A lot has happened in both the scene and in Damian Lazarus' proffesional life since he spoke to Sound Revolt on the eve of his last performance in our country. Two weeks before his scheduled gig on the beach in Plock, we have another interview with the Crosstown Rebels boss for your reading pleasure. This time around, Mr. Lazarus talks about life after the bankruptcy of another distributor, monkeys in space, his love for his latest brainchild and his upcoming...

Sound Revolt: You pretty much travel the world over DJing each and every year...What are your favourite scenes (by scenes I mean clubs, DJs, producers, people etc...) as of late?
Damian Lazarus: I just travel from one city to the next, strolling about, having fun, playing around, meeting great people and partying. There are no favourittes, just a lot of good times.

Sound Revolt: After your another distributor went bust, did you even for a second think of giving up on the label? What motivated you to keep it going?
Damian Lazarus: Actually, in all honesty I did. This was the 3rd distribution company to collapse since I started the label nearly 5 years ago and this time we simply lost so much money it was ridiculous. I took some time off, considered everything and then just one day decided that I love running this label so much that I would do anything to make it survive. The thing is we are not just a record label, we really are an amazing family of friends and making records is a key symbol for keeping us all together, making music together and making killer parties together. So really it was a no brainer; continue to put special music out by special people or just pack it all in and just look after myself? So here we are;back in the game for another round.

Sound Revolt: What can be expected from the Crosstown Rebels in 2008? Any special plans? Exciting new artists?
Damian Lazarus: There is a new energy at Crosstown Rebels right now; new artists, new designers, new websites launching… I wanted us to come back strong, looking and feeling fresh. The most important thing is the music, the rest is fun fancy dress. People like David Terranova who has come in and helped me make the Rebel Rave films is symbolic of the fresh creativity we have around us right now. Also our record sleeves are incredible, I am commissioning new artists to design sleeves which we split over four records so that when you have each sleeve, it creates a very special work of art. As for the music, I just signed an amazing new artist called Riz Mc, he just played Glastonbury and supported Massive Attack at Meltdown. He is going to be massive. We also have new projects from Seth Troxler and John Keys, Luke Solomon and Jennifer Cardini and albums coming out this year by Jamie Jones and Butane.

Sound Revolt: Will RebelOne still be around, or is the digital arm taking its place?
Damian Lazarus: We are just about to launch CDR (Crosstown Digital Rebels) and the first release is Bass Clef’s remixes of Jamie Jones’ track ‘Panic’. The label will be available first from www.crosstownrebels.com and then from Beatport. I am still deciding what to do about RebelOne, it’s been such a succesful label but as you can see we have been super busy with everything else.

Sound Revolt: Are you still playing vinyl? If so, how much?
Damian Lazarus: Yes, I still love vinyl, always will. I play 50/50 vinyl and cds. I’ve been a vinyl collector all my life and don’t plan on stopping any day soon.

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