Holy Zoo
02-24-2002, 08:54 PM
Eric posted this to his fan mailing list. I cannot even begin to imagine how angry he must have been.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to address you all. Your interest in, and consideration of, my work all these years are quite a blessing and privilege for me. I thank you for that. I will continue to try to do my best.
I am choosing to use the Internet as it is the one media that we all have to exercise our feelings and beliefs. I am additionally interested in this because I feel sometimes a corporation's product can be eclipsed by the packaging and thereby adversely effect the consumer's hard earned dollar.
Very recently, I was informed by a third party that "Ah Via Musicom" was coming out on 5.1 DVD. Much to my surprise, I was told it had already been completely remixed, mastered, mass produced and shipment was ready for a release date of February 12, 2002. This release date was approximately three weeks away from the time I found out about this!
At any rate, they sent us an advance copy to listen to and I must convey what I found upon review. This remix is very disappointing. Instead of the intended main guitar tracks, there are "scratch" tracks in some places. On "Desert Rose" and "Trademark", there are sections where the lead guitar is not in the mix; it is completely absent. A "rough sketch" bass track was used on "Cliffs Of Dover" that isn't even Kyle Brock playing it, yet Kyle's name is still on the credits! They used some guitar tracks that weren't quite in tune and more importantly, were never meant to be used. There are doubled guitar parts that weren't supposed to be doubled. They did not edit together the intro "Ah Via Musicom" into "Cliffs of Dover" as it was written to be with respect towards a movement of music. This same mistake is true for "Trademark" into "Nothing Can Keep Me From You". The 'House Burning Down' flange effect on "High Landrons" was not done correctly. In addition, the guitar tones and mix in general do not reflect what Richard Mullen and I would be happy with, excited about or comfortable with.
All of this was done without communication to the artist, producer, engineer or artists' manager. We were, in other words, left in the dark concerning the quality and content of this release.
Fortunately, Capitol Records has since agreed to allow us to remix the "Ah Via Musicom" 5.1 DVD in a manner that we feel would be befitting to it. Unfortunately, approximately 2500 copies have gone out into the stores with the unapproved mix. Capitol Records has agreed to let anyone who buys this current DVD to trade it back in when the new version is released.
I apologize for the quality of this release. I do not condone, authorize or approve of it and I will try to get this situation rectified as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading this and allowing me the vehicle to express something that is important to me. All best wishes to all of you.
Very Truly,
Eric Johnson
I am grateful to have the opportunity to address you all. Your interest in, and consideration of, my work all these years are quite a blessing and privilege for me. I thank you for that. I will continue to try to do my best.
I am choosing to use the Internet as it is the one media that we all have to exercise our feelings and beliefs. I am additionally interested in this because I feel sometimes a corporation's product can be eclipsed by the packaging and thereby adversely effect the consumer's hard earned dollar.
Very recently, I was informed by a third party that "Ah Via Musicom" was coming out on 5.1 DVD. Much to my surprise, I was told it had already been completely remixed, mastered, mass produced and shipment was ready for a release date of February 12, 2002. This release date was approximately three weeks away from the time I found out about this!
At any rate, they sent us an advance copy to listen to and I must convey what I found upon review. This remix is very disappointing. Instead of the intended main guitar tracks, there are "scratch" tracks in some places. On "Desert Rose" and "Trademark", there are sections where the lead guitar is not in the mix; it is completely absent. A "rough sketch" bass track was used on "Cliffs Of Dover" that isn't even Kyle Brock playing it, yet Kyle's name is still on the credits! They used some guitar tracks that weren't quite in tune and more importantly, were never meant to be used. There are doubled guitar parts that weren't supposed to be doubled. They did not edit together the intro "Ah Via Musicom" into "Cliffs of Dover" as it was written to be with respect towards a movement of music. This same mistake is true for "Trademark" into "Nothing Can Keep Me From You". The 'House Burning Down' flange effect on "High Landrons" was not done correctly. In addition, the guitar tones and mix in general do not reflect what Richard Mullen and I would be happy with, excited about or comfortable with.
All of this was done without communication to the artist, producer, engineer or artists' manager. We were, in other words, left in the dark concerning the quality and content of this release.
Fortunately, Capitol Records has since agreed to allow us to remix the "Ah Via Musicom" 5.1 DVD in a manner that we feel would be befitting to it. Unfortunately, approximately 2500 copies have gone out into the stores with the unapproved mix. Capitol Records has agreed to let anyone who buys this current DVD to trade it back in when the new version is released.
I apologize for the quality of this release. I do not condone, authorize or approve of it and I will try to get this situation rectified as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading this and allowing me the vehicle to express something that is important to me. All best wishes to all of you.
Very Truly,
Eric Johnson