Who the hell is behind Brainwashed.com

It's a new challenge for us to publish our zine on the internet. It's also a great chance to be read by people from all over the world. The question is: do people actually take their time and read what is on the site, how much reliable do you need to be percepted compared to a paper zine ? This question still not answered. Brainwashed is actually the only website that is well-known and well-trusted by underground addicts. This site is well done, easy-reading, and full of information updated every week. Fabien had a chat with Jon Whitney, main man behind the website.

Can you tell me the complete story of Brainwashed... when, why, who...the concept of brainwashed!

I credit Chris Miller highly. I was working for an Internet Service Provider back in 1995 and was updating my personal web page and making links to bands' websites. Meat Beat Manifesto I was dying to find out information on because they had something due out in October of 1995 which never showed up. The websites for MBM as well as other bands were incomplete, outdated, and sloppy looking, I knew these bands deserved better. There were hundreds of websites for people like Tori Amos but there was either nothing or nothing good for bands like Meat Beat Manifesto. March 1996 arrived and a new single from Meat Beat Manifesto came out, on the back was listed "Brainwashed" and an address in Florida. The address was my friend Chris Miller's address, he and I had traded tapes and CDs and stuff before and he was a good friend of mine. Surprised to see HIS address on an MBM CD I phoned him up and asked what that was all about. He said that he was in contact with them and was asked to set up sort of a "fan club" but he said he didn't have the time and patience to do it being a full time employed single father. I told him I wanted to do an 'official' website devoted to the band and asked him if he wanted to help me, with his knowledge of the band and discographies, coupled with a girl in Wisconsin who had an MBM site and had great design skills, we got started. Chris gave me MBM's contact information, I called their manager and she was thrilled we were going to work together and do this. I registered brainwashed.com and we started. Since then, more bands have been added for various reasons, there's a different story for each band, but the original concept is still there - to provide a place on the web - the best place - with the most complete and current information. Most of these websites are official, officially sanctioned, globally recognized as the best places for all of these bands. We now have a few record companies and a few other resources and continue to provide excellent service to the bands and the fans.

Would you say you are the boss of brainwashed or do you just help to co-ordinate the site?

yes, both

How does it work between bands and Brainwashed? Some of them have their official site on brainwashed. How do you select the bands?

Like I said before, each has a different story. It has to be a band that has no site or has a terrible site. A band that hasn't been overdone. You'll never see a Tori Amos or Nine Inch Nails site on Brainwashed, even if they all suck out there, they all exist. They also have to be respectable bands with some kind of history or reputation. I don't do "charity" work for high school bands or local bands

There's a lot of different styles of bands on Brainwashed... What is the common denominator among the bands you need to represent?

I don't know if there is one any more. I guess they have to be original and innovative. For a while, they were electronic bands, but it has expanded to include some more indie rock bands. Most of the bands have been loved by critics and fans, but jerked around by the industry and various record labels. I don't know if any brainwashed band has had an RIAA Gold album.

With this project (free site, free collaboration) what are the values you want to defend?

Information. Exchange the information, educate people on good music, more interesting music than the garbage everybody's fed by MTV and radio.

What is the place of critics in your site?

Hard to say, I guess it's always interesting to hear what other people with different opinions have to say about music. But it's not necessary.

Have you ever been pressurised by major companies (What about the jukebox section, have you ever had any problems, like in France where it's really hard to publish MP3)?

Pressure? No, I provide a promotional tool for music, all MP3 files are about 60 seconds long, they are excerpts, and don't lend themselves for bootleggers of any kind. We're on the artists’ side, the companies’ side and the fans’ side.

What about media pressure - has anyone tried to use your site for commercial gain ?

no.

is it easy (in the USA) to keep total integrity ?

I would imagine it would be the same all around. I just have it easier because I have worked for Internet service providers and have experience in the music business.

How do you explain the (so-called) the post rock explosion and how do you feel about the commercialisation of this music ? Are you not afraid of being considered as an opportunist with such a site ?

I kind of started post-rock.com as a sorta place to house different type of music on a new website, new bands I was doing web sites for, but then the whole genre-classification-thing seemed silly and I sorta just left the site alone to be a place to point to other sites. I make no money so how can I be an opportunist?

Who is brainwashed??? indie kids or commercial culture people?

We all are to some extent, whether we admit it or not.

interviewed by Fabien Louis, photos from web site

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