Dumb Ways To Die singer: ‘I don’t usually do ad work, but I’ve got bills to pay’
TinPan Orange singer Emily Lubitz
The singer of the song on the Dumb Ways To Die viral video, who tried to keep her identity a secret because she did not want to be associated with advertising, has said she performed the song because she had “bills to pay”.
Emily Lubitz, lead singer of Melbourne indie band TinPan Orange, told Triple J: “I don’t usually do advertising work. But Ollie [McGill of The Cat Empire] and I are old friends. He called and said he had some session work. We’ve done creative stuff together in the past.”
“I’ve got bills to pay,” she said.
i’m a fan of this project…….but starting to get creeped out by the bandwagon it has become. I’d be shutting all the collaborators up right about now and letting the work speak for itself.
The singer comes across as precious and ultimately a sell-out……”i don’t want to put my name to your dirty little commercial project, unless it’s successful”
“I don’t usually do ad work, but I’ve got bills to pay”
I know some ad agencies that could say the same thing
video is much better than the track which is the usual blancmange of acoustic instruments and cutesy voice.
sigh. 14mill cant be wrong right?
‘I don’t usually do ad work, but I’ve got bills to pay’
Ummm…..I think that is exactly why most people (many begrudgingly) do AD/commercial work, welcome to the REAL WORLD ya pretentious git!
If it is so dishonourable doing the ad/commercial work, you could always go back to the far more honourable dole/arts grant/wealthy parent/patron or even better, the completely honourable and non-commercial music industry [sic] to pay your bills.
The whole pretentious, ‘keeping it real’, ‘anti-sellout’, hipster Melbourne art scene has always been up its own arse and living in an imaginary/hypocritical ivory tower.
Just shut the *$&# up and let the awesome song/animation/video speak for itself.
Session vocal work is a great way for pro singers to make money – surely it doesn’t matter if they are singing to a packed pub in their band or to consumers in an ad.
If you can do what you love, and get paid for it, you’re luckier than many.
Session singers out there – email me with your demo. I’m always looking for great talent for ad work 🙂
Yikes, too many entertainers have this attitude. If only they could see that their ultimate purpose is to move people with their music (apart from the sad ones who do it as therapy). By boosting their profile they get to achieve this purpose in a much bigger way and it’s ok to earn money along the way.
The singer here has every right to state that she doesn’t normally do this sort of work, she and the collaborators clearly considered this job on an individual basis and had it been a new beer commercial or campaign to promote a casino may have thought differently. Calling her a sellout or precious may be more suitable had she sold herself to a campaign she felt strongly against.
if i was her, i’d do the same thing. making it in any creative field is a hard slog, so she was initially protecting her image, and now the song’s gone nuts, she may as well take advantage of it. fine by me.
The way I see it is if an artist gets paid for something they do which is related to their art, then they are doing okay. If Emily was to work as a waitress or in a call centre or to complete her Uni degree as a brain surgeon to pay the bills, then she would truly be selling out on her art. At least she is still involved in the music industry and absorbing the creative energy of those around her.
Been there, done that.
If Ms Lubitz had a BA she would tick every cliche off nicely.
So, she was embarrassed and ashamed to do the work, but when it became successful she thought she’d ride the fame bandwagon? Hypocrite.
What’s the difference between making a song that sells albums, a movie that sells tickets/DVDs and an ad that sells products? Nothing. The integrity lies in the message, which ‘Dumb Ways’ has in droves.
Many ads don’t have integrity, but many movies and songs don’t either.
The Melbourne hipster scene has a lot to answer for – especially because advertising – even for the big kids – is the only way to make money in the music scene these days. No one buys records anymore and Spotify/Deezer/etc is allowing for record companies to cripple their bands.
This girl is a moron and should be criticised for not standing up (straight up, not this, ohhhh well yeah I kinda did it for money) for what she did and what she has achieved.
Loving the butthurt advertising people in this thread confronted with the reality not everyone is dying to work in their oh-so-fab industry. Some top-notch sooking going on.
