Illegal downloading is a debate that could be discussed and dissected for days. There's lots of different ways to look at it. Both good and bad. It's really easy these days to go online and steal a record that a band/artist has spent many hours and lots of money making. People forget how much time and money is spent making these records. Opinions are formed and reviews are given before the record is even released. In ISIS, we really worked hard to present our records as a whole. The artwork and packaging were just as important as the music. Other than the obvious fact that we were loosing money directly from illegal downloading, we were also having our records presented in a way that we hadn't intended. Touring became the way that we made most of our money as record sales declined even as the band grew in popularity. I'm sure downloading affects major label acts much differently than indie artists. We were always very hands on with ISIS, and smart about how we spent our money. I can't imagine the impact downloading has on some of the really big budget records. I guess the bright side of downloading would be that your music gets in the hands of potentially more people, and it can be used as a way to promote your record. It builds a buzz about the release. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

(Aaron Harris, Drum Teching for Tool 2011 Australia)

 

     (PH)---Do you think the laws set up currently are working at all? If not what do you think could be done to curb illegal downloading if anything?      

     (AH)---I'm not sure what can be done, if anything, to prevent illegal downloading. At a certain point you're looking at spending all your money trying to prevent people from stealing it, so it doesn't make much sense. The thing to do is to embrace the change and hope that your record doesn't leek too early to your release date, and that people don't spread a negative review of it before it's even released. One solution is to use sort of a reverse psychology like Radiohead did and offer a name your own price for the release (free being an option). In creating the Palms record we have the advantage of me being an audio engineer, so we're able to keep the costs of making the album low. If I wasn't, we'd be looking to make the record as cheaply as we could get away with. Just like most other bands these days.