THE HAUNTED guitarist Anders Björler and vocalist Peter Dolving recently spoke to Belgium's Concreteweb.be webzine about illegal music downloading. Asked about the fact that their latest CD, "rEVOLVEr", was available for download on the Internet well before its official release date, Anders said, "In fact, we can't really stop the Internet scene. For that, you have to stop sending out promos, and then you don't get any generalized feedback anymore, and that would make it too complicated. I think, everything that comes out one month prior to release, that's OK, but it would be really devastating for the band if it was already available six months or a year in advance. If then the album comes out, it's already old news. But within a month, that's OK for me. I consider the Internet as a big radio station. You download songs and listen to them. It's a way of promotion. And if you like it, then you buy it or you go to shows or buy T-shirts."

Peter added: "I think one of the reasons that there is that really strong debate about it, is that it really affects one part of the business a lot, and that is the major record companies and the major publishers because they are the ones who lose money on a large scale. If you're an artist like, for instance, Elton John, then you lose money. Paul McCartney is pissed off because he owns about 25,000 copyrights of songs. I think we'll have to accept the fact that it's there, that people want to be able to share music on a softer, easier kind of scale. Then again, there's always the thing with copyright. If you think about it, it points up to the fact that it's really obscure that you can buy a copyright. The idea of copyright is that whoever wrote the song should have the possibility through his lifetime and his family's lifetime, to have certain advantages from what he or she created. I think that's fair, if you look at it from a songwriter's perspective. Sooner or later, there will be some mark or script attached to each song. But the thing is, it really is overhyped, the whole debate whether it's right or wrong. The only ones who are really affected, it's not bands like us or punk bands, because our fans, they'll buy the record anyway. They'll download the album and go then to the record store and buy the album for the artwork etc. etc. The ones who are really hurt are the larger record companies, because that are people who're not really into music, they'll pick one MADONNA song, one from BRITNEY SPEARS and put it in their big bag of goodies and they don't give a shit, because the next month, it's a completely new bag of goodies. So they just go download-crazy, with Kazaa and their computer all full of music. They're all fucked up. Not normal people. OK, now I'm going over the edge, but that's basically what's happening. So I don't think it affects the more specialised kinds of music, no."

Band profile:

The Haunted