English Teacher's Lily Fontaine on how the music industry has left her feeling "incredibly cynical"

Leeds indie-rockers English Teacher got a lot of critical love for their Top Ten debut album This Could Be Texas , which came out back in April, and the acclaim continued this week when the quartet were nominated for this year's Mercury Prize. It has been a hectic few years for the band, who first came to attention for their thrilling live shows and a series of excellent releases on independent labels before signing with big-guns Island Records ahead of making their debut record. It's been a period in which you imagine they have learned a lot about the pros and cons of the modern music industry.

It might be mainly cons, though. Speaking to this writer for The New Cue back in March, singer and guitarist Lily Fontaine said her experiences so far had left her feeling “incredibly cynical”.

“I feel like there’s a lot of things that people don’t talk about, like the whole way that everything works and releases happen and stuff. It’s quite closed off, the way that money moves and things like that,” Fontaine stated. “I think there’s a massive lack of investment in musicians - no musicians I know have any money, people who are doing really well. That really surprised me. I know everyone always says like, ‘Oh, if you’re a musician, you’re not going to earn money’ but I didn’t realise that you can be signed to a major label and be relatively successful - not me, I’m not relatively successful, although maybe I am, I don’t know! - but I didn’t know that you could be signed to a major label and be earning less than minimum wage. That’s the thing that’s made me quite cynical. I just don’t think it should be that way.”

Asked what she thought the most incredulous thing expected of a band in 2024 is, Fontaine said it was ridiculous that bands starting out were expected to play for pittance. “You get asked to play a show for 20 to 50 quid,” she said. “That’s the most ridiculous thing ever. But right now, I feel like I’m so lucky, I get things like a rider, which should be normal but I feel grateful for that. Starting out and you got paid petrol or a taxi but you’ve got to pay for all the little bits that things cost, hiring stuff, whatever, and then you just get like 20 quid. That’s not fair.”

The singer isn’t just the frontwoman of one of the country’s best young bands. She has also become an important voice in British music. In April, Fontaine appeared in Parliament to speak to MPs on the Culture, Media & Sport Committee about the crisis facing grassroots music venues around the UK. Fontaine should know – those venues were crucial to the band’s breakthrough, where they got to hone their sound and perfect tracks such as the searing R&B, which you can hear below: