Ok,
Arts Councils donate for Art..
Bursaries and awards do the same.
Critically acclaimed as my music is, I have applied to all of the above numerous times without success..
looked on as ´too commercial´ for arts councils and ´too something..or not something enough for labels´.
I have received critics praise and fan encouragement for years now. This does not translate to financial support though that is neccessary to get the music out in to the world.
People ask why another album doesn´t come out so soon after the last.
It has nothing to do with not writing the music. It is because I believe things should be of a certain quality and in order to record and package music, it costs money..lots of money---and then to get it out in to the world...more money..
Money money money..
I don´t make any money from my first two releases Creation(1999) and Staros(2002) due to my absolute naivety(stupidity) in signing a many-page management deal that basically said that I am accountable for any costs that this person runs up in relation to me before I see any return. We couldn´t afford to hire a lawyer at the time to overlook the contract.
A label was set up, the releases put out in Ireland and the US. Money wasn´t available for any kind of real promotion but still the costs this person ran up were so high(a third of their office rent and phone bills, their music magazine ´research´costs, taxis, dinners for meeting people to talk about me, ´presents´´for people who had put me up on tour and presents I didn´t know about such as Christmas presents for pr people who had done a job for us for a few weeks..as well as the actual recording and release of Staros and Creation.. (I had personally paid for some of the recording of Creation though, from money I borrowed as part of a demo plan at the time)...and on and on..blah blah blah..)..This was all in ´good faith´. My trust was pure..and stupid. To sort through this story with lawyers would take years and lots of money and energy so I just left it and kept living and writing..
My unborn baby will be in college before I might see a return. I am not bitter.I still trust people but I try to make sure that I am covered in case things go wrong. I made choices. Life is not easy and we have to make the most of what we have and try to give something good back to the world. We, in the ´western´world are the priveledged ones.
Last year, 4 years after Staros was released, two of my brothers convinced me that I should take out a bank loan to record some of the new music I had been writing during this time. They helped me to find a guarantor so the loan would be possible.
I have really done my best and with the loan I took for Really Really Do, all of the musicians were paid(except me and Fabien)..the co-producer was paid, the studio was paid. The photographer was paid, the printers were paid, the website designer was paid(www.ninahynes.com), the album cover-art and t-shirt designer was paid but is owed some more. Promotion in Ireland only was done. The T-shirts were bought and sold, tours were booked. The loan was exhausted at this stage.
Fabien and I have lived on the merchandise sales at gigs and from the gigs in the last 7 months, trying to pay money in to our personal loans that we took out to go to college as well as the loan for the album plan along the way.
I duplicated 5000 copies of Really Really Do and bought a van to tour so it was a good plan working on the lowest level but working all the same until the van died..we just had no plan B!
I am totally reassessing my life and while there is no turning back the clock, now is the time to make a change ...for real this time..just have to figure out HOW!
Along with two others, Fabien is in the process of setting up an amazing recording studio in an old soviet radio station studio in Berlin. We are very excited about this.
It feels strange and weird asking people to donate when one doesn´t directly give something in return though. We are art, we are not a charity.
Right now, we are on the way to the studio to mix the song ´Jesus´ so we can offer it for the donations so it doesn´t feel so much like begging for our art ´man´..if 10,000 paid 1 or 2 euro for the song, that would make us enough money to start paying off the loans and we could continue to do what we do best.
Lots of people at the gigs in the last while have asked for a recording of this song.
It was recorded by David Odlum during the Really Really Do sessions and will be mixed by Fabien Leseure and myself.
I refuse to be an underdog and this story is not so unusual.
have a good day,
Nanu nanu,
Nina
To buy the song go to www.ninahynes.com and donate what you feel. The song will not be up until a couple of days though..will let you know once it is up.