As for your compliments – thank you. It means a lot to us. We’ve worked hard for years on our music and we’ve watched bands that we’ve respected and performed with split up and go their separate ways. It’s always a shame when this happens and we’re lucky to have stuck together through good as well as hard times (not to mention a period of significant industry turmoil). 

Finally, as for that perfect EP… don’t go anywhere – we’re working on it.

Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against your involvement in the campaign per se, and I can understand how it might have helped you gained contacts and (I suppose) some exposure. It’s easy to be cynical about commercial projects but I see mostly goodwill here.

However, you are a phenomenal set of musicians. You are capable of writing fantastic music. But the song and the campaign are entirely passable – fun but never exceptional. A simple, easy pop song that you guys most probably wrote with your eyes closed. If you say otherwise you are doing yourselves a SERIOUS disservice.

When you’re capable of writing songs like Fine, Sleepless, Miles Away, Sarah, it strikes me as somewhat of a crime that you’re spending your time on projects like this! Obviously you have financial constraints to consider, but you could be getting your music out there! And it’s one thing to say that A&R don’t search out artists these days, but the beauty of it is that musicians don’t need them anymore.

I’d expect that time would be better spent concentrating on fulfilling the potential that you have always promised (and that so many of us believe you have!) Writing, recording and producing that perfect, irresistible EP, and getting it out there on the web. If you took the time to get the execution right, then there would be little to stop you

As for Universal, Josh’s Band were only signed up for a one-off single deal in any case and it was never expected to turn into a long-term relationship. As for T-Mobile “waving goodbye”, unless you work for them and know something I don’t (!), that can only be pure assumption on your part. Josh’s Band performed for T-Mobile and the Big Dance at a press launch in London at the end of January (several weeks after the single release), and more events of a similar nature are planned for the future.

Finally, as for the question “Um – what next?”, for us that was fairly straightforward to answer. We jumped on a plane bound for South Africa to embark on our 2010 Cape Town tour! Which reminds me, I must get back to my poolside mojito…

If you don’t believe enough in your talent and musicality to take you where you need to be with the right kind of exposure why would anyone else?

In other words involve yourself with whatever corporate entity you see fit. That isn’t the issue. But do enough ground work so that your next corporate relationship is on your terms, not a hit and run that leaves you going “..um …what next?” Good luck.

Personally, i don’t get that mentally involved with adverts unless the music is good (at which point i try and work out who it is). Big bonus that this ad had the main men in various shots (and i don’t mean Josh) and i’d much prefer this to a track from an established artist, such as Coldplay or U2.

At the end of the day, if the corporations DIDN’T give exposure to independent artists when they could people would complain, and when they do – people complain.

Glad to see a squatter like you stuck with it and are getting your just rewards. Best of luck for the future…

As for your first point, I know it’s hard to believe but the story about Josh being approached in the street by a camera crew is genuinely true! Well, unless Josh is lying to me that is… which is unlikely as I’ve known him for years.

In the last few years, since the record labels began their decline, unsigned bands have sought alternative business platforms to launch their careers. It’s now common knowledge that the major record labels have been ripping off musicians for decades, to the point that even some of the ’successful’ artists with hit albums have been making less money from their trade than they would do working in a cornershop. As a result there is a quiet revolution happening amongst musicians and many of us are considering the backing of alternative corporations – booking agents, private investors, advertising agencies etc – to help bring our music to a mainstream audience. You’re kidding yourself if you think The Beatles, The Stones, Queen, The White Stripes, U2, Kasabian or indeed any household name since the ’50s made it onto your stereo without the assistance of “a large company like T-Mobile”.