Finally I get to impose my thoughts on those of you fantastic enough to read this. Lately I’ve been thinking that all the thinking in the world can’t make an alternative band like us more mainstream and so we’ve decided… F*%& MAINSTREAM! Even if that means we’ll be poor and homeless for eternity, yup we will never write a “Kaptein”, so all you “profs” out there can stop telling us that all we need to do to be successful is to write an Afrikaans treffer and dolly ourselves up blah blah blah, (we do such things under a clever pseudonym anyway). Cortina Whiplash are 3 (sometimes 4) girls who’ve been making music together out of their combined necessity for some sort of emotional outlet, music is our therapy and its value way exceeds the value of having thousands of ignoramuses buy our album.
Sure we gig and we try to sell our album, let’s be realistic here, we can’t make music our living if we don’t make a living from it and we constantly walk the fine line between completely selling out on the one hand and maintaining our integrity and original passion for music on the other. Sadly music is the one career choice where you constantly find yourself justifying why you should be paid for what you do. Does anyone ever question an electrician’s fees? Or feel that they have the right to tell a doctor how he/she should do their job?
Let’s set the record straight:
- We have the ability to write catchy, toned-down, radio friendly tunes yet we choose not to. I know this is hard for a lot of people to understand but that’s how it is.
- Many musicians before us have cracked the mainstream industry doing their own thing and hey if it that happens with Cortina then we’ll invite everyone over for a jacuzzi party – integrity in tact (until after the party) and if it doesn’t happen well then we’ll make music on our stoop for the rest of our days – integrity in tact.
- We appreciate all the advice but respectfully ask that if you feel like you know the key to cracking the music industry – start a band of your own. Alternatively give us money instead of advice, it would help more.
- We want people to evolve as listeners and hope that one day mainstream music will be determined by its quality rather than its flashy image.
Maybe we’re the idiots for having some sort of message or purpose behind what we do, every time some guy shouts “play some Kurt Darren” from the audience we communally vomit in our mouths and wonder “what’s the point?”, but at this juncture I can’t imagine putting any more thoughtless, empty, meaningless music out there for the sake of making money. Surely we’re not the only ones who feel like the world needs a little more substance?
ARE WE ALONE?
