Katrina Elam Uses MySpace Blog To Vent Record Label Frustrations

Kenny says being a pirate isn’t just about wearing an eye patch and sailing the seas. “A lot of my friends in the islands, they’re living the pirate life and you could say that anyone living on the road, always waking up somewhere else, they’re living the pirate life, too,” he says. “But I think a lot of my fans, they’re really the pirates. You know, they show up at the office, but their souls never leave the ocean or the lake or wherever they get away to. Their spirit is free, even though they look like one more 9-to-5′er or shift worker.”

All the philosophical stuff aside, no matter what Kenny says people are still going to think of Pirates of Caribbean type pirates when they hear the word pirates.

So how do you say what you really feel without sounding mean or overly negative? I’m not sure, and my momma always said “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” (was it momma that said that? or Thumper from Bambi? hmmm) but there’s only so much you can stomach, ya know?!

So here’s the deal: I get a lot of messages saying “hey what the heck? we thought your record was coming out and it didn’t”…sadly, I friggin thought it was coming out too!!! I hope you all are following this Kelly Clarkson thing closely because it will give you such an insight into the BS that some of us artists deal with…record guys who have their pride at stake and would rather shelve something that is REAL and then try to get you to put out some contrived, fake, POS that means nothing to you as an artist, just to make their job easier….or perhaps they could get a little cash under the table to give another record label with another artist a song from your record that actually had some interest from radio and was even charted at one point–I’m just saying that could happen–could happen–might have happenned–whatever!

I know that there are probably several people who will read this and think that I am wrong or that I should be more careful with what I say, but the reality is that I can’t afford to be quiet anymore. What do I have to lose? They don’t think my record has any songs that are “good enough” to be promoted and I kid you not, I was told at one point that the production of it sounded “too Christian”. Shouldn’t artists be free to make their music and have labels that are inventive and smart enough to figure out a way to market them? Why am I supposed to be a slave to them and their ideas of what good music is? I don’t care if my record isn’t as commercially exploitable as oh, say, the Taylor Swifts of the world (nothing against her–love her)…it’s MY record and it is who I am as an artist and a person and I shouldn’t have to compromise that just to make someone at a record label’s job easier.

Okay, wish I could say I’m done ranting–but I’m sure there’ll be more. I’m not shutting up anymore!