Francoise: Can I talk about the – if you’re with – ‘cause I look at now, we are what it takes to make in this world. I mean the world, I think –

Mathieu Drouin: I’ll let you know when we make it.

Francoise: Yeah. But basically I think that if I wasn’t in this with Matt, it would be a lot harder because it’s something that you really have to – you give everything for what, for the dream that you’re about to develop. And we’re working 18-hour days. And it’s a good thing that we’re side by side doing it. It’s a good thing that we’re both in it and we both love it. Because I try and picture if I was doing something else that was more of a nine-to-five, which it was at one point, which is why I came into this.

It’s hard because it’s something that a very few people get that passion and that. And it’s a 24/7 job when you’re managing artists. When you’re – it’s getting a phone call in the middle night: “I lost my passport, we have a border crossing what do I do? Can you fax the papers over to the border?” And it’s stuff that, it’s not rocket science. It’s life. It’s everyday life with an artist that has a life on the road.

And it’s something for someone who’s not in it themselves really hard to understand. You go to a birthday dinner for your grandmother, your cell phone needs to be on. It’ll be on vibrate in your purse, but if you’ve got a band on the road, if you got a band in the studio, you need to be there. And it’s really for people that aren’t in it to get that. It’s like you should be able to turn it off; it’s a job. Actually, no, it’s more of a lifestyle; it’s a choice we made and it’s something that you go into it, I think, saying this is our life.

The way Branson said life has to be fun. You wake up everyday and you make it happen. I think that –

Mathieu Drouin: Some people say don’t mix business with pleasure but maybe it’s a policy.

Francoise: Yeah. With us –

Mathieu Drouin: But is that our approach or is it that critical to success? I think it is.

Francoise: I think it is very critical to success.

Mathieu Drouin: I think it is critical to success on one level in this business, especially in an independent music business. You, okay, I’m gonna, ‘cause we don’t have a lot of time and –

What is critical in no particular order in my view in terms of succeeding in the music business or in the independent music scene, in particular. With the caveat that we’ve had some success before but we’re trying this now and who knows if I’m actually right.

I think (1) you can’t risk adverse. And you can say that from the standpoint of somebody who has a little bit of money who’s sinking it all in to something that’s a very uncertain investment. But you can also look at it from the point of view of you can make a lot of money. And God knows I hope to make a lot of money. But you can’t be going into it because you wanna make money. Because it’ll lead you to make – the fact of the matter is it’s oxymoronic but it’s the music business and those are very two counterintuitive notions.

Doing what’s best to further the cause of art, which to ultimately is necessary to make it successful and monetize it properly is often very counterintuitive. And what is the best business decision with respect to making that art successful and profitable is often counterintuitive to what is, just strictly speaking, the best business decision to make, all things being equal in another circumstance. So don’t be risk adverse. Definitely understand all the aspects of the business otherwise you’ll get screwed partially because the music industry is a dirty business on a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot levels.

Francoise: .

Mathieu Drouin: And partially because there are people who are really great human beings in the music industry who maybe don’t even know themselves how all the deals work. But the standard industry contracts in different incarnations are easy to change in your favor but they’re structured by default, in a commonly accepted way, in not the most favorable manner.

So if you don’t understand where the dollar starts and where it goes and how it gets broken down and siphoned around it’s really hard to protect your downside. So don’t be risk adverse ‘cause it’s a risky business. But definitely mitigate your risk by understanding, not just from a business side, where the money is coming from and how the deals work and how the money gets made and who’s taking a piece along the way. And that’s from the business side of things, be willing, like Fuzz said, it’s a way of life a lot of the time.

How do find artists? Through the network of people you have to – there’s a scene of people who exist in this world and I’m sure there are different scenes around the world. And especially the Internet, they’re connected. But you have to you can’t sit on the sidelines. You have to watch. You can’t just watch; you have to be a part of what’s going on in order for the opportunities to flow to you.

And then from an artistic standpoint, even though I say at the outset, that that’s, I’m not, I’m maybe selling myself too short even. But I’m not the music guy or the artistic guy in it. Be honest. Be honest about what your strengths are and what you can bring to the table for an artist. What they can look to you for and what they can’t.

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