Interview with Nadia Dahlawi

London-based singles only label, Young & Lost Club was a University-born project that now, three years later, is thriving in the competitive waters of the music industry. But with the ways we digest music becoming ever more diverse and bands losing money through the digital sector, what’s stopping the independents from going under? Nadia Dahlawi, cofounder of Young & Lost Club with Sara Jade, took time out of trying to balance a record label to talk to E-ndustry about the industry.

With major labels having to slash production budgets, drop artists and let a multitude of staff go in order to adapt to the unpredictable marketplace of the music industry, how are you coping in terms of costs? Have you had to do any of these things?

We have been ok so far. Although I think that’s because we are on a much smaller scale than record labels like EMI. We mainly put out 7” vinyl singles, which are seen as collector’s items. Often a lot of our customers buy the single as a download and on 7”. We have even found some people buying our 7”s don’t even have a record player, they just like to have the single for its artwork and because they really love the band.

When it comes down to bills, how do you cope? Does the company bring in enough money to pay everyone or do you have mostly part timers working for you?

It’s just Sara and I at Young & Lost Club. We work full time on the label and do everything ourselves from finding bands, getting the artwork done to even distributing the single ourselves and organising a single launch party. We like to do everything and have found it’s important for us.

How do you usually go about taking on an artist and getting their record out?

We usually see bands play at our club nights like Push [at Astoria 2 every Saturday] or meet them through friends or other bands we have done singles with. The only band we did not know before was Good Shoes. Rhys [Jones] Good Shoes got in contact with us and sent us some songs.

How have things changed in the years that you’ve run an independent in terms of making money and putting records out?

When we first started the label there were not so many small singles labels. We have seen a lot more come and go since. We think it’s great there are so many opportunities for people to get involved and there is a real DIY ethic about it. A lot more ‘big’ bands also put 7” singles out now too.

Do you sell MP3s to/through online services to make money from the digital sector or do you find it difficult to create revenue because of downloading, whether legal or not?

We have just started selling our singles on iTunes and all our past singles can be found on the independent record shop, Pure Groove’s, digital site. It has not been a problem yet for us having it up for download too. Having to put on a record every time you want to here your favourite song is not really practical.

With CD-R’s being so cheap and software making it easy for the general public to burn onto them, do you think CDs and vinyl will become redundant?

I think vinyl will always have a collector’s item feel and there will always be a market for them. I am not so sure about CDs though!

Do you think you’ll ever stop putting stuff out in a solid state?

I think we will always want to put our singles out as 7” vinyl. It’s a very important part of the label for us.

Is it easy to set up an indie label?

Its very hard work and you make no money at the beginning. But we both really love what we do, so it does not seem like hard work. When it’s your own label you end up putting in a lot of hours too.

How, when and why did you set up your label?

We were in our first year of University and neither of us we’re enjoying it. Sara came up with the idea for a singles label, where everyone collects every release and it’s like a club in a way. Also we wanted to run our club night with bands from the label playing.

Do you think there’s too much competition in a slowly decreasing market?

I think competition is a good thing. A lot of club nights, bands and record labels do seem to come and go very quickly though which is sad.