Below is a short Q & A taken from a much larger interview with Todd P. You’ll hear and read more from Todd in an updated video and a larger magazine-style piece, but take a look here at some memorable thoughts from the man himself:
Todd P is quite possibly the busiest and most influential purveyor of underground music in New York City. Through word of mouth, Myspace and his own website, Todd promotes, books, and personally sets up music shows all over Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens – in clubs, galleries, and in some cases, living rooms. Originally from Texas by way of Oregon, he’s been putting on DIY shows for years, but sees the New York music scene, with it’s commercially driven mega clubs, as his greatest enemy, and is trying to bring music back to it’s roots as a communal gathering. Averaging about a half dozen shows a week, he’s beating the music industry juggernaut at its own game by giving the bands more of the door profit and by eliminating the physical (and psychological) barriers between artist and audience.
So how many shows did you do this week?
I did eight in the last seven days. But I usually don’t do this many.
How many different venues, in general, do you operate in?
It varies all the time, I couldn’t give you an exact number, but I’d say on average, it’s about four or five different places that are at my disposal at any given time.
How do you get into contact with them?
It varies a lot in terms of how – people approach me or I approach them. Usually, they approach me. I find that I’m in a much better position to get a good deal for the band if the people are like-minded, when they approach me as opposed to me approaching them.
So when you say like-minded, what do you mean by that?
I mean like-minded in terms of the ideals. You know, not just out to make a big buck as quickly as possible. There’s nothing wrong with somebody making money, I mean, they’re putting their space at risk, and it’s a lot of work. I’m not anti-capitalist or anything.
I mean, ethics are important. Anyone who’s focused on making money at someone else’s expense, I’m not interested in. I don’t have a problem with making money – I just have ethics. When the Quakers came to this country, a huge religious movement once (still exist, now they call themselves the Friends) they had a concept called a fair profit. They don’t believe that you should make more than, I want to say, a 7 percent profit off any endeavor. I’m not going to commit to some number, but I do think it’s important that nobody milk their client base – the crowd, the community. It doesn’t serve you. I think a smart, like-minded venue owner will understand that they’ll make more in the long run by being a quality place, by actually supporting and appreciating the music that happening there. [One that] doesn’t try and overcharge and take money. And also more importantly understands that the answer to any question should always be yes and not no. Can we use this room for this purpose? If your knee-jerk reaction in response to any request is no instead of yes, I’m not interested in working with you – anybody who’s just looking at it more as a transaction. It’s a community event, it really should be seen as something that’s art, and it should be revered as that.
This ethos that you’re talking about, is it something that carries over with the bands as well?
Yeah, I mean, they don’t have to. But if you’re more interested in making a bunch of money and showing up two minutes before your set and leaving two minutes after, then I don’t like you, I don’t like you at all.
How do you feel about bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Animal Collective? How do you feel about bands getting to that next level?
You can’t control how popular you get and you certainly shouldn’t try and hinder your popularity. I support both those bands, I think they’re both made of sweet people who are trying to be supportive of those who aren’t as lucky as they are. I don’t have a problem with people getting rich, I don’t have a problem with people getting famous, but I do have a problem with people milking situations, or taking their audiences as fools.
Do you encounter that a lot?
Not a lot, because I make a point of avoiding it, but certainly it does exist a lot. A lot of people think of it as a get-rich-quick scheme, which is silly. I mean it’s really funny, because the likelihood that you’re going to get rich off of music, or even get recognition off of music is as likely as somebody playing in a high school football team being a professional quarterback. It’s pretty unlikely.
How do you consider the New York scene compared to other places that you have been?
Why am I in New York? The opportunities are great here, it’s a challenge – the alternatives are very stark here. The things that we’re up against – the commerciality and the capitalism, it functions and it succeeds better here than anywhere else, which means it’s more of a formidable opponent. If I’m trying to fight art saturated by commercialism, there is no place in the world where that is more effective, where it works better – like, they’re winning – than here. New York is the center of global commercial culture, and I think it’s important to engage that situation on its own turf. It’s a monopoly, and it should be debugged and attacked. That’s why it’s important to say, even here, even where you see all around you these people who have gotten really rich, even here the best shit is falling to the bottom and being ignored.
