Morrissey says he wants to find a label before he records his fully conceived new album rather than self-releasing. Releasing your own music is the route bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have taken for their most recent projects with notable success. Fans have the opportunity to pay what they’d like or select from a number of options starting at zero dollars up to pricey deluxe editions.
Pitchfork queried Morrissey on this possibility in an unedited interview.
Pitchfork: Considering you have a significant amount of name recognition, would you consider self-releasing an album a la Radiohead?
M[orrissey]: No. I don’t have any need to be innovative in that way. I am still stuck in the dream of an album that sells well not because of marketing, but because people like the songs.
Wait. What? Wouldn’t choosing to self-release the album be about concentrating on the merits of the music rather than what a label can do for you promotion- and marketing-wise? He continues on in the interview criticizing the way that labels operate these days due to the internet and fixed chart ratings. He’s also irked by the media only referring to him in terms of his Smiths history rather than his work since the band split in 1987. Well, there goes the mental image of Morrissey throwing on “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” and crying in a corner.
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