Jannis Stürtz, Habibi Funk

0:13Hello and welcome to this special episode of the Monaco Weekly. I'm Ferdinand Augusto Pacheco, and for today's show I speak with Yannis Sturz, founder of Habibi Funk, a Berlin-based label specializing in reissues of eclectic sounds from the Arab world, from Libyan reggae to Sudanese jazz. Yannis tells me more about the beginnings of Habibi Funk.

1:07The label was burst through pretty much a coincidence. I co-run another label which is more like hip-hop, instrumental music, beat stuff and one of the artists on this label called Blitz the Ambassador ended up playing a gig in Morocco at a festival. I came along doing tour management and I stayed a few days extra, walked the streets of Casablanca very randomly without really a destination, just wanted to see the place and I came across an old shop front that had stacks and stacks of old electronics. And behind the stacks and stacks of old electronics, you could see records. And I went in, it turned out that this shop used to be a record shop and record distribution.

1:58And then eventually they shifted their business to repairing old electronics. But the guy was happy to have me have a look. I bought some records and among them was one by a singer called Fadul. And he credited James Brown on the backside of the record. So I was kind of feeling it might be something that would resonate with me. And when I got home, I listened to it and it indeed did. Like it was a take on James Brown, Papa Got a Brand New Bag. But was like a very, I mean, I always call it punk rock attitude, which is a misleading term because it was recorded in 73. Punk rock didn't exist yet. But what I was trying to say with that reference is it feels a bit like it was the type of recording where it was more about preserving a certain high and raw energy as opposed to striving for musical perfection.

2:54I was really excited about this record. Eventually, I visited Morocco again because the same artist went there to perform for a TV show. We found another record by the same guy. Eventually, because we were already running a record label and we kind of knew how the logistics of it work, how distribution works, how manufacturing works. I guess the idea was born to look into maybe trying to re-release the music. At the same time, when you Googled his name, be it in Latin letters or in Arabic, you wouldn't really find anything about him. so we eventually started asking people nobody had an idea after like a year we found another band that used to run in the same scene in the 1970s this band knew that he had died in the early 90s but eventually they remembered a mutual friend they had this mutual friend remembered where his Fadul's family used to live up until the 90s we went there and kind of just went to into that neighborhood and just showed the cover to people on the street and then coffee shops and what so forth and eventually someone remembered where his family or knew where his family lived and this is how we found his sister and eventually this was the starting point of the project all of this was also kind of a result because we wanted to make sure that what we do as a record label is done properly so we split all of the profits 50 50 with the artists or in this case with the estate of the artist and we also wanted to tell the story so it was important for us to find people to interview and yeah that was the first release that i think at this point we didn't anticipate for it to become that long lasting rather extensive project that it has turned to now but basically we kept on finding music we like yeah i think now we're at catalog number 25 and it doesn't feel like we're gonna run out of material on the contrary i think the more you dig into it the more you realize that the amount of overlooked under distributed and underappreciated music not only from north africa and west asia but probably globally is fairly limitless so i think there could be another dozen labels like ours and none of these labels would run out of material anytime soon.

5:21And it's so interesting as well, Yanis, that listening to some of the tracks, I find it then so current and amazing production as well. One of my favorite tracks, and I know it's from also your group, El Shab Arab with El Vuh Khan or something like that, the name of the track. It's such a cool disco track.

6:02And tell us about the genres. I mean, it does touch on funk, disco, reggae as well. I mean, we have a release by the father of Libyan reggae, perhaps. You can talk a little bit more about this one. Yeah, I mean, I think what is important to understand is that what we focus on on the label is not a representation of popular music culture of, let's say, of North Africa or if you want to, let's say, Libya. But we are kind of interested in these very particular groups or singers that took influences coming from outside and brought it together with something that already existed. And I think the father of Libyan reggae, as we've titled the album Ibrahim Aznawi, is a good example for that.

6:51Because he was one of the first ones to popularize reggae music in Libya. and to this day the reggae scene in libya is is very is very healthy there's a lot of bands playing sound influenced by jamaican music and has now we explained it to us at some point that it happened quite easily because the offbeat or the the offbeat music from jamaica has a similar rhythmic foundation than folkloric libyan music has so for a lot of people from From Libya, reggae sounds like something that already has a certain level of familiarity. So it was kind of easy for this music to become popular in the process.

7:59I think a lot of the music we reissue was created under the influence of Afro-American musical genres, from jazz to funk to disco. But then we also have albums where there's Brazilian influence, or a lot of the Sudanese music has a clear influence also from Ethiopian music or Congolese music. But basically, I think whenever there is this bringing together, this melting of different musical influences, then there's a high chance that the music might be something that could be of interest for us as a record label. And it's quite interesting that recently you guys released, perhaps, correct me if I'm wrong, your first contemporary release by Sharif Magarbane with Marzipan.

8:43So is that interesting? Is that something perhaps that you want to look at as well? Perhaps newer artists as well, besides only the, you know, the archive and the reissues.

9:08It was not birthed out of the feeling that we have to do a contemporary release now. We just came across him and his music. He's a Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist. I think he released nearly 100 albums on his band camp under like 25 different names. But because he was very unorthodox so far in putting his music out, It has not caught too much traction, but we heard the music and we felt, even though it is contemporary productions, it kind of references a lot of the music that we have worked with on the label. I know Sharif is a big fan of Ahmed Malik, the Algerian composer whose work we reissued.

