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London-based singles only label, Young & Lost Club was a University-born project that now, three years later, is thriving in the competitive waters of the music industry. But with the ways we digest music becoming ever more diverse and bands losing money through the digital sector, what’s stopping the independents from going under? Nadia Dahlawi, cofounder of Young & Lost Club with Sara Jade, took time out of trying to balance a record label to talk to E-ndustry about the industry.

With major labels having to slash production budgets, drop artists and let a multitude of staff go in order to adapt to the unpredictable marketplace of the music industry, how are you coping in terms of costs? Have you had to do any of these things?

We have been ok so far. Although I think that’s because we are on a much smaller scale than record labels like EMI. We mainly put out 7” vinyl singles, which are seen as collector’s items. Often a lot of our customers buy the single as a download and on 7”. We have even found some people buying our 7”s don’t even have a record player, they just like to have the single for its artwork and because they really love the band.

When it comes down to bills, how do you cope? Does the company bring in enough money to pay everyone or do you have mostly part timers working for you?

It’s just Sara and I at Young & Lost Club. We work full time on the label and do everything ourselves from finding bands, getting the artwork done to even distributing the single ourselves and organising a single launch party. We like to do everything and have found it’s important for us.

How do you usually go about taking on an artist and getting their record out?

We usually see bands play at our club nights like Push [at Astoria 2 every Saturday] or meet them through friends or other bands we have done singles with. The only band we did not know before was Good Shoes. Rhys [Jones] Good Shoes got in contact with us and sent us some songs.

How have things changed in the years that you’ve run an independent in terms of making money and putting records out?

When we first started the label there were not so many small singles labels. We have seen a lot more come and go since. We think it’s great there are so many opportunities for people to get involved and there is a real DIY ethic about it. A lot more ‘big’ bands also put 7” singles out now too.

Do you sell MP3s to/through online services to make money from the digital sector or do you find it difficult to create revenue because of downloading, whether legal or not?

We have just started selling our singles on iTunes and all our past singles can be found on the independent record shop, Pure Groove’s, digital site. It has not been a problem yet for us having it up for download too. Having to put on a record every time you want to here your favourite song is not really practical.

With CD-R’s being so cheap and software making it easy for the general public to burn onto them, do you think CDs and vinyl will become redundant?

I think vinyl will always have a collector’s item feel and there will always be a market for them. I am not so sure about CDs though!

Do you think you’ll ever stop putting stuff out in a solid state?

I think we will always want to put our singles out as 7” vinyl. It’s a very important part of the label for us.

Is it easy to set up an indie label?

Its very hard work and you make no money at the beginning. But we both really love what we do, so it does not seem like hard work. When it’s your own label you end up putting in a lot of hours too.

How, when and why did you set up your label?

We were in our first year of University and neither of us we’re enjoying it. Sara came up with the idea for a singles label, where everyone collects every release and it’s like a club in a way. Also we wanted to run our club night with bands from the label playing.

Do you think there’s too much competition in a slowly decreasing market?

I think competition is a good thing. A lot of club nights, bands and record labels do seem to come and go very quickly though which is sad.

Tommy Comstock is very active in the DIY music scene in the south of England. He writes and plays acoustic songs, going on tours of houses around the UK, as well as playing trombone in The Psyche Out Musikland Big Band. He also puts on acoustic shows in his house, and electric shows in local venues. He has released several offerings on small label Vegetable Massacre Recordings, mostly available on short runs on cassette tape.

This year, he has recorded a full-length album, and is planning to tour houses in the Netherlands and America with his music.

He discusses the tactics of the music industry from a grassroots perspective.

Click below to read the interview.

What do you think the answer for small bands trying to make a living out of music, to downloading, and big bands giving their music away for free?

I’m not sure bands should try to make a living out of music, I think it’s very difficult to do and not really something I’d want to try. At the same time, I think the DIY community is something so insular and separate from the influence of Carling and Radiohead or whatever that you could probably tour the DIY circuit playing small pubs and houses, getting fed and paid and stuff, and what the bigger bands are doing isn’t even going to make any difference. I’m not sure my band is in competition with Radiohead over ticket sales or record sales so I say we just keep on playing DIY shows and they can do what they do and if it means I can download their new album for two quid then that’s even better.

What is your opinion on larger bands who are giving their music away to publicise themselves to gain money through ticket sales?

I think if that is their motive then its pretty lame but not unexpected. But to flip it on its head, I think if bands are giving their music away for nobler ends then it is something really cool that we should be supporting. At the end of the day, I guess no matter how hard we try to avoid it, our day to day lives are somewhat governed by the dominant system of production – and that includes the production and consumption (in absence of a better term) of art and music. Personally, I would be inclined to support any band that tries to subvert those systemic norms, whether it be Radiohead letting people download their music for free, or The King Blues being signed to a major but playing squat shows and free shows outside venues.

Do you think this will blow small bands out of the water?

I think maybe this kind of shift could blow some bands out of the water, but only the bands that try to play the mainstream game and lose. Maybe it’s not very positive to say so, but personally I’d be disposed to say that they deserve it. I don’t think it will make much difference to the DIY scene and ultimately I’m not sure it will really even change music on a wider level. I think people will continue to enjoy playing music and listening to music, and if there is a real incentive to do so, or they feel like its something authentic and genuine and something worth doing, people will carry on paying money for records. If I really like a band I might burn a CD off a mate, but then chances are I’ll go to their shows and buy a shirt or probably buy the CD or vinyl itself because it’s a nice thing to have. You feel like you’re supporting the band and they deserve it.

At the same time people will keep downloading and making mix tapes because not everyone can afford to buy every CD they come across. It’s kind of crazy, because although this whole download thing does seem to reduce music to its simplest purest form, which should be a good thing, in a funny kind of way to me it also seems like its kind of commoditising music as well. I’m not sure I like the idea of reducing art to just files on a computer that can be bought and sold.

I like having the art work and the lyrics. I enjoy the actual activity of going record shopping and the whole ritual of putting a record on the deck and sitting down to read the sleeve and listen to the songs, somehow that is lost in MP3s, and maybe that’s just the death rattle of commodity fetishism in punk but I think maybe its something I’d miss and maybe there’s something more to owning records and CDs than just accumulating products for the sake of accumulation, I hope there is.

At the end of the day, despite the efforts of the major labels and the mainstream music press, I feel like music is just music and I think music will carry on just being music. Kids enjoy making songs and putting out records and talking about them and writing zines, and that isn’t something that’s going to just disappear. If it turns out that this whole thing drags down the mainstream music industry and maybe takes some of the fucking horrible bands with it, then I think that can only be good for music as a whole.

Canadian freshers Born Ruffians are about to release their new single ‘Hummingbird’ a couple of months prior to their thigh-slapping, folk-pop LP, Red, Yellow & Blue. They’re certainly ones to watch for just about every publication this year, but would they have been this well received in the days before the internet? Steve Hamelin (drums) and Mitch DeRosier (bass) took a break from their busy schedule of photo shoots and promotional meetings with the Skins cast to chat to E-ndustry.

Do you think you’d be this hyped if it wasn’t for the internet? Do you think it’s played quite a large role? 

Steve: Yeah.

Mitch: Definitely. I think any band today can credit the internet to boosting their success, for sure. It’s just changed the way entirely that any band can get popular.

Steve: Especially bands that don’t get played on the radio or MTV as often. Even major websites like MTV will cater more to independent acts. It levels the playing field a bit between mainstream and the non-mainstream.

Because there’s so much choice on the internet do you think word of mouth plays a big role too?

Mitch: The internet is almost like a big word of mouth. It’s word of mouth but on a massive scale. People with blogs for example, that’s exactly the same as telling your friend ‘Hey I saw this band and they’re great’ and with a blog on the internet, saying ‘Hey I saw this band and they’re great’ is ten fold.

Steve: A lot of blogs are just one guy’s opinion. It’s like me saying ‘Check this out’, but on my page. So many more people see it. 

Do you listen to music on the internet a lot or do you buy records? 

Steve: I buy records.

Mitch: Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever bought a song off the internet before. 

Is it the whole aesthetic of being able to put a record on? 

Mitch: Yeah I think we’re still traditional.

Steve: I just don’t have my stereo hooked up to my computer and I don’t want to listen to it through my laptop speakers. I have to buy it on either vinyl or cd and I don’t have an ipod, so there’s really no incentive for me to download music. But I would if I did have an ipod.

