Michael Wilton states PledgeMusic fiasco instills lack of confidence in people supporting crowdfunding

Michael Wilton states PledgeMusic fiasco instills lack of confidence in people supporting crowdfunding

Queensrÿche guitarist Michael Wilton was recently interviewed by Matt Cole for Dead Rhetoric and spoke about what went wrong with the crowdfunding company PledgeMusic after years of smooth sailing.

Wilton opined: “Wow. They haven’t really disclosed many details, other than they robbed many bands accounts. I don’t know where the money went, and that’s not a good thing. It’s a contractual deal, and the money is supposed to flow into one account. It’s a UK-based company, and they are escrowing everything and they have obligations shipping the items. It’s a stop the world moment – for us, we had product and merchandise ordered, and the way we were going to pay for it is through the money in pledges. And now they have mysteriously disappeared- we are stuck with these orders, and fans expect us to pay for these orders twice (laughs). This is for all the bands that are on the PledgeMusic site – they bank what they are doing on the money that’s in the escrow, and now it’s gone.

It leaves a salty taste in my mouth, a fraud kind of a thing. We are not really sure what they are going to do, if they are going to Chapter 11 it or be sold to another entity. It’s not good, it’s a mess and it instills a lack of confidence for people that support bands in crowdfunding. I highly doubt that some bands are ever going to do this again – and I highly doubt that we will.”

In terms of how Queensrÿche have adapted to the changing musical landscape, Wilton advised: “We first and foremost know Queensrÿche are known as musicians- and there’s integrity in that. We’ve always been that, everybody within the band is on their A game – they are all great players and respect the music. It’s a balance of decades of what songs we want to represent. It’s great to see so many fans stick with us through the years. Their eyes light up when we play “Queen of the Reich” or “The Lady Wore Black” off the EP – I made that when I was 20 years old (laughs). And now the new music – on this The Verdict tour we are putting on a lot of new songs in the set, because the fans want to hear it mixed in with the older songs. It’s all part of the rebuilding process, and people believing in the band and supporting the band and wanting something different all the time. That’s something that we love, we love doing things that are different. Obviously we have some songs that you have to play, and if you don’t you get crucified for it. As long as we represent things as they were on the record, that made such a statement in people’s lives, that’s important because that’s how it’s remembered. It brings enjoyment to the fans.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Michael Wilton at Dead Rhetoric.