Marc Lotus: Harmonizing Music, Film, and Philanthropy at Chrome City Records
Apr 25, 2024
Alimond Studio
Embark on a sonic expedition with Marc Lotus, the mastermind behind Chrome City Records, as he unveils the rhythms of his life story, charting from simple Casio tunes to the crescendo of running a record label. As Random Dog barked up from local gigs to the legendary CBGBs stage, Marc's narrative resonates with anyone who's ever dreamed of turning their passion into a profession. Uncover the secrets behind nurturing a music empire in the DMV area, where sounds of ingenuity echo louder than the industry giants in New York or LA. Marc's magnetic draw towards the undiscovered talent in his community beats at the heart of our discussion.
Roll the film on Chrome City Records' cinematic journey, where Marc's melodic touch has not only shaped notes but also painted visuals, bringing music and film into an award-winning harmony. He shares his own directorial dive, from amateur clips to clinching Best Director alongside his daughter, Peachy Maddie, at the Future of Film Awards—a story of family, art, and the beauty of creation. And when the stage lights dim, Marc Lotus spins a different kind of record, one that plays the tune of philanthropy, echoing his personal losses into a legacy of hope at charity events. Tune in for a generous mix of music, film, and goodwill that proves every beat we make can send ripples of change.
Embark on a sonic expedition with Marc Lotus, the mastermind behind Chrome City Records, as he unveils the rhythms of his life story, charting from simple Casio tunes to the crescendo of running a record label. As Random Dog barked up from local gigs to the legendary CBGBs stage, Marc's narrative resonates with anyone who's ever dreamed of turning their passion into a profession. Uncover the secrets behind nurturing a music empire in the DMV area, where sounds of ingenuity echo louder than the industry giants in New York or LA. Marc's magnetic draw towards the undiscovered talent in his community beats at the heart of our discussion.
Roll the film on Chrome City Records' cinematic journey, where Marc's melodic touch has not only shaped notes but also painted visuals, bringing music and film into an award-winning harmony. He shares his own directorial dive, from amateur clips to clinching Best Director alongside his daughter, Peachy Maddie, at the Future of Film Awards—a story of family, art, and the beauty of creation. And when the stage lights dim, Marc Lotus spins a different kind of record, one that plays the tune of philanthropy, echoing his personal losses into a legacy of hope at charity events. Tune in for a generous mix of music, film, and goodwill that proves every beat we make can send ripples of change.
Speaker 1:
I am Mark Lotus and my company is Chrome City Records and we are out of New Market, maryland and Washington DC and I'm a music producer. I write and produce songs and film music videos and I DJ.
Speaker 2:
Wow, that is impressive. That is a lot of stuff there, it's a lot. Yeah, can you talk to me a little bit about your history with your career, like, how did you get started? How did this all come to be?
Speaker 1:
Well, when I was young, I started in music and I grabbed the keyboard. I had a little Casio, like all the other kids, and learned how to play the piano. And I taught myself because my mom said I was too stubborn for her to teach me. She was, she was a real good pianist and she couldn't teach me. And I taught myself because my mom said I was too stubborn for her to teach me, she was a real good pianist and she couldn't teach me. So I just taught myself and played clarinet all the way through.
Speaker 1:
And then at some point I decided that, you know, I wanted to get together with some of my friends in the neighborhood and start a band. And you know, as kids we played around the neighborhood, sold tapes and stuff like that. But then I realized these are like lifelong friends, they're not going anywhere, like we're going to just keep going. And we did all the way through high school and into college and we had a band called Random Dog and we traveled, we played at CBGBs, we traveled up and down and it was a great time. And so, you know, once that got into my soul, I knew that, you know, music was just where I was going to be, and so I just kept on going and I mean there's a lot, there's a lot to the story, but that's that's how I got to at some point starting the record label and becoming a music producer.
Speaker 2:
That is amazing. And what was the band that you performed at CB Genies? I know that club is in New York and it's closed down. It's very iconic and historical, so can you tell me a little bit about what type of band you had and what kind of music you guys were making?
