Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard have spoken about their decision to remove their music from Spotify as an act of protest over the streaming giant's CEO investing in military drone tech.
Stu Mackenzie, the proflific Australian band's frontman, spoke to the LA Times in a new interview. He said his initial discovery of Ek's investment in investment in Helsing, a company specializing in A.I. software used in military operations and decision-making, came as “a bit of shock" and then the "feeling that I shouldn’t be shocked."
He went on to say that anti-Spotify sentiment is rife in music circles. "We’ve been saying fuck Spotify for years. In our circle of musician friends, that’s what people say all the time, for all of these other reasons which are well documented.”
Mackenzie admitted that had mixed feelings on making the band's music harder to access, though. “The thing that made it hard was I do want to have our music be accessible to people," he said. "I don’t really care about making money from streaming. I know it’s unfair, and I know they are banking so much. But for me personally, I just want to make music, and I want people to be able to listen to it. The hard part was to take that away from so many people.”
When asked whether he thinks the band's protest will make Ek or Spotify notice, Mackenzie replied: “I don’t expect Daniel Ek to pay attention to this. We have made a lot of experimental moves with the way we’ve released records — bootlegging stuff for free. We have allowed ourselves a license to break conventions, and the people who listen to our music have a trust and a faith to go along on this ride together. I feel grateful to have the sort of fan base you’ll just trust, even when you do something a little counterintuitive… Why does this have to be a big deal? It actually feels like we’re just trying to find our own positivity in a dark situation.”
King Gizzard are not the only band who have removed their music from Spotify in recent weeks. Both Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu have taken similar action, with Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart describing the platform as a "garbage hole violent armageddon portal" in a message to fans explaining his decision.
