THE EGROUP AND WEBSITE have worked really well in providing this interaction. You see, in the major part of the music industry, the manager works the artist and he keeps a veil in front of the audience. The veil is there for control. So, the way I work now, the manager has gone and I’ve formed a direct connection with the audience, and I think that’s a better level because the demi-god gets destroyed.
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In a way, you have to go through ego suicide, but if you throw that away then there’s a growth, and I think that’s what’s happening with egroups. Artists are starting to connect more with their audiences so you become one. It’s like a band really – there are no chiefs. I may be a catalyst for it, but there are many people within the group who are really talented and want to develop, and that’s the way I’ve worked with it. For instance, there’s a guy that does my artwork, there’s another lad that does my website. So we just work like a team.
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I remember when people used to come to my gigs in the ‘80s, there’s always a tour manager that gets in the way of that relationship with the audience, but that’s not there anymore. I think that whoever plays the music and the listener can get to connect in a way that wasn’t allowed before. And it’s on a smaller, microcosmic level. There’s a lot of wealth in that as well.
Many of the projects that I’m working on now have grown through just being open and allowing other people to have a go at doing things. For instance, I’m going to do a tour in Ireland in a few days’ time, and I’m going to tour Australia in October, and this is all through just being on a clear path where you’re not cocooned.
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 | | 'Haint of the Budded Rose' CD by Martin Stephenson and friends from North Carolina |
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Dolph had phoned me up in about 1989 when I was living in Tynemouth and he left a message on the answering machine saying [Martin puts on a North Carolinian accent] “My name is Dolph. I’m a tennis player. I want to come over to England and get my foot in the door in music – I’ll even carry your guitar cases for you…” – and that freaked me out! At first I thought it was a mate winding me up, so I just erased the message. And then about four years ago he got in touch again, and I found out that we had a common interest in old-time string music and bluegrass, and we actually just started interacting through email, and we spent six months planning this musical journey.
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He wanted to show me North Carolina and to make a connection with finger-picking and all that stuff, so I just trusted him and went with it. So, really, it was the same thing … you know, he was an Echo and the Bunnymen fan who’d stumbled across my album and it just came from that. Again nothing to do with the business - just enthusiasm for music. We started off playing porches and ice cream parties and just travelling around with a minidisc recorder. And it’s just grown from that, and now he’s started his own label and he’s got other artists, so he’s actually finding a life in music now. He’s become my main man in the States now. He’s a good soul, and a friend.
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