Legendary singer Billie Ray Martin (Electribe 101, collaborator with DJ Hell and Slam) returns with The Crackdown Project, an hommage to cult DIY-electro band Cabaret Voltaire. Interview below:

Hi Billie, please could you let us know a bit more about The Crackdown Project? When did you start working on it?
It all happened quite quickly. I wanted to give the classic Cabaret Voltaire album ‘The Crackdown’ a new life. It had been such a groundbreaking album in dance and electronic music and I felt it never got the attention it deserved. Also I had met Mal from Cabaret Voltaire years ago and we had wanted to work together. Then I came across Märtini Brös’ music and was a fan. I stalked them and told them that they simply had to produce my Crackdown version. How could they refuse. I can be persistent. Then Lusty Zanzibar came onboard. I had chatted with him and he revealed that he was a massive Cabs fan. Then the entire remix team from Audio Porn Central’s blog became available to mix and when I heard what they did my jaw dropped. It was more than I had ever dreamed of achieving with this project. All in all the whole thing happened very quickly in the end. Märtini Brös and I and Lusty started working on in in the summer of 2009.

The Crackdown Project is available on digital only: do you think there’s no more space now for a physical release?
I think there is. Especially as I’ve been around for a while, so in that sense am an old school artist, where fans will buy the cd. But I could not afford production of a cd so it’s purely digital for this one. In the future I will evaluate whether any given release that I put out warrants the cost of physical cd production. The Opiates album, which comes out next for instance, lends itself very well to a cd release as well as digital so I am hoping to both. People have already been asking for cd’s of this and my other new releases.

You decided to do a partnership with torrent-site Mininova.org, why? Could you let us know more about this?
I wanted to get maximum attention for my release. I just saw that I have 10′000 downloads there now so it seems to have worked. The ‘traditional channels’ of promotion no longer really grant results, as music has become so disposable. I wanted to make use of a process that I perceive as very ‘democratic’ in terms of you make music available without anybody stopping you or telling you that it’s no good, meanwhile reaching people instantly and directly. I felt that mininova could give me that opportunity.

As a digital only release you are avoiding a lot of costs like manufacturing CDs, promotional costs, etc. Do you know how much money you are saving?
A cd production will cost you maybe 1000 euros. So I’m saving that but I’m not saving on promotional cost. I pay for full dj promotion, press promotion etc… the more money you spend on those the better you’re results will be. Having said that the traditional print press and even some big online press publications are almost as slow as major record companies now, i.e. they only react if something is already hyped etc… or if it fits into their ideas of hipness or will give them revenue, making them much too slow to react. So on press promotion I guess it might be more effective to contact online publications and blogs yourself. It’ll depend on the result one looks for.

Is it also important for you to use digital services to have a smaller impact on the ecology of the planet?
I actually have not thought of it in that way. Everything we do uses the resources of the planet and messes it up. To do digital releases you buy computers, hard-drives etc… basically a multitude of eco-unfriendly devices manufactured by exploited humans in China and supporting one of the worst governments on the planet. I generally try to use eco-friendly materials wherever they are offered. When it comes to manufacturing vinyl or cd’s I have to work with materials and processes that are available and just hope that I can make up for it in other ways.

Internet has changed a lot of things in the music business: faster communication, new way to monetize music but also piracy. For your experience what are the pros and cons?
They’re been discussed a lot recently and over the last years. I’m not sure if I can add anything. Pro’s for me are the instant access to an audience. I really am having fun communicating with everyone.
Cons are spoiled lazy kids who won’t get off the sofa to buy music. Websites like Spotify and Last.fm who kill music by throwing unlimited stuff at people for free and not paying artists in return.

How internet and the new media had changed your way of working as an artist? How do you use it on a day to day basis?
We all make music in computers, through computers, with computers….It’s a laborious way of working. I have yet to find out how to reach any kind of spontanaety. More and more tracks in my field of music now sound sub-standard and mechanical cause they were created by people miles apart sending e-mails to each other. The entire inspirational thing of people in the same room is gone.
Even when in the same room with someone, the moment you want to put an idea down or share one, the other person might have to deal with technical issues within the computer or spend an hour getting the right plug-in up, by which time you’ve either fallen asleep or will have lost any kind of idea what it was you wanted to do.
On the other hand I’m glad I can edit, master, create music, record vocal in my appartment. It does give you freedom.
I have noticed that I spend too much time doing admin and promotion and not enough time making music. It is an ongoing task to upload your content onto websites. I have 2 assistants but still I spend hours every day promoting, sending, uploading…..

How do you keep contact with your fans? Through your site, community sites…?
I keep in contact with my fans on every single networking and music site, as well as through my newsletter.

Billie Ray Martin: The Crackdown Project – Sold out to disco vol.1 feat. Stephen Mallinder, Märtini Brös and Lusty Zanzibar is available through JUNO and all digital outlets worldwide.

Watch Billie Ray Martin – The Crackdown (Phil RetroSpector remix)
Visit Billie Ray Martin website
Visit Billie Ray Martin Fairtilizer profile