Derek Webb Interview – 26 February 2005

G: I promise you that, man, we’ll stick around for ya. You talked about INO, and you and I have talked about INO several times, and how supportive they are of you…but is what INO seeing you doing, is that kind of the future? Because we’ve seen all the big labels are consolidating and cutting people left and right now; it’s commercial art or nothing for the big real artists, the big real labels. Is INO and the style of how they do things, is that kinda where you see…because, you know eventually the commercial art stuff is going to collapse under its own weight, and it’s already doing it, you can see it…the fact that A&R is doing nothing anymore, and nothing’s just going anywhere, is this where you see music going? Or as an artist is that where you’re hoping to see it go?

D: Yeah, well they have a totally different business model over there, a totally different way of doing things. They’re still in the Christian industry, and that’s where their primary resources are, which is a bit of a challenge for me, and it’s a bit of a challenge for them because they don’t know how to market me, they’re still trying to figure out how to market me, because there are normal channels that work for Sara Grove, the channels that work for MercyMe, don’t work as much for me; so I think they’re still sorting me out, as well. But we’re all happy to be involved with each other, we just don’t quite exactly know, you know, if we can actually make it all work; but we’re still…I think they’re doing a really good job, and I think I’m probably a hard person to sell in this industry for, so I don’t complain about any of that.

But I think Jeff Moseley is such a smart businessman, and he’s so respectful of art and the artist, and that has got so much to do with the way they do it over there, and why they are really one of the two labels in town who really are competing, they really are working for them, and I think that’s why, because he had MercyMe, they’re selling millions of records, they had huge success commercially, and because he’s not a greedy bastard, like most of the people in commercial Christian music are, he’s using that as an opportunity to allow an artist like me to put out exactly the records I want, instead of saying, “Well, I could let him do his kind of weird, experimental thing that he’s trying to do, but that wouldn’t be me making the most money I could possibly make, and so either I’m gonna drop him, or I’m gonna coerce him into doing something more commercial.”

Instead he says to me, “Listen, we’re so fortunate around here, MercyMe is paying all the bills around here” – and good for them, they’re great guys, it couldn’t happen to better guys in the world, I mean I know them a little bit, and I’m so happy, and it’s not usual to be that happy for a commercially successful Christian band, it’s not usual to be that happy for them, but I’m so happy for them, because they’re such good guys – and he says, “for that reason, go make whatever record you want, do whatever you want, man.” I mean that’s what he told me right before my last record, he said, “You do” – he knew what I wanted on my first record, because I came to him throughout the whole record, and said “This is what I’m gonna do, is that okay?” Cuz I didn’t want to freak him out, the record’s done, and it’s like…and he loved it, he put it out, he got sorta behind it, platformed it; when it came to the next record, he said, “You do whatever you want, if you wanna go make a weird art record of just…you do whatever you want.”

And I said, “Well, okay,” because you don’t ever hear that from people in this business; and so he’s not using that success to have more and more success. He’s saying, “You know what, maybe we don’t make, maybe we’re not going to make as much as we usually make on Sara Groves, maybe we’ll attract different people because what you’re doing is different than what she’s doing, y’all have different gifts, and it’s both great.” And it’s that kind of support that, really, I feel liberated to do; and so now, like, it’s unbelievable, I have all these things in my mind that I wanna write about, the record I wanna make now, that I’m starting to write for, that there’s no way in a million years I could find a Christian label to put out, but I know INO is gonna put it out. I know they are. And, if anything, Jeff, I think, likes the fact that I do things that are a little left-of-center, because I’m the only artist he’s got that does, on a certain level. So he’s like, “The rest of my job is so easy, this is great, I’ve not gotta get all these cursing phone calls from all these people in Christian retail because they’re, ‘How dare you put out….’” And he loves to fight for it, because he really into the art, man. For a guy who is an executive at a Christian record label, he’s one in a million, he’s rare. I love him.