For anyone who grew up with Eddy Grant’s ‘Electric Avenue’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ it may come as a surprise to learn that the album they were taken from – 1982’s ‘Killer On The Rampage’ – has never been available digitally. Until now.
42 years after its original release, the album has just made its debut on streaming services and download stores, released through his own label Ice Records with distribution partner !K7 Music.
It’s the start of a planned series of digital re-releases for Grant’s 15 studio albums, with his 1975 debut ‘Hello Africa’ set to follow later this year.
Why have the albums not been available before? That’s a tale worth hearing in full, as Grant told it to Music Ally.
“It seems like it all started just yesterday but in fact it was my desire to see my music created, stored and delivered by what we today popularly call ‘digital processing.’ I was born in the ‘age of shellac’ and by the time I would become a musician, the world would have graduated out of shellac and entered the ‘age of vinyl’ which allowed for better storage of sound,” he says.
“The mechanisms required to play a vinyl record was greatly enhanced and created not only a vastly superior aural experience but a visual one as well in the packaging. It was only a matter of time before the shortcomings of analog technology was realised, causing the desire for noiseless recordings,” he continues.
“I was told that the more one bounced sound back and forth in an attempt to aggregate more instruments, the greater would be the build-up of ‘tapenoise’ or ‘hiss’ which was bad. I had to live with a minimalist approach to recording or sacrifice some quality. By the time digital had made itself present to most music makers in the 1980s I was more than ready for whatever form it was going to take.”
However, for digital distribution specifically, Grant had reservations about the kind of deals that were being signed.
“When I was introduced to the digital music distribution business, it seemed to me that advantage was being taken of not only the traditionally underprivileged of the music industry but even the majors who were too lazy to develop their own new digital protocols with their great wealth but wanted to keep a retrogressive hand on the throats of the record-buying fans who chose the alternative to the high-priced wares being offered to them,” he says.
“I was of course asked to partake in this new alternative but in what seemed to be a usurious manner. The big guys did what the big guys do best, they got in with the hustlers and kept on moving. As a small, truly independent label looking for the new way to please my fans and supporters, I encountered many broken-hearted superstars who ended up being led by the nose even as I continued looking for alternatives.”
The decision to digitise his catalogue now is a pragmatic one. “In the end, it was explained to me why my fans were complaining that it made no sense them going to eddygrant.com to buy my music since it wouldn’t be compatible with what was being offered on these other digital platforms,” he says. “So here I am.”
‘Killer on the Rampage’ may be 42 years old, but it still feels very relevant both in its lyrical content – ‘Electric Avenue’ was a protest song sparked by the Brixton riots of 1981, while ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ addressed class and racial divisions in the UK – and in its blend of genres including reggae, funk, rock, pop, disco and new wave.
“Well, you said it. What I’ve been doing all this time is pointing the way,” says Grant. “My many heroes and mentors did it for me and my contemporaries. The issue of 2024 and the relevance of my music will soon be answered, as it will be for all other music. I wish the other guys well.”
As an artist who currently has 495,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, but also as a label owner releasing music in the streaming era, how does Grant feel about the digital services, and the opportunities and challenges they bring for artists?
“As an artist/label owner, I continue to holdout great hope that logic will overcome greed, and legislation will eventually create a framework that will allow for steady and continuous growth in this new opportunity for the world,” he says.
The fact that Grant is putting out his back catalogue himself is still relatively unusual, but independence has been a key ingredient in his career.
“Even when I was contracted as part of a group to a record company, publishing and management company, I lived and behaved as an independent soul. I presume that the freedom enjoyed by the best in any situation should be accorded to me in an even-handed manner, with respect. I then reciprocate that respect without reservation, whether there is money to be made or not,” he says.
“The record industry has its fads and fashions; I try not to follow them too closely but close enough, that they who constitute the industry continue to pay attention to the sound I make.”
“Regarding my catalog as an artist, I would not be in the position of ownership that I have been in for so long but for that element of great respect from one to the other in a tightly contracted arrangement,” he continues. “I don’t know how many of my contemporaries can honestly say the same.”
‘Killer On The Rampage’ is available digitally now.
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