The Distillers

They're selling undergarments and makeup and perfume and doing films and other stuff.

Emily White, who was a longtime manager for Amanda Palmer from the Distillers and also just a respected music executive in her own right, wrote this book.

called How to Build a Sustainable Music Career and Collect All Revenue Streams that was recommended to me by one of my friends a couple of years ago, and it transformed my life.

I know Emily.

Um, and if I'm butchering these people's names, I apologize doing the best I can.

Um, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul McCartney, Dan Druff, Brendan Nichol, Jesse Hughes, Mark Lanigan, Teddy Quinn, Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal, who I mentioned earlier, Nick Elardo, Fred Drake, Jordy White, Stella McGowsen, Matt Sweeney, Tony Mason, The Distillers, Royal Blood, Death From Above, Peaches.

them crooked vultures eagles of dead metal mondo generator like there's just so many different groups that have been affiliated with josh or josh has helped out or um they've collaborated together it's just wild and if you're into that the desert sessions are like their own thing and so josh invites a bunch of people out to the desert and they're all musicians and they record stuff together and figure things out and sometimes those things become queens of the stone age tracks and sometimes they don't so it's neat to go and listen to those um it's an improvisational commune that basically josh started to make rap music with his friends and they've produced 12 volumes there's some licensing issues so you can find them most of them on youtube but trying to find like a hard copy or digital download is really hard because of publishing stuff so

it's just such a cool concept for making music Yeah.

They're separate bands, but I just thought this was interesting.

to the grand royal before joining warner brothers so once there he carved out quite a niche signing bands like the use the distillers glass jaw and he would eventually go on to sign avenge sevenfold taking back sunday against me and many others so an amazing amazing portfolio um he clearly had good ears he found out about my chemical romance through the youth singer burt mccracken and brian trector and flew out to new york to new york to see them play in a dive club to a tiny crowd so And

I got to say the Distillers and Against Me are two of my favorite punk bands from the 2000s.

Yeah.

So chronologically to read that passage.

Even then, some punk acts have embraced streaming services, which are dominated by large record conglomerates, yet they release their albums independently.

The question becomes, can you maintain the DIY spirit if you're paid through a major label's revenue sharing model? Looking at 2020s, we see bands like The Distillers, originally on indie, then signed to major, returning to self-release after contractual disputes.

They argued that corporate pressure altered their sound.

Fans wanted back the unfiltered grit that came from independent production.

Their legacy isn't just in their records, but also in how they dismantled genre boundaries.

The combination of hardcore urgency, melodic depth, and social consciousness created a blueprint that bands like the Distillers, Against Me, and even later, Pop Punk X drew from, showing the ripple effect of those early Olympia nights.

It's fascinating to trace how that movement grew out of a cramped basement rehearsal space into a global phenomenon, from DIY tape exchanges with the UK to touring with major label bands.

Yet each step kept the original punk ethos front and center.