In this interview, I shed light on Nashville based Freedom Tracks Records. We chat about music consumption preferences, the latest project, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We are based in Nashville and have released 5 CD’s, with three more currently in production. The goal of our music is to educate, inform and inspire people to think for themselves and act in positive ways for the betterment of their society. While our music is quite diverse, the lyric content is more like radio used to be in the 60’s and 70’s, when radio was less controlled by corporations and more open to diverse opinion views. A band biography can be found here: http://freedomtracks.com/nashvillesessionplayers.html
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
Human rights and fighting human oppression long has been and unfortunately, apparently will long continue to be a significant local, national and global issue.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Actually, our current release, Trumpty Dumpty, is similar in many ways to our past releases, including “Who Would Jesus Bomb?” and “Homeless In America”.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Marketing is always expensive and difficult for small independent labels. Another problem is, we often fail to get paid what is due us from ASCAP and BMI, both of which often fail to pick up indie and foreign radio spins. The reason we know this is because Sound Exchange picks up considerably more spins than they do and, so does CD Baby.
What was the last song you listened to?
John Prine’s latest CD.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Doesn’t matter to me, what a song has to say is in large part, what matters to me, regardless of format or genre.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
We’ve probably earned more from Spotify than the rest.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Anything else before we sign off?
We appreciate your interest and, I encourage every songwriter to not be afraid to stand up for what the personally believe within the lyrics of their songs, regardless of what publishers, labels or “radio-heads” think. The best songwriting is focused on inspiring people, making people think and causing people to act in positive ways, rather than making money, which I personally consider to be a shallow, immature and ignorant goal for a songwriter to focus on.
