The devilish world of Damian Lazarus

The devilish world of Damian Lazarus

31 October, 2008 | 1.47PM

• Written by: Ryan Keeling
• Filed under: Music News: crosstown rebels, crosstown rebels digital, damian lazarus

After upping sticks and moving his life to L.A., Damian Lazarus is about to take an even bigger plunge - into the world of production.

Currently embarking on his his ominously named Devil Night tour across North America, we touched bass with the Crosstown Rebels boss to talk tours, talent and his thoughts on the emerging US techno scene.

What’s been the ethos behind Crosstown Rebels since you started back in 2004?

Well we don’t have a mission statement in the way Jerry Maguire had one [laughs] but just simply to try and uncover the underground gems that had a slightly broader appeal than niche electronic dance music. Anything that was special and had a classic appeal and was forward thinking really.

So you’ve always been prepared to scratch beneath the surface to dig for those ‘gems’?

Well, yeah. I get sent and offered so much music so it can be difficult, but it’s just a case of making those right decisions. Fortunately I have a great team around me at Crosstown Rebels and I act quite democratically whereby if I find some cool music, I like to play it to all the guys and we discuss it and then there is a period of playing stuff out and testing the viability of it on the dance floor and the potential longevity of it and then yeah, decisions are made and records are signed.

With some people we choose to create long-term relationships ie., album projects, and other things come along that just feel right for a one-off release. We like to work with people that we like as friends and trust as artists.

So that’s a big thing – the friendship part?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I don’t think we could still be running if we didn’t have a good relationship with our artists. We’ve had troubled times with our distribution company going down but I think that we have built up strong relationships with our artists enough for them to trust that we are looking out for them and doing everything to help them achieve what they need to achieve.

Was there one of those early releases that you felt firmly established the label?

I think right out the blocks really: the first release Kiki & Silversurfer’s ‘Sleeza’ was a really pivotal record. It had all the elements of techno, minimal and house; it had everything in it and was a solid, solid club record that really got us going.

There have been particular records over the past three years or so that have been quite symbolic for the label like the James Holden ‘Safari’ remix and the Pier Bucci album -that was quite a landmark piece of work.

Then we tried to do a couple of different things with the Mish Mash record and the Shakleton record. I think it’s all about being able to experiment and to offer people something a little bit different. It’s about building trust with the people that are into your label and once you’ve got that trust I think then people can be steered into alternative and interesting directions as opposed to just providing them with one particular sound.

What’s going on with the Rebelone label at the moment?

Well, we actually got to the tenth release and I’d only ever planned to do ten releases on the label. We are actually thinking about sparking it up again but it would have different rules this time around. Did you know the rules from the previous label?

Well, they were all anonymous releases of course and were the artists all called materials or something?

Yeah, the artists had to be a synthetic fibre and the track names were all animals [laughs].  So we found that was quite a cool way to approach it because a lot of the records on the label were made by pretty high profile producers so we had a few issues every now and then where some of them were providing us with such strong tracks that they kind of wanted people to know it was them. But we kind of masked it quite well, I think. So we may start it again but were concentrating more on our new digital-only label CDR.

Yes, could you fill us in a bit on that?

Well, we kind of figured that we had quite a lot of remixes that had never seen the light of day and I was wondering what to do with this stuff, and then I thought some of the pivotal tracks from the label’s history could do with an update or a bit of new version. And this led us to think we could widen it up even more and introduce some new artists so essentially you could think of it as a brand new label that is very closely associated with Crosstown Rebels.

We figured we’d give this whole digital distribution thing a shot and do it exclusively through Beatport. It’s kicking off at the end of November with Bass Cleph remixes of Jamie Jones’ ‘Panic’. Essentially you could expect slightly more experimental dance music while also looking back at some past nuggets, reworked by some newer and fresher people.

How do you see the health of the UK scene currently? At a glance its house and techno output doesn’t appear to be making the same waves it once did.

Well, I think it’s really vibrant. From our perspective we’ve got Jamie Jones whose debut album is absolutely staggering and we’ve got someone like Riz MC who is like an incredible flag bearer for the UK scene. There are countless experimental artists out there. I think if you’re looking for me to talk about the club scene I think that could do with a bit of kick up the arse but essentially I think there is a wealth of talent in the UK and I think the next twist in the underground sound is just around the corner.

What do you mean by that?

Well, I think there has been a particular sound that has been over-played and overheard and I think there are some people out there that appreciate that fact and are working hard at the moment on creating the next level of where we are going and I think we are about to have quite an exciting time.

You know what it’s like when you go into a recession economically? Well, I think we have had a bit of a techno recession recently, which is not necessarily a bad thing - it’s always bound to happen once you’ve got good music flowing out - but it kind of means then that the more underground DJs who are the spearheads of the scene feel like they need to work a bit harder to find and put out some different types of music now. So, I think out of this recession will come new and amazing fruits of people’s labour.

Do you make a conscious decision to help push UK artists such as Jamie Jones, Matt Tolfrey and Peace Division etc?

Yeah, sure. I mean these people are my friends as well, so it’s important for me to surround myself with really cool people that I love and trust. I just do the little that I can to help people achieve what they want to achieve. I get great enjoyment out of these people making records and doing well and being successful.

I’m not that patriotic where I’d say “Right, I only want to work with English dudes”.