Moral Dilemma
Originally uploaded by magic.lorne

Moral Dilemma are a London 3-piece punk band who started out a few years ago playing in squats around the capital. Last summer they released their debut full-length Right To Remain Silent. The band defied many people by managing to record all eleven tracks in less than a day, as this was all the time they could afford with well-known producer legend Pete Miles. They wanted to do the album justice by releasing it properly, with a full case including artwork. However, they found this increasingly difficult with the climate of labels wanting to take a risk on a smaller band, so eventually they found a way to self-release it.

Click below to read the interview.

Did you find it hard to find someone to distribute your album after recording it?

It was pretty hard at first just to get the album pressed up, mainly due to us having no money. It took us a year to get together the £300 to record with, after that we were skint individually and had no money in the band tin. As a result, we approached a lot of labels, and they either didn’t have the money, or it just wasn’t the right time for them, or they just didn’t have the balls to put it out. So we just saved up and played more gigs.

The distribution wasn’t too hard for us, it was just a case of knowing the right people. We went to a mate who works at a pressing plant and he was owed a favour by Plastic Head [Distribution], so it made sense to go with them. It would get our CDs in shops and our deal meant we only had to pay half of the pressing costs for a thousand CDs, which was the main reason we went with them. We couldn’t afford to press it up properly by ourselves, and we felt that we deserved to have a CD in the package with all the artwork rather than just a CDR.

Do you think smaller labels are struggling?

Smaller labels for punk bands are struggling. It seems from the outside that even the most successful bands on the biggest labels are doing really well financially, but the reality is they’re not, mainly due to the punk scene and the country being so small. We found it hard to find a label mainly because were not really a safe bet to put out, the climate of the punk scene musically at the moment in terms of the bands that fill the 300+ capacity venues tends to be very American influenced/ poppy/ ska music, or just bands who listen to far too much Rancid – and we don’t sound like that. So from a label perspective, it’s not a good bet to invest money into a band like us, as its more of a risk as to whether or not we would make the money back for the label. Which is fair enough, but makes our lives a little harder to get bigger gigs if we want to play them, and get our album out there.

We only have a distribution deal, whereas a label promotes and advertises the album which we don’t have the backing for so its a lot harder for us than say a band on Household Name [Records] to get people to here us and get them interested in what were doing.

Do you think it’s going to get harder for small bands and labels to sell records with downloading becoming more popular?

Yes and no. It seems to me that downloading music with sites such as MySpace is all still in its early days, to an extent.

It’s a positive thing because people who have never seen us and probably never will due to geographical reasons will be able to here us and have access to our songs. Which is a total head-fuck when you get e-mailed a compliment from some guy from china who you’ve never met!

But it seems to be a good way to get your band across, and I hope that if people hear a few songs then they’ll go out and buy the album so bands can get money to record again and help keep them going. But having said that most people who listen to us probably don’t have any money anyway so I don’t blame them for downloading it if they want it. I just hope they make a friend a copy as well.

It is going to get harder for labels and bands with downloading in the sense that you may sell less records, but you’ll probably have more people coming out to the gigs and knowing the songs – which, to me, is far more important. I don’t really care if they bought the album or not. I don’t see downloading in the same light as stealing a CD from our merch box, which has happened in the past.

As a consumer, do you download music?

I do download music, but I also buy a lot of music too. Usually what I’ll do is download a song or an album by someone I’ve heard of and want to check out, and then I go out and buy the album if I like it. Or I’ll download stuff of bands who I have almost everything by and want to hear the whole back catalogue (I’m obsessive compulsive like that, I want to hear what the lead singer sounds like brushing his fucking teeth).I tend not to download something if the bands on a small independent label, as I know that my £5 or whatever goes towards guitar strings, pot noodles, and just keeping the band making more music.

Having said that, downloading doesn’t hold the same satisfaction as buying say a Billie Holiday record by chance because its 50p in Oxfam and falling in love with her voice. As a consumer, it’s not as rewarding or exciting for me. I’m pretty sentimental about my music collection, and it’s a little bit harder to have that attachment to a file on your computer.

holy roar on dis
Originally uploaded by holyroarrecords

On 15 February, Sean Adams – founder of DrownedinSound.com (DiS) – came into City University to give a talk on his personal experiences with the internet and music industry, and where he thinks this is going in the future. He also spoke about how the press would change because of these advances.

