***Disclaimer: this message is Jon's view only and not necessarily that of the band as a whole. I believe the others would agree with all I say here but just in case they don't I'm covering my tracks. Maybe you'll hear from them later. JT**


Hello out there all of you,

How is everybody? We're fine as we travel through Utah this lovely afternoon. It's weird to be typing, staring into a computer screen as the landscape blurs by the band windows. Trucks, cars, desert, mountains, snow, refineries that reek of some rot or other, billboards, neon cowboys, trains, huge radio towers, speed limit 75, Salt Lake City 16mi,...damn glitter all over the van.

So here I am, addressing you collectively for the first time since the New Year's newsletter. I hope you all are doing well. I hear you've heard we'be been signed to Mammoth Records. We would have told you but we aren't due to put a mailer out for a little while and couldn't justify spending any money to do so simply for the sake of tooting that horn. So I'll do it now in hopes that I can clear up any trifles along the way.

Yes, we are going to sign with Mammoth Records. By the time we return to the east it will have taken place.

What does this mean? Good question, and I'm glad you asked. Essentially, our record deal is a formal agreement between us and Mammoth Records that says we will let them distribute the next X records we make and we won't make records for anybody else until our contract term is up. In return, they will help us amke and distribute these records in any way we might require. We did not entre into this agreement lightly. We did a lot of homework and feel that mammoth records can help us grow the right way. Which is to say, gradual, organic, grassroots growth the way we've always done it. The way we've done it up until now is by running our own unofficial record label and, while we've learned a lot about it, we can't really keep up with it. Poor Sam, Brett, & Russ, are in the office trying to keep it all straight and despite all the help Kelsey lends them it's just impossible to cover all the bases.

Mammoth is a medium sized label run by a dedicated crew of young folks who have all been there for a long time. Jay, the guy who started the label out of college is still there at the helm 10 or so years later (If you know anything about the record business you know that turnover is a major problem as everyone scrambles for the next best deal). We haven't really announced this development much because, while we're excited about it, we don't think of it as amajor change to the status quo of Strangefolk as you know it. Our office will notice a big change but you all hopefully will only notice changes that are positive. For example, you should be able to find Weightless much more easily than before because mammoth has much more efficient distribution than we have on our own. We can also do fun things with the CD that you might enjoy, such as CD-ROM enhancement, that would have been somewhat prohibitive for us before. We hope and believe that the quality and efficiency you get from us will be improved on all fronts.

Will we be selling out? No, of course not. I think everyone has his/her own set standards of defining selling out. MTV? You tell me, is Matt Pinfield going to play Strangefolk's "new video" for Westerly any time soon? Can you see it? Neither can we. Would we make a video? Only if it was a really cool idea/ We've all talked about how fun (and funny) it would be to make a cartoon or claymation or something like that but the idea of a video just hasn't ever really crossed our collective consciousness. If you see us any time soon on your TV, crooning from a mountaintop or beach with unplugged guitars and not quit in-time drum fills, staring sincerely at you in your living room please trust that we had guns on us to do so...and it won't happen at mammoth.

Will you hear us on the radio all the time? Maybe, maybe not. Radio, being the unfortunate entity that it has become, largely determines its own patterns, which are set more by economy than taste. We would like to get some airplay but nothing excessive. I like listening to the radio: the rush of hearing a tune you like when you're in your car or at work, it's a nice feeling. We'd like to be a part of that landscape (sound scape?) to some degree because we feel it's a good way to share the music. However, we don't intend to kill anyone with our music. The best way to start hating a song is by hearing it every minute on the radio. In other words, we aren't going to push for a big hit. The last thing we want is to have people who show up just to hear that ONE TUNE they know from the radio. We don't like having to play any ONE TUNE unless we want to. That's how it's been and we hope to keep it that way, which brings me to the live show...

Will the live scene change? First, a record deal has nothing to do with the live show. We would keep moving along as usual without a record deal. Second, it has been changing since it began. Growth is not necessarily a bad thing. We know, as fans of live music ourselves, how it is to be at a show; we recognize the importance of the environment. We've always put that at the top of our list of priorities. Sometimes we hit, other times we miss but we always try to keep it for the good of all in attendance.

Also, mammoth understands how vital the taping scene is for us andthey won't pull the plug on you tapers. That would be like cutting one of our lifelines. Rest assured, we didn't need to tell them any of this. If board taping ever ceases it would be because we decided that on our own. And it would probably be due to someone selling bootleg CDs, which we would consider a major breach of the code we have with the tapers. We would be extrememely disappointed that anyone would try to make cash off what we work so hard to create. That's what parasites do. At the Gathering of the Vibes we found someone selling tapes of us. What a drag it was to hear that. Hopefully no one bought one. Keep it free, spread the word, and we've got no issue. Sadly, this is a scenario where one guy can ruin it for all. For now, though, plug on in and hopefully the issue will never be raised again.

We are not trying to become overnight sensations nor is mammoth wanting of that. They were interested in us because of how we do what we do. We like them for the same reason. It's really as simple as that. We'd like to share our music with as many people as would enjoy it. We don't want a "scene." We want people who love the music at shows. That's how it feels to us at present. We've watched a lot of good people come together and get to know each other through the years. All of you seem to care about the music and treat each other well at shows. If the people who are at shows are there for the music it seems to follow that they will respect each other and enable each other to have a good time. At least, we hope.

I don't think and fat record execs are going to put their fourth house on their seventh island (as someone put it) on Strangefolk's accord any time soon. Nor will we be playing crowded arenas and ignoring our roots in the northeast in the near future.* In a nutshell, we're taking a small step forward and hopefully the fans and band alike will benefit from it.

Take care out there and be good to each other.

Sincerely,
Jon Trafton

*It's a big country we live in and we're moving toward covering it all more efficiently and regularly. Of course, doing so means spending more and more time away. When we travel, now and in the future, we're not ignoring the northeast we're simply not ignoring the other areas of this fine land of ours on an equal basis. Similarly, it's a big world out there and, thought I should't get into this, Phish aren't ignoring their roots by shortchanging the northeast. They've got a lot of places to go and not a lot of time in which to do it. All of this compounded by limitations set on them by certain venues, towns, cities, localities, logistics you wouldn't imagine, as well as personal desires. They play Europe for the same reason most of us like to see bands in small places--it's laid back and fun and they enjoy that setting, which is very difficult for them to attain at home. They have a lot of demands to meet and I'm sure they strive to satisfy their fans. However, if you don't satisfy your own needs it can be very easy to burn out and then all of the sudden there could be no more band, nomore fun, and whether you show your teeth or your tongue you will pay a forfeit: no more music.

Anyway, back to Strangefolk. We are so thankful that there are people out there who like what we do and care about what we do. I don't think may of you'd get so riled up on fan2fan if you didn't care (though fang2fang" is kind of sad...). We givve our all to make sure you are accounted for in our plans. I said all of this in January but it bears repeating. I feel comfortable saying that we'll still be the same old same old for a good while to come. Peace out there in fan2fanland.

Oh, and I really shouldn't do this BUT... our appearance at the High Sierra had nothing whatver to do with record people. If they were there I sure didn't see them We've been talking to mammoth for a long time. They've all seen us...in places like Rochester, NY and Philly. Also, we were invited back after having played the festival two years ago. Last year we opted to play Battery Park in Burlington rather than go to the festival, though we'd been invited then as well. Just to set the record straight.