I wanted to talk about Seth Troxler as he seems to be making some exciting and forward thinking music right now. How did you guys hook up initially?

We first met at Bar 25 in Berlin a couple of years ago. I was about to start doing a marathon, back-to-back 16 hour set with Richie Hawtin and Seth was on the decks before we started and someone introduced me to him and we had one of those DJ handover moments, (“hello there” etc) and he just seemed ultra cool and I thought, “we should hang out, later on”. We became very good friends and I think he’s an amazing person who’s got a great background, putting raves on since he was sixteen years old and is great representative of the techno scene who has an amazing future ahead of him.

We’ve had his new track [’Love Never Sleeps’] signed from him for almost a year. I think the first time I played it out was on New Year’s Eve last year. We sat on it for a little bit and I think now it has come through at just the right time

So, you’re about to make your entry into the world of production via your debut artist album. Are you nervous?

Yeah, I am, actually! No, I don’t know about nervous, but I’ve gone through various emotions with this whole process. I’ve been working on this album for two years and I kept it very close to my chest from the early days and I wasn’t really telling anyone that I was in the studio as I didn’t want any extra pressure of people asking, “How’s it going?” and “What’re you doing?” I just wanted to keep it quiet.

What started as an ambitious experiment and an undercover activity suddenly started to become the roots and a basis for a debut artist’s album that I think has been in the making all my life really. My mood about it has changed from being really happy and cheerful about it thinking, “This may not go anywhere,” to getting really excited about and thinking, “Actually, this is starting to sound really good.” And so now with it on the cusp of being released I’m getting a bit apprehensive.

It’s been a long time coming. For years and years people have asked, “When are you going to make music?” and now I have and I’m going to be judged on it. At the end of the day though I’m really proud of it and really happy with it and I think people will like it and I hope they will get it. I

What’s it sounding like?

I don’t want to give too much away because it’s a little bit early. It’s not going to come out until next April but it’s pretty alternative. There’s going to be a single out in January so there will be some promos knocking around early December so we’ll kick it off then. It’s pretty different. I don’t think people would expect anything different than for me to put out something different.

Were you working alongside anyone?

I co-produced the album with Arthur Jeffes who is the son of Simon Jeffes from the Penguin Café Orchestra and also with Luke Solomon on a few tracks and I brought in some musicians and two amazing vocalists – 17-year old twins from Sweden who sound incredible. And I’m using my voice a little bit as well so it’s going to an interesting listen.

Although you’re already a highly successful label boss and DJ, did you feel that moving into production was kind of a validation process?

Well, I think it was a necessity because it’s been something that has been burning inside me forever and I think it took me to get to this point where I could actually re-structure my life so I could actually put the time and effort into it.

The writing of the songs was the moment I realized that I was actually on to something because I knew that I didn’t want to go into the studio and make out-and-out club music and I needed this project to totally represent me and follow my inspirations that I have been establishing over the years. So, I haven’t needed to do it, it wasn’t necessary; it was just something that came around at the right time.

You told us recently “the birth of a new underground, electronic renaissance” is what prompted your move to L.A. Could you give some examples of what you mean by that?

There’s a changing face of dance music here in the States. The sound we have been pushing in Europe for sometime is becoming very exciting in certain places in America. There are undercurrents of movements in certain places in America and collectives of people and people trying to put on interesting festivals and certain bigger clubs not being afraid to book more underground DJs on their main nights of the week.

I’m not trying to look into my crystal ball. I wanted to move out of London for a while and experience something new, and I’ve got some good friends here in L.A. and it just feels like a good place to be at the moment.

Do you think these scenes in the US have fully embraced ‘dance culture’ in the way people in Germany, the UK and Ibiza have?

Kind of. The whole dance music culture here has had a bit of a naff tag attached to it with the whole candy raver thing and the fluffy boots. I think that went along with certain styles of music. At Burning Man the other week apparently the parties with the most people were those where some very cool underground music was being played; I think that’s going to be an interesting festival for our scene to look into.

People that I talk to in Berlin are feeling a bit like they need something new now and I think perhaps everywhere needs something a little bit fresh. Over here [in the US] they are about to get a fresh president and I think that will make a lot of difference. I was actually really fortunate that after my gig in Denver on Saturday Obama was giving a rally and I managed to nip into it for about 10 minutes and it was really powerful stuff so I think the whole nation is ready for change.

Is there a sense of a ‘new frontier’ with regards to US scene? Because although it’s where house and techno originated, it does seem like the vast majority of people out there don’t know or care about underground electronic music.

Well, I’m not here on a mission to spread the word. I just wanted a break from London and to come somewhere cool for a little bit; I haven’t come here to be some evangelical preacher for techno! [laughs]

Can you tell us a bit about the Devil Night tour you are currently embarking on?

Well, the Devil Night tour I started last year and it was originally meant to be one week around Halloween and the Day of the Dead in Mexico, and it kind of branched out over about four weeks last year so this year I’m doing Avalon in L.A. on Halloween and Roots in Mexico City on Day of the Dead.

It’s an opportunity to get into the key cities and key clubs and hang out with all the cool people I’ve met in the past and meet some new people and play some weird and wonderful music to them and basically have some fun. It kicked off this weekend and it was really successful and I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead.


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