Cape Town - One of South Africa’s most successful rock outfits is embroiled in a bitter battle with their former manager over contracts, millions of rands in fees and royalties, and intellectual property.
The 12-year relationship between the Parlotones and Raphael Domalik ended in July when the four-man band discovered their manager, along with record label Sovereign Entertainment, owned all their music, their name, and their money.
All the Parlotones members – lead singer and guitarist Kahn Morbee, drummer Neil Pauw, bass and keys player Glen Hodgson and guitarist Paul Hodgson – received from Domalik over a decade was a salary, with zero royalties.
“Most of the money we got was from performance fees,” said Morbee, who along with his fellow band members, spoke exclusively to Weekend Argus sister title the Saturday Star this week.
“Traditionally what would happen is that the management and agencies would take a certain percentage, and the rest would filter to the band. That’s the model. The rest of the money would be invested, we were told.”
Instead, Morbee said, the money all “went into one account, (Domalik’s) account”.
This included live performance fees and album sales.
“We had a very casual kind of contract. We know we will never get any money back. It’s history.”
Last year Domalik released a book, along with some of the band’s unheard songs.
But the Parlotones stopped the sale, and the material was pulled from shelves.
The tracks are, however, still available on iTunes.
The band, who returned home from the US after a two-year stint, said Domalik was convinced that he was within his rights to release the tracks and the book.
“We obviously don’t agree, but his lawyer says yes. The only person who can answer that question is a judge. We think that the public and other artists will side with us. But it is a waste of time and energy to go to court. It is money we can spend elsewhere,” Morbee said.
The band, who now manage themselves, have sent Domalik, who is still in the US, a letter to try and resolve the matter.
Domalik had a “big ego”, said Morbee.
“He will tell us in a number of adjectives to get lost. Initially we were just going to walk away because we knew anything we tried to say would result in a fight. We just asked to see our contract and the finances. He refused.”
Hodgson said all the band wanted now was to own their own work.
“Everything we record and release now is ours. Our issue is with our old recordings. In April or May we will release our first album without (Domalik). He interrupted the creativity of the band,” he said.
Domalik, co-owner of Sovereign Entertainment, responded that he had no idea why the split occurred.
“Two weeks before I received the first indication of this situation, Kahn and I were discussing his solo future in my LA apartment. My best guess is that The Parlotones changed their mind about trying to break America.”
He confirmed he had not consulted Morbee on the track listing for The Singles 2004 – 2014 album, but said that as co-director of Sovereign, Morbee was “behaving in contradiction of his fiduciary duties”.
All his actions since the decision to dissolve their working relationship “were not in the company’s best interest”.
“The decision to release the singles compilation was an attempt to recoup at least a portion of the R5 million that had been invested in the US, and is lost and unrecoverable,” Domalik claimed.
For the book, he countered that the band had made no contribution, and so were not entitled to any royalties. - Weekend Argus