9:54Both him and I love Ziad Rahbani. There's a lot of musical connection points that while the music was produced now, it kind of blends in quite organically with some of the music we have also reissued, which is why I think it was kind of a natural progression to do it. And whether this happens in the future is really down to the music we come across. I think the foundation of the label will probably remain on re-releasing music, but I can also see a scenario where that will be a bit more of a mix with other contemporary releases. And I think what we were a bit uncertain about, whether in terms of sales, in terms of attention, shifting to contemporary music would maybe not work.

10:47but luckily that was not the case like the release did equally well than the issues we've done before and after which was nice to see because it means we are it kind of confirms that for us as a label we are kind of free to explore either lane and we kind of have a good idea that the people who already follow us are probably going to be interested in both That's amazing Tell us Yannis, are you also a DJ? Is there a Habibi Funk club night that we could go to? or I'm sure you have a few playlists I know on Spotify, but are you personally a DJ as well? I mean, I wasn't. I got into being a DJ through running the record label and some people approaching us, don't you want to also play this music?

11:29So I did and it's fun. But I mean, for me, the focus is clearly the record label. But I think what DJing kind of does, it creates great synergy moments. It can draw in people that end up by because their friends take them to the party and then they start listening to the playlist and then they listen to maybe some of our releases. And also because I also play a lot in North Africa and West Asia. So it also kind of sometimes helps the label work. Let's say if I have a DJ gig in Beirut or in Cairo, I'm there anyhow. Someone like a local promoter who is organizing a party paid for my flights. So it allows me to work on label projects without incurring costs on the label project.

12:20Because I think sometimes we have like a super healthy social media following and all of that. But I think people sometimes overestimate the amount of records we sell. And in reality, even though we're doing great for an indie label, you still only sell like 2 ,000 or 3 ,000 copies. So the budgets we can work with as a record label are still very limited. So DJing, I think, allowed us to keep that level of contextualizing work, doing interviews, going to places to scan photos and all of this. And it has really helped us being able to do that. So yeah, I think DJing, apart from it being a fun thing when you do it, I think is something that offers a great combination for a record label.

13:08Because you're doing a similar job, but in slightly different lanes and avenues, even though they are very much interconnected. And Yannis, how do people consume your music? I know you mentioned the records, of course. People should actually buy the amazing albums and vinyls you're selling because it looks amazing. I mean, it's a beautiful product as well. I love the artwork. But do you also sell it online on places like Bandcamp? Or what's your relationship with streamers as well? Yeah, Bandcamp is the one we use as our central platform for direct sales. Then we have a distribution that ideally gets them into record stores.

13:49But I think a lot of record labels, sorry, a lot of reissue labels have a very vital focused approach. And I personally also love records. It's my favorite format. But I personally don't think there's anything wrong with listening to music digitally, listening to streaming platforms. And I think we've quite quickly realized that if you are a record label that releases music that is non-mainstream, you don't have the luxury to say, oh, I don't like streaming. I'm not going to invest time and energy into it. I think we've, from very early moment on, realized that it's important to curate our own playlists.

14:34Because also, if you look at streaming platforms, let's say if you look at Spotify, luckily there's this one playlist called Global Groove, and then we get support there, and it's great. But the amount of playlists where our music fits in is comparatively limited. so if you want to do okay in the streaming world i think it's super important from the get-go to start to work on your own channel so we like our main playlist on spotify that we have ourselves has like a hundred thousand followers we've kind of decided for us that yes vital is where our heart is at where our personal love goes to but we are gonna invest equally time into streaming into direct sales via Bandcamp and all of that, and also into trying to get some of our music in TV productions and advertisement and all of that.

15:30Because I think as an indie record label these days, if you want to do okay and make sure you can pay your team and pay your artist fairly, I think it's very important to not drop one of the... Basically, you need all of these revenues to make it work, and that's kind of what we've been trying to do. And finally, Anis, just want to talk to you about the upcoming releases. You're excited. I know in a few weeks' time, Ibrahim Haznawi, as we were mentioning, the father of Libyan reggae. But what else can you tell us from the upcoming releases or new releases that are out already? Actually, the Haznawi release came out last week, but I don't know how long it takes for your podcast to go up.

16:15So it might be a bit more than a week until people actually hear this conversation. Either way, it'll be out. We're working on a few more releases. I don't really have a schedule. I think oftentimes our schedules come, like let's say, for example, there is now your release. We work maybe four years on because oftentimes we have the challenge of finding the music in good enough sound quality or we're trying to find photos for the booklet and the artwork. And sometimes projects can be 95 % finished, But finishing these last 5 % sometimes can take ages. But what we're definitely working on is a compilation of Libyan music by 12, 13 different artists that is focused on music released in Libya from the late 80s to the early 2000s on cassette tapes.

17:06There's some reggae on there, but not exclusively. Then there's going to be another album by The Free Music down the line. there's a list of like projects that will probably happen but I think there's a good chance that the next release and that's probably going to be early next year will be the Libyan reggae compilation and then there's going to be Ahmed Ben Ali who's another Libyan reggae artist but a bit more contemporary from the early 2000s and we're going to do a single with him probably still before the end of the year

17:45Toh san sanee, l 'intah habibi, l 'an reedak d 'ani. Toh san sanee, toh san sanee. That was Yanis Stutz, founder of Habibi Funk. Check out his releases on habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com. The Monaco Weekly was edited by Jack Dewars and I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco.