Viva Music
Steve Lawler has always been somewhat of a rebel. At 16 he started tuning into pirate radio stations and shortly after, began organising his own underground raves at the infamous M42 Motorway.
Fast forward a decade later, Lawler has his own digital label. As the music industry haggles over the slow death of the CD, Lawler has been able to keep costs running low while releasing quality digital music for download. In true indie spirit, Lawler focuses on developing artists and music that he truly believes in.
Since its birth in 2006, Viva Music has come up to be one of the most thriving record and digital labels in the electronic world, releasing material from exciting and innovative talents including Audiofly, Livio & Roby, Hugo, David Pher & Darius Syrossian and many more.
And with 2009 shaping out to be a year of global change, Viva Music has already kicked into gear with a series of parties from London’s Ministry of Sound to Romania’s Krystal and Club Midi to Amsterdam’s Melkweg and Moscow’s Arma 17.
In terms of releases, the hotly anticipated On The Bus EP from Lawler, Tiefschwarz and Audiofly (inspired by some heavy duty touring the trio did across the States in late 2008) came out last month. Lawler figured that the time spent travelling in between gigs with his cohorts could be put to better use. Thus, with a state-of-the-art studio installed onboard their luxury Winnebago, the talents were able to keep their creative juices flowing. At the end of the tour, each artist took home a project of their choice to complete which in turn resulted in the magically grooving On The Bus EP.
Add the recent offerings of David Durango’s Tierra Nueva and Bubble World and Android Cartel’s phenomenal Cyber Psychosis EP; and Viva’s catalogue looks as impressive as ever. And with a further 2 releases a month scheduled from the label, Viva remains one of the most vibrant labels for electronica.
Head on over to www.myspace.com/vivamusicstore for the latest and check out www.djstevelawler.com or www.myspace.com/stevelawler to see what Steve’s been cooking up.