A prayer for fandom

In case you missed it…

• We made our first piece of Clone merch with Night Gallery. It’s a t-shirt throwback to the early 90s. They are 𝙇𝙄𝙈𝙄𝙏𝙀𝘿 𝙀𝘿𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 so you should order one now. 

• Ick, our Instagram magazine for creative complaining, has a new video series. We cold-call our friends and make them tell us their icks on the spot. Our first victim was post-hardcore prince, Geoff Rickly. 

• Greta Rainbow published the second part of her series on where the next literary movement will come from

This week’s Tasteland guest was Sam Valenti IV. Sam is the founder of Ghostly International, home to such artists as crushed, Hana Vu, Shigeto and more. He also runs Herb Sundays, a weekly playlist series by different curators like Panda Bear, Laurel Halo, and Jeff Weiss. 

Keep scrolling for a portion of the interview, followed by the headlines we’re following this weekend.

Francis Zierer: You joke that Herb Sundays is like a prayer for fandom. Being a fan is competitive—you have to have this fanatic commitment to a thing to seem valid. But once you're that committed, you can't critique it. 

Sam Valenti IV: It's a great point, you come in as a noob and you just follow the leader. I think film is really accelerated, and it seems like there's a general level of knowledge of film that feels more universal. And the rise of the indie studio reminds me of the 90s when indie studios were record labels. 

There's no record label now that's as cool as A24. It's interesting because film and books are actually super time intensive. So I don't buy the, “We have no attention span” thing. It seems like there actually is a lot of appetite for good stuff. I think you need a leader brand to bring people in, like “now I feel comfortable having some language with film and I'm gonna go into Criterion.” I think it's like a playbook now that people could follow. And music could learn now from some of its own playbooks that it's let go of. 

I also have a sneaking suspicion that what I'm reading on social media is not actually the truth. It's its own prism of light. You perform your fandom in different ways. It just shows how we’re deeply in need of connection. I know community, the new C-word, is like super hard to bandy about these days without sounding inauthentic. But maybe community isn't as online as we thought it was. 

Daisy Alioto: Toxic fandom is really a combination of knowledge-based fandom plus this sort of let people enjoy things, criticism is violence emotional posture.

SV: You show your fandom, you perform your fandom in different ways. And I think the Oasis thing is interesting. I have friends who went and who are not given to hyperbole and they want to go back. People are deeply in need of connection. I talk about Insane Clown Posse often. I’ve never been to an ICP show, but I’ve always loved the idea that there’s this sweetness to it. 

DA: What has been the evolution of community as it pertains to Ghostly, and what's your involvement like today? 

SV: It evolves. There's me and my roommates or me and the crew in the first office, which is someone's bedroom. I think most labels and most good cultural enterprises come out of groups of friends. It's my unexplored thesis. 

Then there's obviously a growth phase, with different people for different times. I think some labels lean stronger into live or have a booking agency or have a festival, that's where the energy is. That's never been our stock and trade.

FZ: How did you guys end up publishing the Minecraft soundtrack? 

SV: We ended up not doing other games. When you get successful at one thing, you're like, “Oh, we can make a whole label.” We thought about it. I don't really know the gaming industry. It's also some of the most annoying fans of all time. 

Anyway, a friend of mine in Ann Arbor said, “Hey, I know Daniel, or C418.” And I was like, “Yeah, we should chat.” The game was popular, but it wasn't the level it is now. He had the digital rights. And it was just like, “Hey, can we press this on vinyl?” That game just hoovers up every generation. There's this endless growth curve. 👻

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WHAT WE’RE READING

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