Speaker 1:
We were making pop funk, making pop funk pop music. We had female artists, female singer her name was kimberly and she was a great front person and we just played really good danceable music at random dog. And then we decided that you know, this is good. I mean, we won every battle of bands we could find well, you know, even in nova, all around the area. You know, this is good, I mean, we won every battle of bands we could find, you know, even in Nova, all around the area. You know, we played places like the Bayou in Georgetown and so it was really good. And then we started to travel out. We started going to like the Spiral Club in New York City. You know, get a tour bus, we're like hey everybody.
Speaker 1:
You want to get on a tour bus. It's like's like, yeah, you know it'd be great. So we have a pile on the tour bus and we bring our own crowd with us. You know it's a cbgb's or a spiral club and and so that's how we got to performing there and, um, you know, it was always. It was always a fun time, a lot of energy. It was something that I knew, that just wasn't gonna go away for me I can see that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, now can you tell me the record label that you have right now? What all do you do and what kind of artists do you currently have right now?
Speaker 1:
Okay, the record label itself started kind of like as a pop label and for the most part consider it mostly pop music, but it carries all sorts of different avenues of music, all different genres. I've written four ballets. People don't? You wrote a ballet. Yeah, I wrote a ballet, four of them. So you know I've written ballet music. I write music for people, comedians, or you know, I write their jingles, their opening piece, their song, you know, venturing out into movie and TV. But the label has grown from pop music and I just finished my first country song.
Speaker 2:
Wow, I'm proud of that.
Speaker 1:
That was a struggle, but I got one out Congratulations.
Speaker 2:
no-transcript.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to release it this year. And you know, the artists that we have on the label are they're local, except for one, you know, and she was probably my first artist that I signed. Her name was Ariel Current. She currently lives in Florida, but all of the artists are in this area. You know, I came from this area, so for me it was important to have a label that represented us right here. You know, there is just a wealth of talent right here in the DC metro area, and so for me, I started scouting, doing my own A&R, you know, having auditions, but my auditions were in DC at Seven Drums Studio. Because why? Because that's where we started, that's where we are, and so it was important to me to really just sort of capture our local talent. And even the most recent artist that I just signed, I mean, she's in Baltimore, so it's like we're all right here.
Speaker 1:
In the area yeah, and we keep it right here, and so you know it's pop music, all indie, some EDM, you know all of those, because I don't want to have the same artist, I don't want all my artists doing the same thing.
Speaker 2:
That's right.
Speaker 1:
Because then they're competing with each other and we don't need to. We can do our own thing and get our messages out there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, that's awesome. I think that's great because usually the places where all of this are is New York or LA or Nashville, and maybe sometimes Chicago or Nashville, maybe sometimes Chicago. So I think it is important for there to be like a little hub or community based here in the DMV area. So I think that's awesome and I'm glad that you have decided to pursue that in the area to help the local artists.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it means a lot to me and I tell that to every single one of them. I said we're in this together. This is about us. I grew up in Montgomery County and so I meet other people. I went to University of Maryland and so I'm working with if it's an actress I was in a meeting this morning actress University of Maryland. She graduated from Maryland. She's a Terp like me, so I'm interested in working with her and I'm interested in working with other actresses around the area have joined in on the label to do some. I do theatrical videos and I do them with the local artists, the local actors and actresses.
Speaker 2:
Yes, that is awesome. Now tell me a little bit about your record label. Do you have any future upcoming plans for it? Where do you see you guys in the next five years?
Speaker 1:
The label's growing and I started the label 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:
I started it 10 years ago and I learned a lot of growing pains in that 10 years.
Speaker 1:
So when I look at the next five years for the label, I look at the development of the artists that I have to the point where we're invited everywhere to be a part of all sorts of things shows. Cherry Blossom is a big festival in DC that we where we, you know I've had artists perform there. I've had other artists on my label that have performed there. But this group of artists I have right now I want them to be able to perform there. I want this group to take that gauntlet and go further and make this label something where when people talk about Washington DC, they include Chrome City Records in there. They go, okay, well, chrome City Records is a big label in that area and so that's my immediate goal. That and the label itself has different avenues, that it's reaching out because the filming has kind of gotten really good for me and so with that it offers new areas for the label, because I write music for film. So it's just going to keep growing into something that we can all be proud of.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome, that's exciting for our area. So, yeah, I hope that all of your endeavors and your artists and everything are able to break through and we can have something to be proud of in their music industry in the area.
