Thoughts about the music business

[papajohnny]

Metal fans being the most exclusive in their taste - I wonder how much of the metal fandom is compromised out of close-minded assholes. In my personal experience, 95%.



As far as the Solstafir thing is concerned, yes, Adalbjorn comes of as being sort of a douchebag. A gigantic one at that. Stabbing a knife in your friend's back after quarter of a century of being best pals is not nice. Then again, I wonder what Gudmundur did to have the rest of the band come after him like this. Seems to me this is another case of a band which doesn't work well while touring. Studio recording and occasional gigs are fine, but once you're stuck in the same van with the same people for several months in the row, I guess things can turn for the worse. AFAIK, Solstafir's tour supporting Otta is the first really big tour they did, so that could be for the blame.
Regardless the reason, Solstafir will never be what it was until now. I can't imagine that band without Gudmundur. His contribution was immense.

 

[Luoto]

Metal fans being the most exclusive in their taste - I wonder how much of the metal fandom is compromised out of close-minded assholes. In my personal experience, 95%.

Gets even funnier when you think about what kind of taste most of the recognised musicians tend to have.

 

[tuonelan]

And since I have not said anything about the Sólstafir situation; it's a real shame that it's happening the way that it is. I don't know enough about what has happened to make a fair judgment, but I can say that I'm not going to buy any more Sólstafir merch until I'm sure that Guðmundur is getting his fair cut of the design proceeds. Whether or not he's in the band, if he designed the artwork, he should be paid like any other artist the band uses.

 

[papajohnny]

^

Pretty much sums up my thoughts. Not that I'm big on Solstafir stuff (I only have one CD), but I was planning on ordering their older albums as well as a T-shirt. Those plans are scrapped right now.

 

[tuonelan]

Sólstafir's official response (via Facebook).

It is with great pain but quiet respect, that we are making this official statement to inform you that for personal reasons beyond reconciliation, Sólstafir and Guðmundur "Gummi" Óli Palmasson have parted ways indefinitely.

There are always two sides to every story. No one knows the whole story other than those directly involved. As is the case in any relationship, all parties play their roles in creating and ending it. Both parties have their versions, and often at times, the point gets lost along the way, buried in emotions.

The bottom line is, Guðmundur is no longer in the band, because of a deep personal conflict that involves all three remaining members and cannot be solved. He is well aware of this.

The decision to part ways was absolutely not something that happened overnight, and we are genuinely pained by the way things have turned out. If the three of us had felt there was any way of mending the damage and moving forward with Guðmundur, then of course we would have - and we did make genuine efforts to do so. That is the reason for our silence. Waiting so long to make a statement was wrong on our part, and for that, we apologize. There are so many personal levels to this split. It has been very difficult to find the words while still respecting our individual privacy, Guðmundur's included.

Despite what we have read that appears to have been written in anger, bitterness, and seemingly spite, we continue to hold no ill will toward Guðmundur and sincerely want to thank him for all of his hard work and being such a huge part of the band for all these years. We acknowledge this fact every day and of course, he will receive his fair share. There was never any intention not to do this. We will never forget his role in Sólstafir, which is why we remain silent about the reasons now and in the future. We can only hope you respect and understand this.

Sólstafir will continue as a three piece with a session percussionist, just as we have since January of this year. We hope to see you all on the road and can only ask for your continued support.

With much love and respect,
Sólstafir

 

[papajohnny]

They pretty much said nothing there, pure diplomatic talk. It's good to know that Gummi will receive his share though (if we are to take their words for truth).

 

[tuonelan]

Band breakups are like divorces in many ways. Just because one side complains loudly and in detail and the other is asking for privacy and space does not mean that the one doing all the talking is telling anything like reality. Not to say that Gummi is lying. I don't know. I know that if it were me involved, I'd be taking the band's approach to things. And Gummi says he's done plenty of shit himself in this, he's just not sharing those details in public like he is the rest of this.

Fuck it. It's their business, not mine.

 

[papajohnny]

I take Gummi's words with a grain of salt too. And in the end, I don't particarly care either. Reading what he wrote for the first time did make me feel...sad? A bit maybe. But that's about it.

We will see how this goes on.

 

[Eurynome]

Over the years, I've witnessed The Male Northern Metal Artist's Way Of Unilaterally Terminating Employment from varying degrees of distance in too many instances to be particularly surprised with this case. That within less than half a year of the original events both sides already admit in their public statements the possibility of their own respective behavior falling short of being exemplary is in fact, compared to the average flow of proceedings, a major victory for communication.

While my personal sympathies at this point sway more towards Gummi, I won't judge the others too harshly or assume that Addi is the only black sheep in the flock. Apparently major fuckups have occured on both sides, and so far I only know what's written on the internet. Can't say I'm not curious, though. I suspect that at their gig next month, which in spite of all the drama I'm still very much looking forward to, I'll end up paying less attention to the band than to the reactions of the audience, a large part of which will know the guys in person and presumably share blood relations with more than one of them.

