Amir Kursun, Hassan Al-farsi and Adesh Nashi have started their own record label, Lazy Democracy Records. A young start-up company that is less than a year old, the label has already signed several artists from around the globe and released some awesome EDM and House tracks. Their new show on Bailrigg FM – Lazy Democracy – is a showcase for their own releases and other exciting tunes from the world of dance music.
LAZY DEMOCRACY RECORDS – how did you begin?
We’re all third year law students and this is a start-up that we came up with at the end of last year. In an organic manner, it has led us to where we are right now. We never planned for this to become a business; the intention of Lazy Democracy Records was to act as a platform for us to share our own music rather than to expand into a record label. As musicians ourselves we didn’t have much opportunity to look for other bandmates, form a rehearsal schedule, book studios to jam in… University made it very difficult to find the time for all this. So we thought we would try our hands at Electronic Music, since we felt that it would be easier to find time to allocate to it. We started off there and realised that our individual tastes varied quite drastically, so we decided to create an online platform that would allow us to show this diversity while, at the same time, allow us to promote other musicians that we know from all over the world – not just within Lancaster.
What sort of music are you guys into?
At our core as musicians we absolutely love Rock n’ Roll, Blues, Jazz… which is of course at the opposite end of the spectrum of what we’re doing right now!
You do certainly have a focus on Electronic music with this venture – will this change, considering your passion for other genres?
Of course, but we knew we couldn’t sign someone from the get-go who was a Jazz artist and put our brand there and have it associated with that: the majority of students don’t listen to Jazz! And we’re not saying that Jazz is not good – we love it – but we knew we had to get people interested in us first before we could move into those sorts of areas, hence our focus on EDM and House genres. If you are a band playing Rock music or Jazz or Blues – you have a niche for that, but these days Electronic music is everywhere. You listen to it when you cook, when you clean, when you exercise, when you study, when you pre-drink… It fits into the majority of people’s lives in some way. For things like Jazz, those songs are moments, whereas with a House track you can drop in and out and you can just get it.
How do you find working with the artists you’ve signed?
The one thing our artists wanted in order to work with us was room to breathe; to express themselves. They didn’t want to be tied down, so our contracts with them have been for individual releases – this doesn’t mean that we won’t work with them in the future, but it is important to respect their wishes and to provide an appreciative working environment for them. This has led them to want to continue working with us because they feel that we are approachable, which is hugely important.
Our signed artists are worldwide – one of our artists is based as far away as Panama – so we have never met, our correspondence being based entirely online, but this helps us remember that we are a different kind of label: we belong to the 21st Century, and so, in kind, should our mode of ethical conduct. We appreciate our artists and what they do for us, and they reciprocate those feelings. As a result our working relationships with our signed artists are hugely fruitful and enjoyable. We’ve even managed to plan a year ahead with some of them – that’s how strong the trust is between us!
At some point, do you plan on actually bringing different genres into your releases?
Well, for now we’ll try to focus on one audience; on one area. But we are trying a lot of different stuff, for instance right now we’re negotiating to sign with an artist whose vocal inspirations are less EDM and House, more funk and punk. A completely different style to anything we’ve done before – but she has a great voice. The basic idea we have is that we want to bring her in to work with our current Electronic artists, to blend their work with her vocal talent and to ultimately create a fusion of genre.
We want to experiment and to slowly introduce these new sounds to our current audiences, while also branching out into the more punk listeners out there, to widen the output of our platform and to also introduce these new styles to a wider array of people. We don’t want to throw people into the deep end of a new genre, we want to ease them into it if we can. We don’t expect people to jump straight from Tropical House into Punk, but we can expand gradually over time and see where this experimentation takes us.
Sounds very exciting! Seems like the mantra of Lazy Democracy Records should be ‘Anything But Lazy’! I can’t wait to hear what you come up with. Can you quickly tell us about your radio show on Bailrigg FM, Fridays 8pm till 9pm?
The radio show is our way of letting students hear the music that we release but also songs that we find interesting. It’s called ‘Lazy Democracy’ and we’ll be promoting artists who deserve your attention!
Fantastic. Where can we find you guys online? And will the label be hosting any live events in Lancaster sometime soon?
You can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lazydemocracy and on our official website www.lazydemocracy.com. In terms of live events: we’re in talks with some venues in town. You’ll hear more soon – watch this space!