Speaker 1:
So that's what we're working towards.
Speaker 2:
That would be awesome, that would be so awesome. And now tell me a little bit about this award that you received. I want to know the story and how that came to be and what it's called.
Speaker 1:
So I have always concentrated on producing music. But at some point I realized that in order to really penetrate out into the public, I needed videos. I needed impactful videos, and so I started. And so I started filming. At first all I did was film GoPro stuff just for myself, and then I started filming different things with GoPro when working with different software, and all of a sudden I realized I'm like you know, I think at this point it's been years of me GoProing. I mean, there's lots of bruises when you decide to be a GoPro filmmaker, you know, because the camera can do anything. And so I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to jump off this thing and roll into the bushes with the GoPro. You know, throw this stick at me and it'll look really great on film and slow-mo. And so I started filming my artists doing different clips and things and and then learning how to edit the right way.
Speaker 1:
The next thing, you know I was, I was filming videos, gopro style videos and going out in the public, just filming wherever we wanted. And people really loved it, you know, because some of my artists are very they have a lot of image, so when they go out in the public, you know, they look rather larger than life, great outfits. I mean one of my artists. She's really tall and so when she goes out people are like, who's that? So you're filming that. You're filming. I'm filming in Georgetown, on the street, you know, wherever I can, because that's how you make your mark. So the filming just kept growing and growing. And then I had a song that I wrote with my daughter, had a song that I wrote with my daughter. My daughter is out in Nevada and she goes by Peachy Maddie and she's a, by her own right, a huge influencer. She's got hundreds of thousands of followers.
Speaker 2:
I'm curious and I'm going to look her up after.
Speaker 1:
Go look her up, because even I go, and she's just got a lot of followers. And she was like dad, I want to write this song with you. And so we went into the basement studio and we started working on this song. Well, when we got done with the song, it was the vocals. I was on the track. I still reactivate myself and put myself in my own song. So here we are, we've got this track right. You know, she was on the track and I said okay, you know what, I'll just do it, I'll do a video. I'll do this really edgy video. I will find two really good actresses and I'm going to ask them to change it to 14 different outfits.
Speaker 2:
Wow.
Speaker 1:
And my wife Kimberly and she's really great hair makeup wardrobe. So I was like, okay, we'll work on this together and we're going to put this in and we'll film it.
Speaker 1:
where I wrote the song, where I wrote the music at Seven Drum City in DC, and so, you know, talk to the owner. He's like, yeah, you know, go ahead and use that one, it's a really unique room in there. To the owner, he's like, yeah, you know, go ahead and use that one, it's a really unique room in there, and we sketched it out. We found two local actresses. We had Kitty Wu and we had Joanna Lefevre and she was, you know, those are the two actresses I was using. So we film it on two separate days, on two separate months, and I sat there forever editing it and working on it. All the outfits went through.
Speaker 2:
Good.
Speaker 1:
And when we got done I released it and people instantly really loved it. They thought it was very entertaining and so I said you know, this video is worth submitting to film festivals. Wow, so I started submitting, submitting to film festivals. Wow, so I started submitting them to film festivals. And the second one I sent it to, they got back to me. It was called the Future of Film Awards. They were like you won Best Director.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome.
Speaker 1:
I was just shocked. I was in complete shock. I thought it was entertaining and good, but to see that someone else saw the 14 outfits.
Speaker 2:
The hard work you put in there, everybody put in there.
Speaker 1:
Everyone put so much into it. I mean, we're in this room. You know the actresses. They're doing the drums, they're doing the mix board, they're doing all the acting they can. They're throwing money all over. I'm GoPro filming in this little room and I'm also using a Nikon as well. And it came through and we won. And all of a sudden again, people started. All of a sudden, everyone's contacting me, numbers are going up and they're like who are these people? I said, well, everyone's local, everyone's from here, everyone in the video is right here. So I then could push that narrative, you know, onto the next project. And so, you know, I then now on to. Well, I just finished filming my next one.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that is awesome. Oh, my goodness, is the next one also going to be like for a music video, a song?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's called Mistakes. Funny is that is that it was a song we wrote when I was in Random Dog. It was a song I performed here in DC for years. We performed that song when we opened for the Wailers. So the Wailers were performing in Virginia. They asked us to open for them, which was amazing.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome.
