Rocktropolis: October 30, 1997
http://www.rocktropolis.com

When the Cure's worldwide recording contracts are up after the release of their next studio album, singer Robert Smith wants to take advantage of the situation and do a little something for his fans. He plans to release a three-CD B-sides, rarities, and studio outtakes collection -- with multimedia -- without a record label.

"It's entirely fan- based," says Smith. "It won't be promoted or anything. I'm not even sure if it will be commercially released. It certainly won't be through Elektra and PolyGram... If we do resign with someone, I want do this when we're out of contract, probably through our Web site [http://www.the-cure.com] or a one-off deal with a distributor, so we can sell it at a very minimal price without a record company who has to take a slice of their own."

Here's what Smith has in store for the collection: Disc One and half of Disc Two will feature every B-side every recorded -- there's approximately 37, according to Smith, some of which have never been released on CD before. The second half of Disc Two will include different versions of previously released songs and some hard to find recordings, such as the band's cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze," says Smith.

Disc Three is "the weird stuff," says Smith. "Studio outtakes, where you hear us talking. There are tapes of us making Pornography and the mike's on [in the room] where we're just talking. We'll start a song, then it completely falls apart and you'll hear 'It was your fault.' 'No, no...' There's an excellent bit in one of them where all three of us actually start playing a different song. The lack of communication between three people in a very small room is so apparent."

One reason for wanting to release such a collection without the aid of a major label is, as Smith said, so the fans can get it cheap. However, to hear Smith talk about his situation with his record labels, the other reason is apparently his frustration with the music industry.

"Elektra has been really helpful with Galore. They've gone out of their way to make us feel wanted and are genuinely enthusiastic about the next studio album, which is how it should be," says Smith. "But for the last album, they weren't -- no one was. It's that indifference -- thinking, 'Well, they'll sell a couple million records and we don't have to do anything.' They don't know why we're popular or why we're successful, so they just let us get on with it. It hasn't worked against us and sometimes it works for us, the fact that they don't have a clue about why we do what we do or how we do it. And we owe them a certain amount of money and it goes in their budget on fucking idiot bands that are never going to go out and sell a record in their lives. Because we're older and unfashionable, there isn't anyone who will go out on a limb for us.

"We're on our 11th or 12th studio album, so we must be doing something right," continues Smith. "But it's kind of a patronizing attitude that's upset me so much that I'm kind of thinking the Internet is there. If I'm going to be out of contract, and I'm sitting at home writing songs into my computer and it's in the digital domain anyway, I can upload it and download to anyone who wants it for a minimal price because I've made enough money. I can make music accessible to people who want it within an hour of finishing it, doing it from home and reaching more people, [rather] than going through the whole fucking eight- week lead time for artwork and stuff."

That said, when asked if he'll never sign with a record label again, Smith laughs, "I can't say that, can I? 'Cause otherwise Elektra will get really unhappy."