Beauty and the Bureaucracy
Massarella says he read through the contract while Red Red Meat was finishing up its most recent record, in May 1996. He says, “I walked right into the control room and said, ‘You guys, we’re idiots if we sign this thing.’” Although the label had assured the band that some troublesome matters could be dealt with later, it bothered Massarella that the contract still referred to the band as Red Rex Meat, and that Treat & Release had exclusive rights to distribute the record everywhere in the world. “I told Rex the same thing, but everyone wanted to sign. Not wanting to be a party killer I went ahead and signed it.”
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Massarella says that even after dealing with several labels between them, Rex and Red Red Meat are still naive about the music industry. “We just don’t know how to do business with record-label people,” he says. “This project was so much based on what the real beauty of playing music is for us. We had so much fun. It’s eye-opening when you put that against the experience of dealing with that bureaucracy. It’s the total opposite of what you’re making music for. It really brought the whole thing down.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Loftus photo by Brad Miller.
