One has to admire Nelly Furtado.
For, unlike many artists who willfully and skillfully erase any trace of their flop projects, the Canadian native is standing by her latest LP ‘The Spirit Indestructible’. This, despite the set selling just 6,000 copies first week in the US last September.
Having already opened up on the project’s performance (or lack-thereof), the 34 year old offers “interesting” insight on her career plans in the wake of the album’s sales in a new interview with the Times Colonist.
Full story after the jump…
Intriguingly, Furtado revealed that work has already begun on the follow-up to the ironically titled ‘Indestructible’ – stressing that it’ll be her last contractual obligation to current label Interscope.
Having been allowed to release 2009’s Spanish-language LP ‘Mi Plan’ independently on her own label Nelstar (thanks to a clause she insisted feature in her contract), the mother of one added that this is a route she plans to follow with future releases.
Excerpts from her interview below
“The choices I’ve made have helped me for the long term. Now, after this album, I can finally do whatever the heck I want to do. I can do a Portuguese album, or a Brazilian pop album, or another English album. Now I feel like I can truly do what I want to do. A bit of an exhale, I guess you could say.
My long-term goal is to be independent, quite frankly. I got quite spoiled doing Mi Plan, and in the context of my English projects, I’ve had a lot of creative freedom. It’s quite addictive, that creative independence. You start to crave it more and more as you move forward.”
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Granted the eclectic nature of Furtado’s sound could lend itself successfully to the Independent model, we reluctantly ask her to have an arena of seats. For, it’s oh so clear that she’s only spouting such lines due to her album bombing. Cynical sounding, perhaps, but the proof is in the figures.
Indeed, had she even sold 20,000 copies first week, there’d be some semblance of sense in her “independent” ambitions (low production costs, un-polluted sound and a touring focus could net her $$$ aplenty). However, selling 6000 copies with a major label machine and ample promo suggests there’s a bigger problem at hand; a fact which brings to light a prominent issue with the “I’ll just go independent” argument.
For, while going it alone can potentially line ones pockets up handsomely, if the public don’t care about your music, there’ll be no sales and ultimately no dollar-shaped pie to get a bigger slice of.
Food for thought.