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Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Kinesis have officially announced they’ve been dropped by their label, Independiente. They were made aware of it a month ago but haven’t said anything until now…

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as they’ve revealed in their online diaries.

Guitarist Conor had this to say: “We've been in London to meet labels about who is going to release our next record and when it shall be released. I think many of you realise that the Kinesis world has been a rather dark place recently. We have seen the negative side of the music industry far more than the positive side, but we have not given in quite yet… The way things are looking, we should be releasing some new material, on a new label, sometime during summer. It looks like an independent label will be involved, at least for the forseeable (sic) future. This means that we won't have a huge marketing budget and we will have to resort to some guerilla (sic) tactics when it comes to spreading the word.

We are no longer shackled to a company who did, to be honest, nothing for us. We have control over every aspect of our art. We can return to our roots and learn from our fans.”

Vocalist Michael adds: “… You could ask the question, What did they [the label] do for us over the past few months? The answer is 'not much'. Our last big tour, supporting Linkin Park, was not financed and we traveled (sic) in a transit van and a car, sleeping on floors. Many of you are aware of the scant promotion of the album and singles. The potential of the album was ultimately stifled from the beginning. Well, many mistakes have been made in fact, and to go into the details here is tedious and pointless. The point is that we have learned a lot from the past year, things which can't learn until you have experienced them.

”So at the moment we are unsigned and self-financed. We have to fund each and every gig, each demo and each hour in rehearsal. Will this stop us? It is exactly how we started out, when we were in full control, and we arguably made more progress in that way than when we were signed. Make no mistake - our ambition is as large as ever. Our relationship with our former label has been a barrier to our goals, but nothing more. Barriers exist to be overcome.”

The band really value the support of their fans at this stage more than ever. You can send letters of encouragement to: band@kinesis-official.co.uk. And you can read the full statements from the band here.

DiScuss: I know we’re a bunch of spanners for not reviewing it, but what do you think of Kinesis’ album, ‘Handshakes For Bullets’? What are your thoughts on its promotion? What should the band do now? Would YOU let a sweaty rock band sleep on your floor and eat your crisps? Are Travis next for the chop?

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

To be fair, they did release a mini album with most of it on and a few singles on their own. But obviously that was quite small scale and not everyone had heard it - but that was the main reason why a lot of folks at DiS didn't know how to review Handshakes or put it into a proper context, as we'd all known and jumped around to the tracks for a number of years.

Where has that record label Wurzel head of mine gone?

Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Welp, that's made my day :)

Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

This is good news :) Kinesis dropped :)
Finally all those average Mancunian bands signed because they're from, well, Manchester (you know who you are, Haven, Longview, Rain Band et al) are being purged.

Good good news :)

Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Must admit I've always felt a certain fondness for Kinesis. I own "Handshakes..." and, whilst it's far from perfect, I can definitely hear echoes of albums like "Generation Terrorists" and "Pablo Honey" in there; that is to say, there is a fair bit of filler on it, and its influences are just too blatantly obvious at times, but there's a couple of moments that, released before or not, just completely transcend their peers.

I really do have a lot of time for them. Hopefully this break will do them good, help them mature a bit and give them a chance to develop their craft. Sometimes a band comes along and you can just tell there's potential there, and I reckon Kinesis might just have a masterpiece in 'em. So yeah, best of luck boys...

Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Shame this i mean I think Kinesis need space to improve and grow their debut was good if not spectacular i for one hope they come back bigger and better and maybe a little bit wiser.

Re: INDEPENDIENTE

To be fair, they didn't do too badly with So Solid or Travis (until this album).

The same things can be said about just about every major label tho. Especially with big international deals - just look at how Dashboard Confessional and Saves the Day have had records out recently, which have done really well in the states, but haven't fulfilled anywhere near their potentional over here.

The biggest problem is, the radio only give about 3 non-playlist daytime plays a day (mostly 'singles of the week'), the music press is only really talking about the same 10 bands, so if you're not one of these 10 bands, you've really got a struggle on your hands to fulfil some massive short-term goals.

The key thing is labels need to be increasingly more longterm and realistic, don't offer massive deals after bidding wars, don't blow ridiculous amounts too early, let the band learn, breathe and develop.

The whole industry and the way it's viewed from the outside, needs to get more realistic as there are massive weights and disproportionate expectations placed on many a shoulder. Plus, for a lot of bands, if they just release a couple of singles, get some attention on lamacq, bits in the music press, then don't sign a £200k+ deal, then they've failed and give up or people have given up on them before they've even had a chance.

I ain't saying things should get scaled down and no-one set their heights for massive things, but bands really shouldn't be expected to be playing Brixton Academy by the end of their first album campaign. Labels/Bands need to build up a foundation and develop from it.

Sean

Re: INDEPENDIENTE

When i saw this story Crashland were my immediate thought as well.

i still think Glued is one of the top 5 albums of all time.

i think the problem is that independiente, like most record labels, expect too much from bands. in general putting less marketing behind bands might be a good idea, then they wouldnt expect as big a return.

especially since a lot of people find out music through word of the interweb these days...

Re: INDEPENDIENTE

top 5 albums of all time... right
that means that Crashland must be better than at least one out of Led Zep, Nirvana, Queen and Rolling Stones, Beatles, Elvis
you said a silly thing!

Re: INDEPENDIENTE

wouldn't go that far [top 5 albums of all time?!] but crashland certainly should have done better than they did, they were pretty decent.

x
gen

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

to be fair though: TV advertising is Mahoosively expensive.
I wouldn't have expected any for a band of that size.
But your point totallystill stands: v badly publicised.
(should that be with a 'z'? I'm never sure)

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Psst... Independiente is 50% owned by Sony!

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

not sure i care what % it is. it's all to do with distribution and marketing.

but what label could they have signed to? that's the biggee...

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Which bands are you speaking for here?

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

http://www.unlimitedmedia.co.uk/cmuonline/directory/aboutmajors.html

Read! Explains everything regarding Sony & the other labels they own & part own.

Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Handshakes for bullets was an excellent album, with the clear highlight being 'And They Obey'. I thought they were going to make it really big, and hope that they still will.

Oh, and MBA are ace as well.

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

Sony's deals with 'independent' labels are generally Sony owning 49%, then the 'independent' label the other 51%. Not an awful lot in it, really. I've been to Independiente's offices are very posh too, for what it's worth.

Re: Kinesis: Dropped. Bothered.

what i'm *saying* is that bad bands don't deserve record deals. it doesn't matter what 'scene' they're from and whether that 'scene' is large, small, hip, or horrendously uncool. they shouldn't be signed just because a 'scene' is trying to prop itself up

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