Emmure Say Victory Records Never Cheated Or Stole From Them

October 1st, 2013

Kriston McConnell

There’s probably a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths over the controversies seen between different bands and the label Victory Records. The most obvious feud is the current one, between them and A Day To Remember. There’s also some bad blood between the label and Between The Buried And Me, who have asked fans to pirate their earlier music in order to keep the label from cashing in on those old albums.

It was recently announced that Emmure would be re-signing to the label, and from the looks of it the band couldn’t be happier. In a recent interview with Alternative Press they stated why, in detail, they decided to sign back on. According to them, all labels are the same and Victory has never cheated them out of anything. You can read the full explanation below the jump.

Emmure just recently resigned with Victory Records for your sixth full-length album, the follow-up to 2012’s Slave To The Game. Tell us a little more about what went behind your decision to resign with Victory?

There were a lot of different reasons to resign with Victory. First off, I think the continuity of a band’s career is dependent on the relationships you make internally. We have a good relationship with Victory Records on all levels. We have a personal relationship with everyone who works there, from publicity to art director. We are also lucky because Victory Records has never stifled us creatively. Any idea we have ever had, they’ve been like, “Yeah, let’s do it,” whether it be a music video or an album theme or anything like that. They actually believe in our band, and they want to see what we’re going to do next. They are curious and excited about our material. It’s good to have that kind of backing from any label, period. It’s good to have that freedom to try new things. Even if you fail, they are still behind you. You can’t buy that. You can’t just expect that from people. It’s something you have to earn, and are blessed if you get.

On another aspect, our fans are not totally reliant on Victory putting the album out, but it’s easier for us to reach those fans if we stay on the same label. They will already have that familiarity. The continuity overall is really one of the main reasons to re-sign.

You know, there are those horror stories that people are going to spit out, but here’s the bottom line: All record labels are exactly the same. I don’t care which way you cut it. They are doing the same kind of business on all corners. Victory does good business, and if you’re a band that is expecting more than what you get, then you’re going to feel cheated and robbed. Personally, I’ll tell you right now, we’ve never been robbed. We’ve never been cheated of anything. Victory has been our home for basically our entire career, and it hasn’t done us wrong.
I think there is a lot to say about our band, to have not only continued success, but to have survived the hurdles along the way. It’s not easy. Anyone who thinks that, “Oh, we signed to Victory, my life is great now” is wrong. Things have never gotten crazier up until then. It’s serious then, you have to perform at a certain level. There is a lot of pressure in that.

I get a little frustrated because I think people forget that Emmure came from the gutter, the fucking underground of the underground, playing clubs no one has ever heard of and VFW Halls no one has ever seen. We did all that shit for years. Now it’s paying off. It’s paying off for us, and for Victory as well. The big reason Victory believes in us so much is because we had that gradual following and we came from that “all or nothing” place. Major shout out to our Victory family for continuing to believe in us.