by: Mark Genovese
In order to keep their spirits up during their three years of traveling from one low-paying concert date to the next, Jamestown's 10,000 Maniacs used to joke about getting the "MLD" - a "Major Label Deal."
Now they have it.
Elektra-Asylum Records signed the group to a recording contract in November, and the six Western New Yorkers are to fly to Great Britain in the spring to record their first album, said group member Dennis Drew.
"It took a while to get the deal together," Drew said. "This is a slow-moving business."
It is "in the six figures," and the money will be the budget for the record, covering all pre-production, and production costs for the record, and attorney's fees, he said.
Elektra is to first work on promoting the record. Concert tour details are to be worked out after the record is released. Drew said the Maniacs will have to set up most of their own tour dates until then.
The first record and a video are guaranteed, and the company has an option for the group's next seven. The part about the subsequent records can be renegotiated by the group's attorney after the first record comes out, he said.
The Maniacs were to have signed with CBS Records early this fall, but Harold Thompson, a company representative who took a special interest in the band, said he was accepting a position with Elektra-Asylum. Thompson said the group could stay with CBS - but noted that he would not be there to watch out for them - or wait for his call from Elektra.
Natalie Merchant, vocalist and songwriter for the group, said the Maniacs recorded three songs for CBS in a studio in White Plains. The demos "turned out all right," but their producer - who had worked with Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin - did not suit them. She said he liked the band and wanted to produce their record, but the group did not want to go with him.
Miss Merchant said the Maniacs would like a producer who has worked with accoustical instruments, "someone who will treat our recorded performance like our live performance. We think live we sound much stronger in our direction than when we've recorded so far."
She said the group had thought about doing an "artsy black-and-white video," but CBS told them that it was not allowed. It could be "just a tinge artsy, but it has to be accessible."
Drew said Elektra is the best company in the industry for a new band: the label is artist-oriented and will take chances on accepting new acts. Company management also tends to give new artists more time to prove themselves. Larger companies will often not give an unknown group as much of a chance or will not work as closely with them, he said.
For the next 18 months, the Maniacs will live "everywhere but nowhere," either recording or on tour throughout Europe. Studio dates in England are to begin in early March.
The Maniacs could have gone into recording sooner, but they wanted to wait for producer Joe Boyd - who has made a name for himself working in many phases of the industry, producing early Pink Floyd, and early folk-rock bands such as Fairport Convention, and supervising scores for films such as A Clockwork Orange.
Drew said group members loved the records Boyd has produced and, with record company consent, made arrangements to work with him. Boyd insisted on working in British studios, which he feels are of better quality than those in the United States.
While visiting London last September, the group met with DJ John Peel, who is influential in the industry in Britain. Peel liked the band and "championed our cause," Drew said.
Miss Merchant said that not many American bands are treated with the respect shown to the Maniacs by the British music press. Britons tend to think of American kids as self-indulgent. "They have this attitude that we have everything provided for us... our concerns don't go beyond 'what I own or desire,'" she said.
Also shaping the European impression of Americans are the movies and television shows that are exported. "They think everyone in America is ignorant and crude," she said. But they also know of American writers, scientists and scholars.
British music magazines give as much space to the underdog as they do to those who make the hits, she said: "It was the first time we'd been there and we had just as much space as the big bands." New groups are not given this chance on this side of the Atlantic, she said.
Audiences were very courteous and were very intrigued, asking for copies of their record. "They begin at a different level" from their American counterparts, Miss Merchant said.
They understand that a new group does not have to be a punk rock band. "They just took us as we were... They just looked at us as six individuals making music that is real and interesting to listen to."
Being used to seeing bands from New York City, the British were curious as to how and American group could come from a little town, she said.
Miss Merchant said she has friends in New York-based bands who are suffering financially because there are so many bands competing for dates "you have to beg the clubs to let you play."
They must rent a place in which to practice - "You have to guard your equipment with your life" - and because the clubs often do not pay well, they must get side jobs to pay for their apartments because the rents are so high. "And it just goes on," she said.
Miss Merchant said that the feeling in her music cannot exist in a New York background but that she can relax and be creative at home.
In London, she said, "The subways were immaculately clean, the streets didn't have trash all over them and they even cover up their graffiti. They will plaster over it."
Four singles are to be recorded and released in Great Britain first. "Britain is a singles market," Drew said. After this, the group is to tour England and other parts of Europe on the strength of the singles. Then "we'll see how it goes," before the album is released in Europe.
A date for an American release has not been set, he said.