arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

We want to tank people who read and write on indymedia for taking part in our initiative: from our first communication we had a lot of e-mail with compliments, opinions and a lot of very good ideas (there is just one strange thing: 90% of those messages come from USA, I think that, as ever, we Europeans wait for an initiative to have success in USA before accept it. Cultural submission?). We decided to answer to the questions using this space to continue in having an open dialogue with all the indy's people.
For those who don't remember what I'm writing of: Chaussette Verte is an Italian-French electric jazz band, we are fighting against showbusiness by giving away our music for nothing, and the copyright protection system by inviting anyone to duplicate our cd in several copies and sell them (not giving us a dime, of course) and/or give'em to friends, as they like.
We will demonstrate, this pro-active way, that musicians can live without the showbusiness mechanism, can "stand up against the corporations and do music THEIR way, for THEIR reasons" (thank you Meredith Slota).
An entire high scool class from Oregon (so there are young people those like jazz!!! What's happening, their mothers forgot to use some kind of chemical lobotomy?) sent us the lovely phrase "free music makes free people feel free", and asked us to send them the "Official Chaussette Verte Fans Club T-Shirt" ( if not too dear):
1. please don't be our fans (don't be anybody's fans: use your own mind!!!), be our friends, listen to our music, and ALWAYS evaluate before accept the things we offer
2. if you like, on one t-shirt you can write "Official Chaussette Verte Friends Club T-Shirt". That's it. (you can do the same on every kind of wear or underwear, or car, or motorbike…)
3. you can wear green sox, to demontrate your love for our music…but I think the main way is copying and sharing our cd with people!
Paul from Chicago wrote us he plays in a band, and wish to come in Italy. Paul,you had a fantastic idea: yes, we could be your booking agency in Rome, and you could do the same for us in your town (we can give you 1/5 of our gain, like a member of the band), and every other musician who want to share this service can write us: imagine a enormous international democratic artists' co-operative network, destroying the power of the music managers!!!
Lots of people asked: "how can an author live without copyrights?"
Copyright is a way the Recording Companies have to obtain compositions not paying the author, only sharing the expected profit with him. With no risk over the music, they mainly invest in look and in communication. This generate some problems: the music have less importance in the marketing mix, coming after a sexy look, and strange new dresses (good to be sold: merchandising). Can you imagine what a producer could say to a an potential new Aretha? "You're not beautiful enough for MTV, baby!!!"
Without copyright a musician can use his compositions to promote himself: unprotecting the things he has done, he gives importance to the things he will do. This way the record companies must pay in advance to have new compositions. But this is just a side of the problem, because Internet is the impossible-to-avoid death of music copyright, and we all have to imagine a new way to think the topic.
If you want to be part of this revolution, as we write in our first article, download gratis your copy of our CD from the site http://chaussetteverte.tripod.com (there is the cover too), duplicate it in as many copies as you like, sell them or give them away to your friends.
There are just three things we ask you to do (there is no way for us to control if you will, but you'll know how bastard you are if you'll not...):
1. Write us your impressions about our music
2. Give away at least one copy to a friend
3. Give a copy to your local radio station and/or to your local jazz club
When we will be lots, the music multinationals will have a great new problem...
thanks for your help
Kunta

P.S. Of course forwarding the message to all your list could be a wounderful idea, and maybe suggest a good idea to young musicians who want to be free from industry... and want to act concretely!