"[Playing live is] what I really love to do. I’m not of a mind to record anymore. There’s no point. Making a record requires me to take all the money that the label advances me and give it to other people—musicians, producers and studio owners—and then I spend six months doing the record company’s job for them because they won’t pay anybody anymore to do the things they used to do like promote and market. Why would I do that when I could be working for myself, opening for Bob Dylan?
Anyway, in terms of recorded music the pact’s been broken –the personal connection between the artist and the listener. MP3 has dismantled the intended shape of an album. And then everything is leaked, everything is stolen. So I play live, it happens in the moment, if I do a new song I might never play it again, and if you’re not there you fuckin’ miss it… "
- Elvis Costello, Mojo magazine, Dec. 2007
We're just going backwards, people...