 

[tuonelan]

Yeah, Eury, I hear that. Not much in the Nordic male psyche has changed since the days of the Icelandic sagas. Read more than a few of them and all these band breakups start to sound familiar.

Njal's Saga

In this case Gummi is playing the part of the outsider with poor connections to the chieftain and Addi is the one who has shield brothers and support at the Thing.

 

[Eurynome]

Njal's Saga

Now how cool is that. I was about to borrow that very book (Tuuri's Finnish translation, that is) from the Pasila library on my next visit there, but the English online version will do just fine, thank you sir! Gotta browse the Gutenberg database in earnest some day - I've long been aware of its existence but never got around to actually checking it out.

I wish I had so much more time for reading...

 

[tuonelan]

Lots of good stuff at Gutenberg.

I very nearly took a stab at being an Old Norse scholar, but got a better financial aid offer from another graduate school.

Funny, I teach writing and use literature in my classes all the time and I don't have enough time for reading either.

 

[tuonelan]

Sólstafir's Saga is taking another turn for the worse. Gummi is suing for control and trying to have Aðalbjörn removed, which is the equivalent of trying to destroy the band. At this point I just want a judge to order a settlement, pay off Gummi, and close the whole matter so the band can move on.

 

[xptrinity]

Oh, FFS! Enough of this shit already!
If Gummi wants $$$$, let him have it and just get on with music. This increasingly looks like an extremely nasty divorce.
I don't know the whole story, but it seems Gummi is not the nice guy here.

 

[papajohnny]

Can you give me links to these recent developments? I'm to lazy to look it up, to be frank, though as far as I recall, Gummi seemed like a victim to me. He sure painted himself like that, but from what I've read in general, other guys aren't particularly nice.

As far as I care though - I actually stopped caring. These kind of "divorces", as Trin calls them, really make me cringe and give me that bad feeling of not wanting to hear artist's music - I play the CD and instead of immersing myself in the music all I can think of is this kind of crap.



Edit: Nevermind, found the news. Doesn't look like Gummi is doing anything wrong.

 

[xptrinity]

Well, Gummi, via a court decision, apparently sacked Aðalbjörn from the Svalbard whatever company. Fine by me. - It's just the dissolution of a company, or whatever it is called in legalese. Nothing more. Now what? It seems that one party must pay the other party for their half of the former partnership and acquire the rights to the business, name, etc. Like I said, just pay Gummi and get it over with.
I am not taking sides, I don't know the details and I don't care as long as Solstafir continue to make wonderful music.
Music history has seen nasty divorces on much grander scale, TBH. Usually they end with (lots of) money changing hands.
On another hand, I don't find it very ethical to register https://solstafirofficial.wordpress.com/ if you're not part of this band anymore...

 

[tuonelan]

Story was linked on Metal Storm news.

Whether or not Gummi has been wronged (and how the hell should I know about that) I think that all this public bitching is damaging to everyone involved and Gummi has to know it.

I know that bands have gone through worse, but I worry that these guys are small enough that any big financial blow could sink them, or at least set them back fairly badly.

Purely selfish here. I want to hear more music from them. I don't care about the personal stuff.

 

[Eurynome]

Well, Gummi, via a court decision, apparently sacked Aðalbjörn from the Svalbard whatever company. Fine by me. - It's just the dissolution of a company, or whatever it is called in legalese. Nothing more. Now what? It seems that one party must pay the other party for their half of the former partnership and acquire the rights to the business, name, etc. Like I said, just pay Gummi and get it over with.
I am not taking sides, I don't know the details and I don't care as long as Solstafir continue to make wonderful music.

Couldn't agree more. Hope Gummi got his cat back though, whatever personal or business reason it ran away for...

 

[xptrinity]

So, Solstafir have finally spoken out on the matter:

As you probably all know we have not been on good terms with Guðmundur Óli since his departure from the band last year. Things have gotten ugly and now we face a terrible fight through lawyers. I will not get into any details but ask you all to bear in mind an old Icelandic saying: "Sjaldan veldur einn þá tveir deila." Translation: "The fight of two is rarely the fault of one."

Gummi now has a new song out with his new project, Katla. Despite the fact that we have not spoken in a year it made me glad. After all we were best of friends for decades and even if things are turning out to be ugly this is important to me. Gummi is at his best when he is making music and I want him to be well.

I know that discussions might get very lively now. I have decided not to comment on a single thing. Instead I will think positively about Gummi and his new project, hoping that we can settle things in peace sooner than later.

Check it out, it’s a very cool song.

AT

 

[Eurynome]

Sjaldan veldur einn þá tveir deila."

Brought a smile to my face - that's the Icelandic equivalent to what my mom would always tell my brother and me when we were quarreling as kids... Unexpected and nice to see this come from Addi, I hope we're allowed to interpret this as a first step into a more conciliary direction. And yeah, thumbs up for Katla.