Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Posted by xCHIPxSEM | File under : ,
After posting the recent interviews with Rich Thurston (more to come), Mike Warden messaged me asking if he could respond to Rich's comments regarding Conquer The World Records and Culture. Since, quite often, many people have explained their side of the story when it comes to CTW, I thought "let's hear what Mike has to say for once". This is what Mike had to say about Rich's comment and again does not reflect how we at Stuck In The Past feel about Culture, CTW, or any of the parties associated with either.

Rich how come this lie has to permeate through the bands history 10 years later? Damien has already admitted that I did nothing wrong to you guys. I don't know how many times I have to say it but bands had a VERBAL contract I agreed to give all bands 10% of all pressings for FREE and that was it. I always gave bands 10% of the records and pressings the only times where there were delays in getting royalty copies is when I had demands for records and sometimes the mailings were delayed. You can ask John he always got his band copies even when it was only 50 records I was sending out. How many times do I have to explain this. We pressed 2,000 CDS and I made 2,000 COVERS for vinyls and I pressed records in bulk sections 500 here 500 there 300 on black if i remember. There were not even 2,000 culture 12"S pressed I had many covers left over. Labels did not right off the bat press 2,000 records but you got a price break on printing covers when you make x amount of covers. I did this all the time it was routine business with many labels. The answer why there were records popping up is because I had distributors everywhere not too mention over 500 copies went straight to CTWeurope in germany the guy who ran Green Hell Burkhard Junger. He paid me upfront for x amount of records which abled me to press the record up in the first place.
This label was never about money or any schemes or screwing bands over. I don't even care that maybe 3 bands claimed it once, 1 claimed it and they saw that the supposed "controversey" helped them sell records and gain a bigger following. It was my fault for being a nice guy so to speak, for not having any written contracts but this label was never business to me not in the strict sense. Thats why I never put out repetitive garbage or put out something just for the sake of selling mass amounts of records. Whatever I did with CTW I did from the heart. Being shit on and mistreated and shit talked when I put so much effort into helping you guys and other bands was really painful. Imagine that you put so much money and effort and personal interest into something and then just have it turn around and be a huge regret. This label to me was so personal it was like every record I did I was a part of the band.
I already said in another post that you know I apologize for the cover of the album born of you but I never even saw the covers until they arrived. That huge font was not my doing at that time Dave from oversight was doing my graphic designs for me for free and for experience with his design courses at college. Sometimes Ron Jasin would do my layouts IE Morning Again the cleanest war modeled after what Damient sent me. Ok I never claimed to be about the graphics I didn't fully grasp the entire artistic concept of covers and design etc. It wasn't my priority, as I wasn't a designer. I simply did the best I could.
I was always cool with the bands when it was in person you know that. The CD went out of press so fast and you guys screwed me over so fast I didn't have an interest to repress it even if it was going to sell more copies. I don't even have a copy of born of you on cd with the cover and packaging for myself at this time. Once the born of you goodlife bootleg came out I was devastated by what you guys put in there. I couldnt fucking believe what I was seeing with my own eyes. The only reason the goodlife version came out was edward wanted to make money and he didn't give a shit if he was bootlegging my records even though we were already close friends as I put out one of the Nations on fire records. He called me on the phone to tell me personally that he wanted to let me know that he was doing the record no matter what and that "since we were friends he thought he should at least let me know" OK. I had a european office handling all my distribution and promotions based in Germany why the hell did you think you needed another label to make a bootleg of my record? It was completely unnessecary and uncalled for. He didn't have permission to do that record in any way shape or form and since I had massive distribution in europe there was no need. Once edward pressed up the record my european office had a much harder time of selling the us copies because they were cheaper on good life. Once I pissed off the European office the labels financial stream went downhill as I had to deal with other us distributors not paying and all the shit talk going down from you guys and that whole boy sets fire bullshit fiasco. I still put out the records I wanted to put out years later but things were not the same in many regards. You know you tell me that I should just of gotten over it but it affected me so deeply when all you had to do was tell the truth. It was one huge lie.

-Mike Warden

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm just glad he had enough time to write this rebuttal, with his CTW mysapce promotion company in full swing and all

excuses, excuses

Anonymous said...

I understand where is is coming from here in some ways...I do think he may be placing the blame on tooooo many other people though. In my opinion hardcore should not be about greed (I know BLAH! BLAH!) but people are greedy and fuck each other over NO MATTER WHAT. It isn't right, but it happens. I think it is shitty the things that I hear about labels screw bands over... it totally makes you lose respect. It is sad. I remember hearing about all the BSF/JMN split stuff back when it happend and was sooooo upset that this guy, who was putting out records that I have been LOVING since I got into Hardcore was shitting on his own bands. It was heartbreaking. It was like having this great hero (not that I would ever call Mike a HERO) and having that hero be a dick to you...I think this is when I developed a fear of actually talking to bands after shows...I was afraid they would be dicks and ruin how i felt about their music...(I made the mistake to do that with converge about 10 yrs ago and haven't felt the same about them since). Not sure where I am going with all this, but I guess there are a few reasons this site is called stuck in the past....and by the way, did any one see the Thoughts of Ionesco dvd that came out a few years ago? I am pretty sure Mike was in there and by the looks of him he got what he deserved...

TreTillDeath said...

Mike gave me a test press of Born Of You in trade years ago. Anyone want to buy it?

Anonymous said...

That was so poorly wrote.

sg said...

what a bunch of pussies! seriously? how many fucking years later and you ladies are still bitching..

Anonymous said...

I wrote it off the cuff and I tend to ignore things like grammar and punctuation correctly.

The point was to actually get something on the record once and for all to squash all that bullshit from years ago.

- Mike CTW

AJ said...

I don't know you but there's a good chance I'll take your word over Rich Thurston's.

However, I also read something on you via Inside Front Issue #8 concerning a compilation 7" you screwed up for them. I tend to take accusations made by Brian D slightly more seriously than Rich Thurston. Any thoughts to share on this?

Keep in mind I could care less ... it is a mere curiosity issue.

Lars said...

Mike is sketchy as hell! It's sad that someone like him is responsible for two of my favorite records from my favorite era in hardcore. How many copies of Prison of Hope on blue and Cleanest War on clear do you have "in your closet" anyway? Fucking douche bag snipes all his own ebay auctions and then 2nd chance offers the highest bidder so no matter what, you pay your maximum bid and who wants to pay their maximum? When this happens to more people than myself and for more than one record in a single auction you bid on it's not just by chance that within the hour of it ending that you would know that all the "people" who bid on your records aren't going to pay. So you send a 2nd chance offer...fuck you. You cheapen what is still important to some people.

Mike CTW said...

I guess the fact that I have records in boxes laying around for 15 years is strange to people? I have a closet in my bedroom which was blocked by piles of clothes which had records in them. Is that strange to you? I AM AFTERALL THE PERSON WHO PUT OUT THE RECORDS AFTERALL. I have NEVER done anything wrong on my ebay sales. I'm selling all MY property I own to make money to live. I don't see how that is some kind of crime or bad thing. People want records I have so I list an sell them. I could of pressed 100 copies on purple and never sold a single copy until 20 years later if I wanted to as I am the record label and owner of all the masters. How is this strange? I saved a bunch of all of them. Fuck you back.

Mike CTW

Koda said...

Too funny...
Mike screwed my band back then too. and probably still is making money off of us.
That Culture records was awful looking...but a lot of CTW's release were.