DiS is a website carrying music reviews and features. It started life as an email fanzine, finally getting its own web space in 2000. It was begun as a way for users to discuss bands they felt were ignored by the mainstream music press at the time, such as Muse and Biffy Clyro.

Still at the relatively young age of 27, Sean has seen things from many different perspectives within the music industry, but has a lot of scope for its transgression in the 21^st century. 

Sean put a lot of the site’s success down to the reason that many other sites around at the time, which were usually spin-offs from print magazines (the NME, for example), just copy-and-pasted press releases as news and really didn’t go into feature writing or reviewing. Because DiS also added the capacity to post comments on articles very early on, writers could be held to account and there was a closing of the distance between “fans” and “writers”. Because of this, a community atmosphere built up quickly, and when the forum was started this strengthened it. He says although it was a subconscious decision, it was probably the reason DiS became popular – people had something to come back for.

Originally, it cost £100 a year to maintain the website – practically unheard of nowadays, when people who want to voice their opinions can just sign up for a freely hosted blog – and was run out of Sean’s bedroom. By 2003 the site had 50,000 readers, a bank loan, and a handful of advertisers. He had quit work to run the site full time, and has since moved from Weymouth to London, has an office space, and around 30 writers in the UK and five more around the world.

Sean said he found it frustrating that around the 2002-03 time that if he had started a print magazine he could have sold a lot more advertising. It was an interesting point he made that whereas larger companies in the music industry began to advertise on the internet 2-3 years ago, smaller ones didn’t begin to do this until very recently.

Soon he went back to work at a booking agency, and saw a different side of the industry. Because of this job, he began to put on small bands himself – his first show being Bloc Party and Razorlight at the Dublin Castle.

In 2003, Sean realised there were a lot of bands he liked not being picked up by labels, and he didn’t understand why. In the spirit of DiS, he began a label, DiS Recordings, affiliated with the website. It was concerned with putting out singles of bands they liked. To date, they have put out several bands who went on to much bigger things or are well on their way, such as Kaiser Chiefs, Metric and Blood Red Shoes. Because of the label, he found investors in the form of Silentway Ltd., a management company whose customers include Simply Red.

Sean says they run the label in a way that it should really be done, but many labels are too lazy to implement. They would look through to find reviews of similar bands in other music magazines, and where these bands had got positive reviews they sent the journalist a copy of the record with a note saying: “You like this other band, so therefore we think you will like this.” It was very much tailored to make sure the bands got good press.

In October 2007, the website announced that it had begun a joint venture with Sky. As part of this, Sean and his team will be launching five new websites. These include what he described as a “positive women’s magazine”, and a new rock website which will be “filling in the gaps” between other music publications such as Rock Sound and Kerrang!

Speaking about established music magazines and their unimpressive websites, Sean said that the problem was in the thinking of the magazine. He said that they were so interested to just sell the paper magazine that they had totally overlooked the way that the internet can build up a fanbase. Through an interactive, interesting website, he said, the site becomes integral to the reader’s tastes. Because of this, they want to read about the kind of bands that the website features, and this could be utilised by magazines by putting more interesting, relevant content on their websites.

At the end of the lecture, he went off on a tangent about music downloads and the direct effect of the internet on artists and music distribution. He said that the fact that the government has made downloading illegal altogether, they can’t get to the root of the problem and people will continue to distribute music amongst themselves. However, he said, if low-quality music downloading was legal, then people would want to go and buy good quality versions after hearing tracks.

He also raised the point that people still want to buy CDs – if only for the packaging they come in. A recent example of this was when the band Wilco was dropped by its label Warner Brothers, but then 700,000 people downloaded their album. The band was re-signed, and surprised the label by selling a further 600,000 copies. They later won a Grammy for the album artwork.

He concluded the lecture by saying that artists were getting more savvy to the internet, and that he thought it was definitely a good thing when it came to the press. Now the playing field has been levelled, and the music media is being held more accountable than ever by its readers.

Punch Puppet
Originally uploaded by chris vs world

Davey Puppet sees the industry from two perspectives – both in his pop-punk band Punchpuppet who self-released their EP a couple of years ago, and gave most of the copies of it away, and in his job sorting out royalties for a London-based music publisher. Davey explained the technicalities of the effects of music downloading on the industry side of things, then went on to describe his own personal experiences of free music distribution.

