Capitol, her label, dispatched her to record countless songs in countless styles with just about every big-name writer-*producer in L.A. They tested the market with singles and EPs and sent Ferreira forth on buzz-building errands. They couldn’t put together an album they liked, threw up their hands, and even, she says, shelved her for a while, which is when she moved to New York, alone, and turned to modeling: “It was like, Well, she’s a dud. I’ve been told I was a failure since I was 17.” People have butted heads with Ferreira over what kind of pop product she was meant to become, and she does not seem to have enjoyed the process one bit. “I signed a million-dollar record deal,” she says, “and never saw any money. It all got spent on planes and writing. I’d have to leave school and go on a twelve-hour flight to Europe and do press, then fly back the same day. They worked me to death, but when I wanted to input anything, it was like, ‘You’re a child, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ ”
It’s hard to pinpoint what ended the stalemate. Maybe it was the success, last year, of a song called “Everything Is Embarrassing,” recorded with Dev Hynes, a musician whose tracks tend to sound, gloriously, like the Instagram-filtered ghosts of Janet Jackson hits from the eighties. Ferreira threw that one online when the label declined to release a single and watched it soak up love from the indie-music crowd. Or maybe it was the management changes attending Capitol’s absorption into Universal Music Group. Either way, you get the impression that at some point this year, the label finally said to her: Fine, if you’re so damn smart, you go make an album. “They were sort of out of money and out of ideas,” says her manager, Mike Tierney, “and basically said: This record has to come out. You have a limited amount of time, and you’re welcome to use your own money to finish it.” So she did. It took Ferreira and her collaborators roughly half of August to stick together Night Time, My Time, which shows in fascinating ways: The LP mixes grungy eccentricity and radio hooks as casually as a Cyndi Lauper video. It has the same blend of pop decadence and grit Sofia Coppola was aiming for with the Marie Antoinette soundtrack, possibly because it’s chasing similar themes: Glamorous, depressive teenager, bought and sold by adults and beleaguered by gossip, seeks private space to assert herself, or at least experience her own joy. “She doesn’t need a room full of 50-year-old guys,” says Tierney, “to tell her what other 21-year-old women want to hear.”
Remember to get a copy of the long awaited debut album from Indie Queen Sky Ferreira, Night Time My Time out this month
and feel free to watch the video for You're not the One
full long article @ the source (worth reading btw)
I’d have to leave school and go on a twelve-hour flight to Europe and do press, then fly back the same day. They worked me to death, but when I wanted to input anything, it was like, ‘You’re a child, you don’t know what you’re talking about."
Quote:
“They were sort of out of money and out of ideas,” says her manager, Mike Tierney, “and basically said: This record has to come out. You have a limited amount of time, and you’re welcome to use your own money to finish it.” So she did.
" I signed a million-dollar record deal,” she says, “and never saw any money"
What kind of TLC teas? I'm with her. She probably does not want become another typical pop star. These record labels only care about the money and want to you make into a product.
the bold is standard industry practice. Good for her for overcoming it, but she's not the first or the last. Young kids sign these deals and don't realise what's really going on. Signing bonus are subject to recoupment (nobody in life is going to just give you money for signing your name somewhere) and if the act doesn't make up the difference of investment off their first album, they are basically in debt to their label, which gives the label COMPLETE control "you owe us". Then, when they are shelved, their only recourse is to out of pocket fund their own album.
big money shady dealings. I hope her fans really come out and support her.
yasss and her demos are really good so check it out
Sounds like you would end up getting by a label