Speaking to Billboard recently, Kevin Martin of the band Candlebox talked about the effects of cancel culture. According to Martin, this culture silences artists and the music industry and desensitizes people. He says he doesn’t care about it, and he adds:
“Organized religion to me is the most f*cked up thing in the world. We’re more concerned about drag queens than we are about kids getting murdered in f*cking school with assault weapons. It’s terrible we allow kids to go through that because we’re so desensitized by it now. The advice to the artist is don’t say anything. Don’t take a stand. Well, I don’t care. F *ck you. It’s my last record. What are you going to do to me?”
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of their self-titled debut album this year, the band has just completed their Long Goodbye tour. Reflecting on what happened during this time, Kevin continued his criticism by focusing on the double standards in the music industry, adding that:
“This tour bus is costing me $1,500 a f*cking day. It’s bullshit. I would’ve paid $400 for this 10 years ago. The air conditioning doesn’t work and they hadn’t cleaned the vents or changed the carpets ever. I’m living in a petri dish and it’s disgusting. But of course I’m really grateful for everything.”
Making Music Without Caring About Anything
Kevin, who moved to Seattle at the age of 14 and laid the foundations of the band here, talked about Seattle’s understanding of music in the 90s in an article published in Artist Wave in 2016. Focusing only on music, Kevin continued:
”It’s because those musicians didn’t give a shit about anything other than the music! They weren’t thinking about whether or not you or your friends liked it. They played what they were driven to play. They sang what they were inspired to sing. It existed because of how badly they needed it to exist!”
Continue On The Road Against All Odds
Kevin Martin says he won’t quit writing music despite everything. The band announced that their album The Long Goodbye, which they released on August 25, was their last album. However, Kevin referencing the song Cell Phone Jesus from this latest album, he told his fans that it’s not all over, saying that it’s all a preview of what he’s going to do in the future.
