Interview: Five Minutes with Lazer Owl

Photo credit: Asja Caspari

Innovative Italian music producer Lazer Owl (Anthony Lazaro) has released his latest album Set  Fire to the Night via Lazaro Records.  Adopting the moniker and alter ego Lazer Owl not too long ago, the music producer is currently sitting over 1 million streams across multiple platforms. Along with a noteworthy stream rate, he also has a rising following of over 40 000 listeners on Spotify. His single ‘Fifty Shades of Blue’ became a familiar favourite of the Amazon Prime series  Russian Affairs. Renowned names like publication Cosmopolitan and fashion line Walker Baker have incorporated his singles ‘Alive’ and ‘Reaping What I Sow’ into their campaigns.

Find out more about Lazaro’s latest project below.

Stream/ download: Set Fire to the Night

Which comes first when you’re producing – the sound or the idea?

It’s a back and forth: normally I start from a sound or a progression I really like, then comes an idea, then the sound is refined, and so on. It’s like a virtuous circle

Does your material feature any collaborations?

I’ve co-produced most of these songs with Danny Humming, which is also my main partner on Anthony Lazaro’s productions

What’s on your current playlist?

I’m listening to lots of lo-fi indie pop and afro-pop, lately! Let’s see if I can ferry these influences in my next releases

What techniques do you experiment with to get your original sound?

At first, I try to keep every creative possibility open, at least until I find something that works: I play around with sounds and progressions, sometimes trying to take something from the musical “pages”. I like and see if I can make it work with my own style. The ones that work the best make the final cut and get released :).

Take us through a day in the recording studio.

I have a routine: I’ve trained myself to do a complete produced draft every single day. I go back to these drafts in the following days and filter the best ones. That’s normally the second part of my routine: going back to the best drafts and begin developing. The third part is, of course, tracking and refining.

Was there a specific moment in your life where you thought, “this is what I want to do”?

Probably the day I took my first guitar lesson, went home, and wrote my first draft after one hour. I’m in love with the songwriting process

Any emerging artists on your radar?

Too many to mention them all: love Haux, Bruno Major, Sarah Kang, and Stu Larsen, among others. But the list of discoveries is almost endless.

What gets your creative juices flowing?

The songwriting and producing process, seeing the idea take shape, take their own life, sharing the songs, seeing the reactions, getting comments, and feedback, seeing people are actually listening to your stuff. This all makes it worth it :).

Take us through your collection of gear, tech or software that accompanies your creative expression.

My basic setup is a combination of Ableton, Serum, Trilian, Sylenth, and a couple of wonderful Kontakt Libraries, my go-to for a piano being the Giant. And, of course, my small collection of guitars and ukuleles :).

Any side projects you’re working on?

My main project, Anthony Lazaro, which is following a parallel and, often, the intersecting trajectory to Lazer Owl’s.

How have you refined your craft since you entered the industry?

I tried to improve every day: learn new tricks in producing, singing, and playing. I love to get new sounds and musical influences in my music. I am always keeping an eye on the song-structure, I always try to have a song structure also for my electronic productions :).

Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you this year?

I have a long line of singles in store: there’s gonna probably be a lot of indie disco and electronic pop, but I can’t stay away from the synthwave sounds too long, so …

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