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K.L.O.D. Interview entrevue! |
| Ernest Sewell
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I am pleased to introduce Ernest Sewell a very sympathehic radio announcer and avid independant artists supporter.
Hi and welcome to the ezine
Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.
How long have you been engaged in broadcasting or netcasting?
I just entered my second season of broadcasting on the internet this past April 2002. But I've long listened to internet radio station. I used to listen to a KISS FM station out of the UK a few years ago every morning. It was late afternoon in the UK, but it was still fun. I often listen to news and such on the web, either on the BBC or maybe MSNBC. In fact, I'm a little mad that the BBC pulled their video stream of BBC World News. Can someone call them for me? :-)
What criteria do you use to feature an artist?
Well their music has to really touch me or make me move outta my chair when I hear them. I listen to a lot of stuff, and being a musician myself, I really dig into people's music. But there are many things that just don't do it for me. And there are also artists that totally grab me the first time I hear them, and totally absorb their music. There are many artists who look good, and put out a pretty CD jacket, but when I play it, I'm 2 seconds away from throwing the CD out my window. It's those people that usually don't get played on the show.
When you are not doing radio what do you do for fun?
I read a lot. I just finished reading Sarah The Duchess of York's "My Story", and am reading a biography on a movie star right now. I love biographies and autobiographies. I read a lot about Salvador Dali as well. I love watching anything that's a documentary or the like on TV. I found myself watching some show on Pearls on PBS, just because I thought it was interesting. I also love antique shopping at flea markets, garage sales, etc. You never know what you'll find. One more guilty pleasure is that I still play my Atari 2600. I recently found a system for $5 US and have about 25 games. It makes me feel like a kid all over again.
What was the most "unexpected" interview you did?
Well I've done 3 interviews so far for the show, although I've talked to a lot of people away from the show. Dr. Fink kept me on the edge a lot. He was so funny during the interview, and has such a great sense of humor. His quirky persona onstage in the Revolution days and beyond certainly fits him. Prince was right to ask him to appeal to the goofy people in the audience. He's become a great friend since then, and we often keep the other laughing.
Is there someone you'd love to interview ?
Sheila E is one person I'd like to talk to. I've contacted her a couple of times. I would like to talk to Rosie Gaines actually, and I've heard from her. Morris Hayes from Prince's NPG is another. I love his playing style. Jill Jones would be another one. I don't think she ever got the attention she really deserved. And of course Prince. I'd like to talk to Janet Jackson sometime. I think she'd be cool to just hang out with, but I doubt I'll get that chance. But I can hope. I would also like to pick Tom Brokaw's brain about the stuff he's seen and been through. And oddly enough, I'd like to talk to Starr Jones. I know people will think that's odd, but I like her stance on many issues and subjects.
Your website contains a throve of information, do you do the design and maintenance yourself?
I do all the maintenance and design for my site. I've just learned web design by trial and error, and it's often a trial by fire. I never thought my personal site would grow into what it is now. I'm usually about 85% satisfied w/ my site, which means the other 15% keeps me constantly tweaking and touching things up. All the graphics on the page are created from scratch by me unless it's a news link or something like that.
Any special project you are working on now?
Not so much a project as trying to get a hold of Wendy Melvoin for an interview. I'm also trying to track down Brownmark. A constant ongoing project is the Radio show itself. I also do web design, so there are non-radio projects on my desk at any given time.
If you could see the future what would you like to see happening with the music scene?
I would like to see less of record company beaurocracy and more of the artists. Record companies can promote the heck out of an aritst, but then you realize you were cheated into buying something that was more production than actual talent. So many artists out today sell a lot of CDs, but you get them in front of a live audience w/ a microphone and no producer, and they can't carry themselves. A lot of that would be filtered out if an artist just did what they do best, and let the public decide. Let the record company tell people about them, and leave it at that. I think if record companies and their agreements with their artists changed a lot, we'd see less battles against things like Napster and Morpheus, and more things like Alanis, MeShell NDegeOCello and others giving out free music to encourage the listener to buy the whole CD.
The singles market is dead anyway, so downloading a song from Napster shouldn't be that big of an issue. It's a great way to sample an artists new work, and decide on buying it. I've never bought an album for just one song. Meshell has put out about 4 or 5 songs from her Cookie CD, and I'm still going to buy the whole thing. Same thing happened with Terrence Trent D'Arby and his Wildcard CD. You could download it, but he's reissued it with extra tracks, and I'd certainly buy it to support him as an indie artist. I think a lot of artists are wising up to the stronghold of record companies as whole, and will become more independent. This might very well put some record companies in the red and might eventually foretell their ultimate demise. It's about the music and the artist anyway, not an executive.
I would also like to see companies like TransWorld Entertainment and others try to justify to me why they just went UP by as much as $2 on their standard CD pricing. I don't believe that after the CD being on the market for roughly 15 years that it should still cost what it did back then. There's no logic to that, and the artists still don't get that much more when the price is raised. I'd rather give my money to them than some company. I think this sort of things stifles many artists in a lot of ways.
what is the most annoying thing some new artist do when contacting you?
Well I usually contact them first. But I don't like when they say they would love to do an interview, and then they just never come back around again. I don't feel like chasing someone down.
If you could bring back any dead artists, who would it be and what would be "the" question you would like answered?
I would ask Keith Green about his dedication. I would ask Michael Hutchence what was so bad that he thought suicide was the only way out. I would ask Jonathan Larson about his passion for music and the theater.
thank you for taking the time to answer my questions:-)
Thank you for having me. It was fun.
Give a listen to the show at:The Ernest Experience
you can contact Ernest Sewell by using the Contact page on his site.
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