The Stunning DANGEROUS
Sharing your music for free is
The Stunning took to the studio last year to re-imagine and re-record songs from their 1992 album Once Around The World. Not every song from the original made the cut. Some, singer Steve Walls says, they’d fallen out of love with and other songs he had written in the intervening years felt much more in keeping with The Stunning in 2018 than circa ’92.
Twice Around The World is the net result, and the ‘new’ album will be available at venues on the extensive Irish tour on which they’ve just embarked. It didn’t stop Wall from getting an attack of the nerves the day the latest album appeared at The Stunning’s HQ.
‘On the morning we took delivery into our studio of a huge pallet of CDs and vinyl records and I just thought “my God, are these going to sell?”’ he laughs. ‘These days you sell most of your albums at gigs, so we actually left one of the inside panels on the artwork blank, so we can sign autographs after the gigs.’
Steve and his brother Joe formed The Walls after The Stunning originally split in the early Noughties and they saw no conflict in re-visiting material from those years for The Stunning treatment. The decsion to tour and record is a testimony to the fans that have remained loyal to the band made up of members from Mayo, Galway and Donegal. But Wall says the band has to curb their natural inclination to play every night of the week.
‘Nowadays bands like us can only really play a town or area once a year, if you play more than that, people will just say “yerra, sure they’ll be back around. I can catch them next time”. Another thing is how to make enough money at each gig for a tour to be viable.
‘We thought that €28 a ticket was a fair price, but we were having arguments with venue owners who were saying that it was too expensive. We’re a seven-piece band with a three-person crew. We didn’t think that €28 was a lot of money. The prices being charged for tickets for so-called “heritage acts” like Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and the like are now humongous.’
Wall is also vocal on what he says are the minuscule payments that companies such as Spotify and YouTube pay to artists for use of their music. ‘Musicians coming into the business have become accustomed to their music being shared for free and that’s dangerous,’ he says. ‘Spotify contend that they are losing money, I would say that’s because of the massive wages and bonuses they pay to their executives.’
Wall, who also has a successful career as an actor will be seen in a biopic of legendary jazz musician Chet Baker called My Foolish Heart this year. He has also appeared in Moone Boy, the TG4 drama An Klondike and a host of other films and TV dramas. It’s something he loves, but the sporadic terms of employment frustrate his inclination to ‘just get out there and do it.’
He says: ‘You can turn an album around so much quicker than do a film... Mind you I say that The Stunning are the slowest in the world with our albums and doing stuff but we’re out doing it right now.’
The Stunning play the Theatre Royal Waterford tonight. See thestunning.net for details of upcoming shows. Twice Around The World is out now.
‘We thought €28 a ticket was fair, but we were having rows with venue owners’