After the dispute with his record companies EMI and Polydor, Fish decided to take a courageous step: in 1994 he founded his own label with Dick Bros. without further ado, but he was shipwrecked with it. The albums that the Scottish singer released between 1997 and 2003 are characterized by a constant, involuntary change: changing record companies and changing songwriters made it difficult for Fish, who himself doesn't know any instrument, to follow his course. He has documented all this in his extensive essays on the re-releases "Sunsets On Empire", "Raingods With Zippos" and "Fellini Days", which are now being released. However, we wanted to know a few more details.
eclipsed: The remasters of the three albums sound fantastic, especially on "Raingods With Zippos" Calum Malcolm did a great job.
Fish: Yeah, that's right. We deliberately chose to do stereo mixes only, not 5.1 surround, because I don't think so. I'm conservative, and I think music should be enjoyed in stereo. "Sunsets On Empire" and especially the following tour had cost me a lot of money, and I couldn't afford a proper mixer for "Raingods". I had Calum in my sights at the time, but he wasn't financially capable anymore.
eclipsed: A difficult time..
Fish: After "Songs From The Mirror" there was a break. The fans took it badly that I had released an album full of cover versions. I already made it clear back then that I had to get out of this damn major contract and owed the company an album. That was the one. The other thing was that I wanted to look into myself and explore what music had meant something to me in my youth. At that time this was not understood and I was forgotten by the media. But just after Bowie's death people hear my version of "Five Years" and wonder how successful it is.
