Von seinem Blog:
Jens LekmanListen to this: Rappers Delight Club – When We Were Kids
I forgot to mention this. Maybe you’ve already heard it. I love it, I’m thinking maybe I should sample it to twist it around once more. The sampling is almost incestuous, ha ha. Like a Pop Mise en Abyme.
Anyway, this brings me to the darkest territory of my heart at the moment. Sample laws. Can anyone come up with something more retarded ? Here’s my philosophy: If I sample something that is in any way recognisable, I think it’s fair to ask for permission, credit the source and pay them a percentage of my record sales. But I can’t do that because when you clear a sample you have to pay for 100.000 to a million copies in advance. Clearing the samples for my new record has been estimated to cost at least $400.000. I would be in debt for the rest of my life. So I’m left with two options: risking it or replacing them.
Risking it gives me dandruff. 20 years from now they can come knock at my door. And something tells me they will if things keep going in this direction. The message from the court is plain and simple: „Get a license or do not sample. We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way.“ This was back in 2005, when Bridgeport Music Inc. managed to eliminate the de minimis doctrine. Since then I’ve heard rumours of software being developed with the sole purpose of identifying samples, no matter how small, hidden or unidentifiable. There’s money to be made by suing artists and Bridgeport and others have made it their business. So I don’t know about risking it.
Replacing them is also out of the question. The beauty of the collage technique is that you’re using sounds that have never met and were never supposed to meet. You introduce them to each other, at first they’re a bit shy, clumsy, staring at their shoes. But you can sense there’s something there. So you cut and paste a little bit and by the end of the song you can spot them in the corner, holding hands. The magic is in the mistakes, the scratches and dust from the vinylrecord, the echo from something that happened a few bars ago and most importantly the new context in which they are placed.
I hate to say it but most of all I’m upset with my recordlabel Secretly Canadian. It was two weeks ago now that they said „Hey, we just had a meeting and decided that you’re gonna have to remove all the samples“. I love those guys and I’ve really enjoyed working with them and want to continue doing so. I also understand their concern. But they come up with this NOW ? When the record is already finished ?
I’m scared this record would become my own Chinese Democracy, eternally delayed or never released. So I’m gonna take a little while to figure this out and if I can’t find a solution I’ll just put the songs up here and move on. I have a lot of stuff to do cause when I was a teenager I went to a fortune teller who told me I would die young.