20th October 2023
Patti Smith Zine
How has the music industry changed since the 70’s?
In speaking to Frontman and Drummer Alfie Clayton, we discover the highs and lows of being a musician in our declining economy, a prickly music industry and black and white London.‘Taste all of the pies and one of em will be sweet’ Alfie shrugged his shoulders as he sipped his pint of Guinness. He is explaining why he’s in 10 bands at the moment. Despite already having what some would say a big break into the industry while part of bands ‘The Skinner Brothers’ and ‘A.R.T Band’. He has played festivals like Glastonbury and Reading and has over 35 thousand monthly Spotify listeners, yet says ‘This is my full time thing, hours? Yeah. Money? No. There’s no money in the industry anymore.’
He had arrived for our interview in a Camden pub, which has seen the likes of Olivia Rodrigo and The Kid LAROI grace its tables, dressed as cool and careless as always. He wore a floral shirt, blue and green checked blazer, a thousand necklaces and a heavy wool overcoat that had a fantastic graphic print lining. To top off the look he had a paisley print handkerchief tied to his belt and, of course, bright fuchsia pink socks. He says ‘I live for the 70’s. The fashion as much as the music.’ He mentions Patti Smith, ‘she has always been a style influence for me, purely because of her androgynous twist and how she experiments with what you can get away with’ as he began to chuckle and fiddle with one of his necklaces. He talks about colour saying, in the 70’s,
‘the world had just been hit with colour, and drugs like acid had just been introduced, that kinda changed everything’
and expresses his love for specifically pink and purple, as proven by his choice of socks. ‘I’d love to be born in another time’. He passionately exclaims, ‘there's 70% less colour in the world than 50 years ago… Now when you look around everyones in black or white, it impacts your subconscious.’ But much like the fashion, the music now seems to be lacking colour too, ‘then everything was sold by vinyl so there was so much more money in the industry. It was a time when people could afford to make mistakes.’ In comparison to today’s industry that ‘has been fucked for so long’, it seems much harder for upcoming musicians, despite how talented they may be. Yet Alfie tells me how he and his fellow bandmates are fighting that, he says if you hear someone and think ‘holy shit, they’re groovy!’ you have to collaborate to bring together fan bases and unique talents. ‘Slowly but surely we will end up with this huge community of talented people.’
The interview comes to a close as he finishes the remainder of his drink and sighs, ‘It feels like everythings been done already and we’re sort of repeating stuff. We all need to think forward.’ But before putting on his coat he smiles saying, ‘We’re trying to create a new scene, which is tricky to do these days and might not succeed. But there’s definitely momentum behind it and a real sense at the gigs we play, the places we go, of - freedom. It’s that old rock n roll fashion.’
And certainly for the sake of Patti’s legacy and the fate of the music industry, I do hope it succeeds.