Credit where credit is due to breakout Malaysian artists Yuna and Zee Avi for aving made inroads into the US music industry, but no Malaysian record label has been able to penetrate the imposing Billboard behemoth that is the Top 40 charts as a homegrown business enterprise … until now.
Enter local label Lakefront Records Sdn Bhd, headed by Penang-born Bryan Christopher Tan. The label successfully steered its American signee, hip-hop act Chrome Cats, to Billboard success last December when the duo’s single ‘Best Life’ garnered enough traction to make to #37 on the US Billboard Top 40.
This makes Lakefront the only Malaysian record label to have ever pushed an artist under its roster into the US Top 40. And Tan did it all by not even having been to the States, instead managing his artists’ US progress via the Internet and daily Skype calls.
“I have actually never been to the US nor met the Chrome Cats in person. It goes to show that we should not be limited by our physical boundaries,” Tan told The Star.
“We had meetings almost every day, with the Chrome Cats and their manager and father Michael Sims. Eventually, I hired Michael as as the US-based chief operations officer for Lakefront Records.
“We created this portal onto the US Billboard Charts. The Chrome Cats have now been on it twice, a feat normally reserved for major record labels like Universal, Island, and Atlantic, which have been in the industry much longer and have much bigger budgets.”
“Lakefront Recordsis ready for a Malaysian multi-platinum artiste and Grammy Award winner. The record label was created with the sole purpose of developing Asian talent for the international market,” said Tan.
When asked about the fact that Chrome Cats, comprising siblings Jamila and Korland Sims, aren’t Malaysian or even Asian and are in fact US citizens, Tan said, “Making inroads in the US from thousands of miles away was a challenge. I was having difficulty breaking Lakefront’s Malaysian artistes into the US market as I did not have the right system in place then. I needed an additional push, and began to search for an artist in the US.
“I stumbled upon Chrome Cats and fell in love with a number of their tracks, especially Don’t Let Go. After sending a Facebook message to them, we started chatting, going over the whole Lakefront Records philosophy to ensure they met our standards. Months later, they signed up,” he said.
The next step for the company will be to try to push local talent into the US charts, building a fan base, getting endorsements and touring.
“We are continually improving and learning, as we are playing in the big leagues, we need to step up to the plate to compete. All this costs money and so we are in the midst of talks with potential investors.
“We have to find like-minded investor that understand what we are trying to achieve. That investor has to be an Asian. We have had several American investors ready to finance us, but we want to keep Lakefront Records in the hands of Asians,” he said.
Source: The Star Online
