Grizzly Bear say they are “losing money” despite “huge crowds” on current Australian tour
Grizzy Bear’s Australian tour kicked off last night in Adelaide, but according to frontman Ed Droste the band will be copping a hit financially to even be touring here at all.
Droste unleashed a rant on his Instagram story earlier this week, in which he addressed a number of issues he has with the current state of the music and touring industry.
Brooklyn Vegan captured screenshots of the now-deleted story, in which Droste described the industry as “fucked” and revealed that “despite huge crowds down under we are basically losing money”.
“People always ask: Why aren’t you coming to ’Perth’, ’Singapore’, ’Quito’… and I’m trying to explain there is no value put on live music anymore,” Droste said.
“We feel it’s important to bring with us the fullest show we can with all live instruments and a good light show. But now, when you cut out record sales and we haven’t had a car commercial in ages, we literally lose money.”
He went on to bemoan changes to the industry that are “destroying bands that play music that are mid tier or lower,” and the lack of value put into songwriting music in this day and age.
“Nobody cherishes or puts any value into the craft that goes into songwriting, or studying music! Yes pop stars write hits. Yay,” he said.
“They also get branding deals, and corp gigs… but when you are dealing with a dying industry and you actually care about a real live show and you aren’t a star, there’s not much you can do.
“I could go on forever but I won’t. Enjoy it while it lasts. I think we are about to enter a live music drought…”
In a later addition to the story, Droste clarified that he didn’t want any fans to feel bad after reading his words.
“This is not a reflection on any concert goer or fan,” he said. “The ticket prices are already absurd if you ask me.”
Grizzly Bear play in Adelaide again tonight, at Riverbank Palais, before playing shows at Melbourne Zoo, A Fest Called Panama, Golden Plains, the Sydney Opera House and QPAC.
After playing shows in New Zealand recently, a band on Grizzly Bear’s Twitter account said that they are “not sure we’ll ever be back.”