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8:31 · 1,596 words of transcript · watch on YouTube
- The whole saga fits in one calendar year: sign to a major, release a landmark record, cancel the tour, burn the advance in a luxury hotel, and leak the second album without permission.
▶ 00:00:28
- The trio got signed because Epic's VP of marketing Angelica Cobo-Baylor backed them off the free release Exmilitary, and they promised two albums before the end of 2012.
▶ 00:00:48
- They announced they were pulling out of the already-booked international tour before raising the idea with the label or the booking agency, and then got buried in emails threatening to end business relationships.
▶ 00:01:25
- They spent the next four months alone recording more than 20 tracks, cut down to the 13 that became No Love Deep Web.
▶ 00:01:59
- When they flew to Los Angeles to discuss a release date, their biggest advocate at the label had been let go and their project manager fired, so there was nobody left to meet.
▶ 00:02:36
- The meeting they eventually got happened in their departed advocate's stripped-out office, with nobody interested in hearing the record and no release date discussed.
▶ 00:02:56
- Their strategy came from Magic: The Gathering. They talked about a control deck, the idea of turning an opponent's own power against them.
▶ 00:03:32
- The Chateau Marmont was chosen as a symbol of the elitism they were fighting, and they moved in for two months, spending the entire album advance to mirror the people they were dealing with.
▶ 00:03:55
- Told the album would be held until sometime the following year rather than 23 October, they leaked it from their hotel room on 1 October, which is copyright infringement against their own label.
▶ 00:04:52
- The final break came on 31 October, when they posted Epic's confidential infringement emails to Facebook, and the label dissolved the relationship, which was the outcome they wanted.
▶ 00:05:10