Fleet Foxes: "Beinginterviewed by the NME is likebeing interrogated for acrime"

Tue 19th Apr, 2011 in International News

Robin Pecknold, the 23 year old frontman of the folk band Fleet Foxes, has complained that “Being interviewed by the NME is like being interrogated for a crime you didn’t commit. Every question is a set up” after the news of his ‘support’ for illegal downloads hit the web echo chamber.

Pecknold took to his band’s Twitter account to explain that his words had been misinterpreted. “I said music has no inherent CASH value,” Pecknold clarified, “Why the sensationalism all the time? Cash value of all ‘art’ is subjective is all I was trying to say. A Pollock is worth millions for cultural reasons, not for cost of paint. Why is it news that I’m ok with file-sharing? To not be is to waste energy on something you can’t do anything about.”

NME’s questions about downloading may have set a trap for Pecknold, but they do follow Pecknold’s history of advocating free music downloads. Earlier this year he gave away three songs he’d recorded, including a collaboration with Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear. And back in 2009 Pecknold told BBC News that “I’ve downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records – why would I care if somebody downloads ours?”

In the 2009 interview Pecknold noted that “I think it’s disgusting when people complain about that, personally. As much music as musicians can hear, that will only make music richer as an artform. I think we’re seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing, and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster.

“That was how I discovered almost everything when I was a teenager – my dad brought home a modem. That was how I was exposed to almost all of the music that I love to this day, and still that’s the easiest way to find really obscure stuff. I’ve discovered so much music through that medium. That will be true of any artist my age, absolutely.”