Speaker 1:
Obviously, if Bob Marley were alive it would have been even more amazing, but still, there were original members in the group. We opened for them and we got to play the song. So, anyway, I remade the song again, you know, and I got local actresses. I got Kimberly Starks, who's on ID Channel, you know, she does a lot of work, she does a lot of commercials and stuff. And Becky Sullen, who works, she Scullin, she works down here in Alexandria, she's doing a lot of work down here. Okay, actress model. And another guy, john Comer. So we used all of those local, all local guys, all local people and we filmed it. And I was filming in Frederick. So I wanted to highlight what is Frederick, yeah, so I make sure I highlight the different things at Baker Park Because I want, not only does it look cool, but I want those who don't live in this area to see how Get a sense?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, get a sense of what's going on here, and so it's a theatrical video and it's taken a long time to edit and I'm really excited to release it soon. It's part of a three. It's actually part of a three-part video, Holy moly.
Speaker 2:
Wow, you really do put your heart and soul into everything and your thought like no, it has to be here, talent has to be here. That's awesome. No, that's, that's really cool. Represent.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, thank you. I mean people from New York are like, hey, they'll apply for it and they're great, but we've got such a wealth here.
Speaker 2:
Yes, no, I absolutely agree with that. And tell me a little bit about your studio, like what is it like when people come in there? What's the atmosphere? How are your artists connected in that space?
Speaker 1:
so the studio, and this has been a long-standing approach for me. So when I first started the label, I said to myself we can do this virtual. Said to myself we can do this virtual. There's no reason why we can't make great songs regardless of where you are. So at first it had no studio.
Speaker 1:
I was like everybody else and I still use just pretty much just one studio Blue Room Productions in Bethesda, that's right, montgomery County. And you know Conrad Aussie Poets, he runs that studio. He used to do all my music. He used to mix all my music. All my artists would go there to record. But over time I built my own studio.
Speaker 1:
I have my own studio in my basement and I'm able to record everything there and mix all my own music, record guitars and stuff like that, and so you know I do that. And then I bring artists in to record the vocals. We go to Blue Room Productions to do the vocals and so when we go in there it has a great atmosphere, great. You know engineer. So you know we're always excited to promote him and talk about, you know, the stuff he's done. He's just a great engineer and producer in his own right. So that's where we record and for the artists that are not in the DC area, the one which is Ariel Current, florida she's got a wonderful, amazing artist, amazing voice. She can record down there. I make friends, I make friends wherever she moves, I make friends with the studio that she feels comfortable with and she'll record out of there. They'll send the tracks up to Blue Room Productions and then we'll mix and master it here. So it's a virtual thing, uh, and it seems to really work with everybody Awesome.
Speaker 2:
And now my final question here is do you have anything else that you would like for our listeners to know? That maybe I didn't touch on or anything message in your heart even.
Speaker 1:
Well, you know, I mean I've, I've, I've put this passion out here, um, and I'm going to keep it going. I DJ as well and I DJ a lot. I try my best and I'll bring my artists to the event. They'll sing live, I'll mix their songs in, and so if someone sees me out and about, they'll see me DJing festivals. I DJ the Jingle Run at the Baltimore Harbor. You know UMBC. I've been on the mall and I've been at the Wharf.
Speaker 1:
I mean I'm DJing large scale events. Usually those are like charity events for great causes. You know Arthritis Foundation, crohn's and Colitis. I did all. I do all those like the night. And you know lymphoma leukemia. I try to donate. I don't I don't get emotional because my mom died, but but like it was one of those things that drove me, you know, and she was a really great musician and so it just kind of keeps it going for me. So, you know, I guess I'd want people to know that. You know, I do a lot of charity work and I bring those artists with me because they also have loved ones that they want to support as well. So if you see me out there, you know, come say hi, mark Lotus. I'm always available, so you know and look out for the great music coming ahead.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much, Mark, for being here today and taking time out of your day to share your story and wisdom. We really appreciate it.