Emily- you rock and you are such a sweet soul… heard your interview. may your Maker bless you and keep you always and ever. keep singing. you have an awesomely accessible and endearing spirit… hugs from your fan in alaska…. 🙂
More than anything, it shows the emotive power (and sharability) that clever advertising possesses – especially considering that WITH NO MEDIA SPEND the video boasted over 2 million youtube views in comparison with Tinpan Orange’s most viewed youtube video that musters a mere 50,000. Artists such as these should embrace talent and creativity in all its forms – it has proven to be quite a successfully-symbiotic relationship in this case, and many others.
Ease up , it is understandable that she didn’t want to be seen as contradicting the hard working band with another profile cashing in on the huge money that advertising can offer. No one likes advertising in the pubic realm. It is shallow, unoriginal and contrived. But in secret, it offers film nerds a place to play with toys, would be film directors can call themselves Film-makers and bla bla bla. Anyone with a profile in the arts outside advertising would have said the same thing because advertising is perceived as lame.
What a Melbourne art student sell-out…
If I was McCanns I’d be clamping down on this chick giving interviews to stoned breakfast presenters.
Let’s paraphrase what she said:
‘I don’t like having my name associated with advertising because it makes me look like a sell-out. But if it get’s millions of hits on YouTube, and will get me a whole bunch of exposure, then I’m happy to associate my name to advertising because it doesn’t make me look like a sell-out.’
Shallow?
Oh shut up and be proud. Ohhhh you’re such an indie chick cuz you think commercial work is a “sell out”. Holy crap.
So does “indie” mean broke? Because you’re not “selling out” to a corporation here. You’re helping your community. I came here because I wanted to know more about this artist. Now I know she’s a complainer with a dumb attitude. Not even gonna check out her other stuff.
Also, it’s not selling out by making a video to remind people to be safe. And if you can remind people to be safe in a way that’s actually COOL… please. This video was awesome and this indie chick obviously didn’t recognize awesome… which makes me think her music isn’t awesome.
Chill out guys! Seems some people are reading a whole lot more into this than there is. She didn’t exactly shit can the advertising industry she just said its not her thing. She didn’t even labour the point. The sell out comments? … spare me , it wasn’t as if she was advertising MacDonalds for christ sake, it was a safety message. I suspect some of the comments here say a lot more about the people who wrote then rather than who they were written about,
Yeah yeah, “symbiotic”. What a load of adwank. She got paid, that’s all.
Ugh, people here, such assholes. She’s in an indie band, and it’s not exactly good for her image to be seen doing a job for an ad. That’s all, and it’s not hypocrisy.
Lots of artists find it weird to do commercial stuff, why does everyone have such a problem that she felt ashamed?
The motivation to produce work strongly influences the work that is produced, so if she only ever made songs just to get money then everyone here would again be hassling her for that too.
I guess most people don’t know what it means to work for the sake of the art, rather than the money.
sweet sounds…love the work, great voice. Keep on making music
@Akstra if doing an ad is bad for your indie band image as you say then that applies whether the ad is successful or not. The people here railing against her hypocrisy have a valid argument – you either shut up from the beginning and stay shut up, or you put your name to it proudly from the beginning, whatever happens.
You don’t change your mind halfway……..
well done Tinpan Orange, I met you at Port Fairy Folk Festival and you were all such lovely people, definitely don’t deserve the crap you’re receiving about doing this ad. Well done, I love this ad! 🙂
I don’t care what her reasons were. The PSA speaks for itself in its message brought to the public in a form rarely, if ever, seen before. She did a great job singing and millions and millions of viewers have enjoyed the commercial AND enjoy having that little song in their minds….i know i do…..It’s definitely a picker-upper!
Ha! Right – a very creative, clever, and hilariously relevant public health announcement written by a well respected artist in the industry who is an apparent “old friend” of the singer is advertising?!.. Confused. She need not feel ashamed. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, it gives her indie pursuits credit. Not sure what the problem is either way. Besides, Indie has it’s own branding of non-commercialism which is, as it turns out, marketable, consumable, and guess what? IS marketed ad nauseam… sooooo… what’s the issue again?