Click below to read the interview.

What is the difference in the royalties that artists get from sales of digital music and physical albums?

It all depends. generally in the UK publishers receive less on downloads than physical product, depends how they get paid out. Sometimes it is done on pro-rata share of total profits made from all songs downloaded from a particular service. In the USA the statutory rate is often the same for physical CD sales and digital downloads (at the moment $0.091 per song under five minutes long). At least bands can get music heard easier through downloads.

With the increase in people buying (through downloading) just one track of an album rather than the whole thing (as with iTunes, and the new Amazon music store), has this led to a big cut in the amount of money music publishers make?

Again I think some publishers don’t like the idea of tracks being split up. Depending on how royalties paid out, it’s generally less than physical product in any case.

Do you think publishers are feeling threatened by the rise of the internet in the distribution of music?

I think ‘traditional’ ways of making revenue are changing and now you get special physical products (such as USB sticks, or box sets with DVDs) to try and differentiate. It’s still a period of transition really. It’s hard to police illegal downloads, but lots of additional admin is involved in licensing for legal downloads, too.

Do you think that the online distribution of music is affecting the industry side of things (publishers, and other middle-men on the business side) more than it is affecting the income of individual bands?

To an extent. I mean the music business is a business at the end of day! Bands still need to get paid, but you still need people to keep the cogs turning.

How many copies of your EP did you give away?

Overall probably about 100-150 copies! Maybe more, erk!

Why did you decide to give them away?

Sometimes people can’t be bothered buying something even if it is only a quid. It’s a good way to get CD heard, a lot of people are generally happy about getting something for nowt (isn’t everyone?!)

Do you think the benefits outweighed the cost? Did you notice a big increase in people interested in your band?

Yeah definitely more people made it to shows or recognised us from the band. It helped us get on various compilations, got us a gig in Denmark and helped us to do basically more gigs! We made all the CDs ourselves but used money paid from gigs for the supplies to make them.

Do you think that smaller bands would still be able to flourish if bigger bands decided to give away their music?

The whole Radiohead thing where they asked people to pay anything they wanted for the new album obviously generated interest in them. But they also released a special edition box set (with a vinyl, limited CD etc.) that most fans will probably buy as well regardless. With the amount of ‘free’ downloading people do, I think it’s served to generate interest in them. Hundreds of other bands are getting ripped off on a daily basis through file sharing anyway! Obviously us publishers aren’t happy at digital downloads and the small percentage they pay compared to physical product – this is why smaller bands are touring more to rely on income from live performances and merchandise sales, generating awareness and so on. Smaller bands have to create a buzz to get recognition, a lot of it starting through social networking sites especially.

The London Development Agency (LDA) announced today that their latest proposal is to throw bags of money at the capital’s music business. Managed by the Association of Independent Music (AIM), the grant is intended to help London’s small music companies in exploiting opportunities and meeting challenges of the digital music sector.

Kicking off in April, and running until September 2009, the scheme will provide a number of opportunities for free or subsidized business advice, access to research, information and work experience and skills training for London’s music corporations.The plan was developed by the AIM general manager, Remi Harris, and board member, Rosie Bryant, and will be made available to eligible minor music businesses in London – from artists to venues, publishers, managers, labels and more. The project also aims to target support at under-represented groups in the industry including companies led by women, black and ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.

Miss Remi said: “It was clear from our research that there is huge untapped potential in the exploitation of digital technologies for London’s small music companies. I hope that this service is able to have a wide-reach into all aspects of the music industry in London, and at all levels of expertise.”

For background info on AIM and LDA click below…

Association of Independent Music (AIM) 
AIM is a non-profit body established in 1998 by UK record labels to represent them in the industry and be the voice of British independent music. Now with 800 members, AIM has approved collective licensing deals with eMusic, Musicnet, Tunetribe and Playlouder MSP among others through its new AIM Digital branch. In 2006 the independent sector accounted for 30 per cent of all UK albums that went silver, gold, platinum or multi-platinum and artists on record labels under AIM claimed four Mercury Music Prizes in a row between 2003 and 2006, and earned two thirds of nominations.Some of the biggest artists signed to AIM associate labels include Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Basement Jaxx, The Strokes, The Prodigy and Super Furry Animals. www.musicindie.com

