The Lazarusman is a South African Johannesburg based spoken word artist who has spent the last 10 years collaborating and working with some of the best producers and artists from around the world. His aim is to push the boundaries of vocals within dance music. We spoke to him recently about his new release “The Summer Of Your Life” on My Other Side Of The Moon, and his thoughts on the role of the vocalist within dance music…
How are you, how has the last year been for you?
Hey, what’s Gucci? Yeah man 2020 was weird, being confined allowed me to focus a lot on new music and myself. Suffice to say I think 2020 was one of my best years, I put out some really solid records.
What kept you sane, how did you pass the time, did you learn any new skills?
I play a lot of solo games; I love long winded adventures into unknown lands (shout out Ghost of Tsushima solid game). I was also really fortunate to move into an apartment building that had a big forest like garden, so I’d take windy walks and socialise with my neighbours. It was pretty sweet. My lockdown didn’t suck.
Do you think the role of the vocalist has somewhat diminished over the years in electronic music because so many people just sample or have trite, basic, one-word stabs in their tunes?
No, I think the reverse has happened, when I started people were sampling wholesale. There were a few vocalists around and the ones that were like in the top tier of dance music. Now from underground all the way to the upper echelons you’ll find great vocalists doing their thing.
Nothing beats having your own unique vocal to work with, I know producers like that a lot.
Do you write the lyrics you sing, or do the artists you work with write them?
It’s become a bit of a mix, I normally don’t write, I suffer from not being able to write as fast as I think. But when I have some time to work on a project, I may scribble 30% of what I intend to say and then just freestyle the rest. I love speaking from the heart, it makes the vocals feel more sincere for me.
Tell us about your new tune “The Summer Of Your Life” with Neil Amarey on My Other Side of the Moon – what inspired it?
Last year I thought I’d have the summer of life but I didn’t because my tour was cancelled, so it’s part a reflection of that and the other part is where the song originates from; Mozambique. It’s always summer there. The song just gave me good vibes and energies.
Should they be socially and politically charged? Is dance music the right medium for that?
I think with any genre of music there is space to speak or comment on what is happening in society. It’s harder for house because it’s mostly just beats and very little vocals but I feel that where producers and vocalists can they should speak about some of societies issues in their music.
On that note do you think that the BLM movement of the last year will lead to actual change on the ground?
I did a track with Hyenah called ‘Not enough” of which the lyrics were based on a tweet that I read which “it is not enough not to be racist you need to be anti racism”.
I liked that a lot, we need to be against the idea entirely. Like yes, you’re not racist but find it okay to hang with racists because they are your friends. No man! Call them out.
I think the BLM movement showed people that it’s not okay to treat people like that, will it change things, maybe, racists will be racists. At least now they will think twice about their racist actions because we’ve proven that there will be consequences for your horrible mentality.
Have you always felt accepted in-house music, like you are on a level playing field, or have you had to work harder to get to where you are?
A tricky question, I haven’t experienced any form of negativity in dance music yet. That is not to say that it doesn’t exist. I mean people put the fear of god into me when I was booked to play in Russia but I met the most amazing people there.
I think my gripe is how vocalists are treated, we almost never seen on the same scale as DJs or Producers. Even when it comes to recording agreements, people feel vocalists should get the least amount, when in fact the only reason the track probably bangs is because of the vocal. I’m trying to change that not just for me but for others that will come after me.
What changes would you like to see to make dance music a more diverse, accepting world?
Shu, yall coming the questions lol. On a serious note, inclusivity is important and I mean this across the board, from a race perspective to a gender perspective. Even within genres, there’s a weird form of genre classism happening where people are being marginalised or treated different because they have differing tastes.
Music is meant to make us happy and feel good and all that nice stuff. It shouldn’t be dividing us and I feel like we need to remember that.
What songs really struck a chord with you when you were coming up and starting out, and why?
Yeah, as a poet back in the day after hearing Roland Clark’ Resist I knew that this music thing was possible. I can still hear it now. What a jam.
What have you got coming up/are you working on?
I have finished my first full length body of work, just waiting for the right time for people to hear it. Soon come.
Neil Amarey & Lazarusman’s – “The Summer of Your Life” EP is out on 28th May on My Other Side of The Moon
Grab it here
Follow:
https://www.facebook.com/TheLazarusMan
https://soundcloud.com/lazarusman