It’s been about two months since Set Your Goals frontman Matt Wilson released a statement to fans about the current state of the band and what each member was up to, but something Wilson posted on Twitter earlier this month has gotten the attention of fans and some media outlets.
On Feb. 4, Wilson had taken to Twitter to reveal that the band had not seen a dime from the sale of their debut record, Mutiny! as well as merchandise and other things from their former record label, Eulogy Recordings.
Music site, Lambgoat.com requested an interview with Wilson which ended up revealing a lot of information about what happened behind closed doors during the last decade that not even hardcore fans were aware of.
On major standout from the interview, was the revelation that Pete Wentz was thinking about signing them to his record label, Decaydance. Sadly, it did not happen.
“[During their set that night] Jordan stage dove and knocked a monitor off the stage, which ended up being billed to Fall Out Boy. Their tour manager cornered Jordan backstage demanding payment, but we were all total broke asses at the time and Jordan couldn’t afford to pay him. I think the monitor was $400.”
Instead, Decaydance went ahead and signed Four Year Strong.
That only began the drama behind the scenes after they went ahead and signed with Eulogy. The label, according to Wilson, would use different tactics to scam their own bands.
“One of the many tricks he [John Wylie] used, I think he stole from Victory, where he takes out a full-page ad in a magazine and splits it into four quarter-page ads (one for each band), then charges each band for a full-page ad, therefore requiring four times the cost of what he actually paid in order to ‘recoup.’
We were young and naïve at the time, and didn’t realize that hiring Dave Crisafi, an employee of the label, as our manager was a huge conflict of interest. Dave would always side with Eulogy whenever payment was brought up, and once we learned that this isn’t the way things are usually done, we fired him. We’d developed a friendship with him and everyone at the label, so this was not an easy tie to sever.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Eulogy knew how badly the band wanted to leave the label that they told Epitaph Records, who were interested in the band before officially signing them, that they would let SYG out if their contract for $100K.
“Keith (our manager) got in contact with Epitaph Records, who were interested in buying out the remainder of our contract. That pretty much bailed us out of our situation. The amount exceeded $100K, a portion of which was paid up-front, and the rest was to be recouped through sales of our second full-length.”
But for those who are more interested in whether the band will be reuniting anytime soon, Wilson gave a slight hope for that.
“Last time I talked to everyone about the band we all seemed receptive to the idea of playing shows again when it makes sense. 2016 marks ten years since the release of Mutiny! so maybe we’ll play some shows then? Our band has always sort of flown by the seat of our pants, so it’s hard to say this far in advance, but we’ve all agreed it’s best to leave the door open.”
To read the complete, in-depth interview, head on over to Lambgoat here and check out everything Wilson had to say.
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