London Development Agency (LDA) 
The LDA sets out to improve the quality of life for Londoners and propel a sustainable growth in the economy. It tries to respond to the needs and ambitions of communities and businesses by bringing together people with the right skills and resources to constantly deliver good results. The LDA invest more than £400 million a year to create jobs and build thriving districts. It also supports the capital as a financial, educational and research centre – tackling the barriers to employment for certain groups, encouraging businesses and cultural activities. The LDA takes on major projects and difficult issues and is constantly looking for fresh ways of doing things. In this way, they can ensure all Londoners can gain from, and contribute, to the capital’s economic success.
ww.lda.gov.uk

With the new year brings new formats, so the Independent’s cyberman Rhodri Marsden has done a critique of the digitial world of music and questioned the relevance of our stacks of cds, cassettes and vinyl.

“There’s always a persistent, low-level chatter across the internet about revolutionary new ways to consume music. Record companies are constantly jockeying for position, anxious not to back an outlet for their material that might quickly be outmanoeuvred by some other groundbreaking idea. But over the past few weeks, many have signed agreements to give tunes away for free under an advertising-supported model…”

Click here to read the rest of the article and check out the links below to compare the best (legal) collections of music to play online, for free:

We7.com
Qtrax.com 
last.fm
iTunes

Geoff Travis opened his first Rough Trade store in Notting Hill in February 1976 and has been setting music trends throughout the world ever since. Two years after the store launch, Rough Trade Records (RTR) was established and paved the way for greats such as The Smiths, The Fall and The Libertines. But as the internet rapidly expands with an influx of digital downloads, blogs and networking sites, how will the almighty record label cope?

They may become redundant but I think we’ll still need gate keepers to filter out the music because there’s so much online. Even with the internet you’re still going to need money to pay for an advert on a billboard, for a banner on iTunes, for someone to protect the copyright throughout the world. 

Do you think free records are the future? 

The people giving away their records for free are people who have made their money. I think it’s really about driving their live shows merchandising. If Led Zeppelin made a new album they could probably give it away. If The Stones made a new album they probably couldn’t give it away. 

How do you feel about bloggers and the press? 

The thing with the press, especially the NME now, is that it’s so narrow. The editor [Conor McNicholas] said once ‘We would never have someone like that on the cover of our magazine’. That really upset me. He said he’d put Elvis Presley on the cover but not Little Richard. I think Little Richard is every bit as good as Elvis. I mean, who’s on the cover now? The Twang?” But they love The Libertines and The Strokes and that’s great. 

And bloggers? 

Well, you can read David Byrne’s blog and his love of the Arcade Fire, I think that’s very interesting. When we started it was the fanzines that were the vital reads. 

Why did you start Rough Trade? 

We [Travis and his partner Jeanette Lee] were just frustrated that places like W H Smiths weren’t selling feminist magazines or other independent magazines and we wanted a store that would have those things. Whereas, you walk into a record store now and it’s like walking into a Wimpy Bar – it’s so dry. The staff behind the counter don’t care. That’s mainly why I think Rough Trade East is such a success. It’s very overwhelming going into a huge store and not having anyone to help you. 

Do you think major labels will survive? 

Major labels waste so much money. Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong signed for a lot of money, but are they going to be any good? To have a major label you have to know what it’s like to have an independent label. You’ve got to have someone who believes in you, who will stick with you. Mark E. Smith [The Fall] once said to me, ‘It’s not a career’. It’s not intellectual, it’s emotional. We don’t think ‘What’s the next big thing?’ we think ‘Wow that sounds incredible’. You’ve got to be able to know if it’s going to last. Record labels now days seem to ignore that. You can’t hear two songs and know if it’s going to last, you just hear two songs and know that you like it. 

And how do you deal with the bands that are trying to get one over on their record label? 

The Smiths left us for a couple of weeks. They ended up writing a song about me [‘Frankly Mr Shankly’] but they didn’t name any names so I let it pass. I think their beef with Rough Trade was that they thought they should be selling more records and riding around in limousines and helicopters. But once they left they wanted to come back. It’s like being young, when your parents ask you to tidy your room, you think ‘Fuck that,’ but when you get older and move out you think ‘Oh, perhaps it wouldn’t have been that bad to just tidy my room.’