By: Michael Robertson (President of mp3.com)
September 9th, 1998

I attended a live performance by Alien Fashion Show in an absolutely jam-packed bar in downtown Portland. Their newly released CD is a sultry combination of swing, cocktail, surf and
rockabilly, but only in person do you get the full impact of their Space Age Swing style. The next morning, I had a chance to sit down with the band and talk to them about how things are
going for their band and about their experience I using a full length CD quality MP3 single as a promotion.

Q: Give me some history about the band.

A: Alien Fashion Show was formed two years ago, but our big break came 8 months ago when we signed with Surfdog Records. Surfdog has a distribution deal with Hollywood Records which helped us get to the next level.

Q: How did the "break" come about?
A: Two words here - Mary Aloe. She's our manager and the one who made it all happen. Mary negotiated the deal with Dave Kaplan and Neil Schroeder at Surfdog. We1re fortunate in that all three of them believed in us and took a chance long before we had a CD and a fan base. The next thing we know, we1re in the studio with producer Jim Wirt (Fiona Apple, No Doubt, Sprung Monkey, Shadowbox, Incubus, etc.) making an album.


Q: Is Mary the "Babs" that live heard about?
A: [Laughter] 8abs is the band mascot and you'll find her gracing the cover of our debut CD as well as our drummer's bicep.

Q: How has the CD been received? .
A: Really great. It hit the shelves in late July. Were told August 24th were going to start getting airtime with our single "Detroit Swing City".

Q: That single is the same one you used for promotion on MP3.com. How has that worked out for you?
A: We've been astonished at the reception we've received. We just finished a tour and wherever we went, we had fans that recognized us. Hundreds of emails from people around the world have poured in because of our exposure on MP3.com. It also was easier for us to tell fans to go to IMP3.com" to get to our music than to our own web site – although we have a really great one! Artists are also told that they "have to be on the web II , but they don't know how. MP3.com makes it easy.

Q: What have the emails said?
A: Some write to say they liked our song and were buying the CD. Others thanked up for being forward thinkers and utilizing MP3. Sometimes they just write to ask questions about the band. We reply to all of them.

Q: Let's talk more about the single you released on MP3.com. How did that come about?
A: Our manager called us one day and said, "I need to know in 20 minutes if you want to put a
song on the Internet for free download." It didn't take us 20 minutes to decide. We said
yes right away. We think that Surfdog/Hollywood are both extremely progressive when it comes to the Internet.

Q: Did you have concerns that people would download the song and not buy the CD?
A: Quite the opposite. We think if people like our single, then they'll buy the CD which is full of quality songs. To us, it's not much different than someone having the ability to copy the song off the radio.

Q: What has been the biggest surprise for you in all of this?
A: The support of the net fans. When you're a band starting off lt's a enormous amount of work. Touring is fun, but tough. Getting supportive messages directly from fans on the Internet is a big moral booster.

Q: Didn't you just finish a tour?
A: Yes. We toured with the Brian Setzer Orchestra.

Q: How was that?
A: Brian is a classy guy that we are lucky to have hooked up with. We opened for them and performed in front of between 40,000-50,000 fans in 3 weeks.

Q: Coincidentally, your band received about 40,000 downloads over the last four weeks on
MP3.com.
A: That's extremely flattering to think that many people are interested in our music.

Q: What would you say to the artist considering using MP3 in a similar fashion?
A: Weld say do it. It's been an effective tool for us and we've got an enormous amount of
positive feedback.