(Original on farmenas.com)
This is the official press report from Farmen as a reply to this report on www.kaizers.no (translation here), that was also the topic of some press articles/interviews (tv2.no, vg.no).In connection with Kaizers Orchestra member Geir Zahl's statements in the newspapers last Friday it is necessary to come up with some corrections.
Before we balance the picture that was created on Friday, it must be underlined that Farmen has not been Kaizers Orchestra's record company for over 18 months now, as our contract with the band was concluded with the release of "Evig Pint" (February 2003).
First of all, the statements that are referred to are incorrect; Remo Rehder has at no time stated that he either earns or loses money by Kaizers' tour activity. In that, Farmen and Remo Rehder have never been involved in. In connection with the interview done with the Rogalands newspaper, Rehder was asked about Kaizers' tour activity. Remo Rehder there referred to Eivind Brydøy, who unfortunately was on vacation. Yet, Remo Rehder chose to explain the situation for the mentioned journalist on behalf of Eivind Brydøy, describing how costly it is to have 12 people on tour in Europe. The reference to salary did not apply to the artists' salary, but rather to the whole crew who definitely gets a salary. Whether the whole group stays in a nightliner, youth hostel or hotel is unessential - this costs money no matter what. The answer to the journalist was given to assist both manager and journalist - as both, in the role of music journalist and friend of the band, should know how the business works.
On Kaizers Orchestra then choosing to use quotations which they know are wrong we will not speculate here.
On the other hand, we will take on and answer to their statements on tour support. Tour support is something that record companies exceptionally give to their artists under given circumstances, where the record company depends on having the band on tour so that records can be sold. That way, it is regarded as an alternative marketing strategy. For a band to receive such support must be clarified in advance and not less be accepted by the record company. This was not the case when Kaizers Orchestra presented a not insignificant bill to Farmen after the tour in February/March 2004, even though it was explained to them earlier that we didn't wish to use more money than necessary when they didn't wish to negotiate about future projects. The situation we are in, in other words, is that Kaizers Orchestra come with a bill to their earlier record company without this having been discussed or accepted beforehand.
Everbody with a little economic understanding will avoid putting money into a project where one doesn't get anything back. Farmen doesn't wish to use much money on Kaizers Orchestra when the band itself makes the impression that they don't wish to continue the cooperation with Farmen any longer (which by itself is acceptable). This bill they should rather serve to the one who takes them over, as that company both should be interested to set the basis and has the economic backbone to cover this.