Struan Douglas is obviously entitled to his opinion when it comes to criticising Selaelo’s debut recording (“No room for compromise”, July 27), but I’m somewhat perplexed by how he is able to make a comment like “became throttled by the label’s accurate economic strategies”.
As the person responsible for signing Selaelo and commissioning the recording of Painted Faces, I confirm that I set no budget, restrictive or otherwise, for this work, but simply asked the producer, Gavin Goldberg, to work out what it would cost to make a good recording.
Gavin requested that we use Rhino studios and constructed a budget for these facilities, which I approved.
This was the only time recording costs were discussed, as I had sufficient faith in both the producer and artist that they would deliver a quality recording.
If Struan is referring to marketing, I can confirm that the combination of music video, tour support , TV and radio advertising afforded to Painted Faces was more than generous, and played a significant role in boosting Selaelo’s career.
Selaelo has gone into the studio to work on the follow-up to Painted Faces, and I have no doubt that he will deliver more top-quality work. Dave Thompson, director, A&R/Marketing