MacD on Music: Walled City Media brings the physical music revival to Derry

How we listen to music has changed a lot over the years, but there’s still something special about actual physical media. There’s nothing better than holding an actual CD or record in your hand or going into Cool Discs and finding that album you’ve been dying to hear and bringing it home with you.

Earlier this year, Walled City Media, run by Daniel Rogan and Jamie Lockhart, began with the goal of giving young artists the chance to see their music in physical form. The first Walled City Media CD appeared at the launch gig for Seventh Heaven’s single ‘Riot’. I caught up with Jamie and Daniel recently to talk about what they hope to achieve with this new venture.

Jamie: “Walled City Media is about supporting artists in Derry and the rest of Ireland, trying to help them get their music out there to the fans on physical media and trying to revive physical media.”

Daniel: “Trying to find a way to support local artists in a way that would benefit them economically as well as in the music scene. They can get their music out there as well as making money from it, and they don’t have to spend a penny to be on our site. We do everything for them, completely free, and we take a small percentage of the profits to simply fund production of CDs for our artists. It’s just the one we’ve done so far but we’ve got a couple of bands that are signed up and are ready to start producing music through us. We’re planning on doing whatever the artists ask of us. Singles, EPs, LPs, albums, compilations, we can even do it on cassette if they like.”

I asked about the process of making the product. Daniel: “We produce them ourselves. We order blank CDs, we burn the music onto them, we package them into cases with their album art that they can either send us or pay us to design, then send it off to whoever’s ordered it, or we give it to the artist to sell by themselves then give us back our percentage. All the feedback so far has been completely positive. Everybody’s enjoying their CDs. The band, Seventh Heaven, they thought they were fantastic, and they really enjoyed that we had made them for them.”

Next, I asked about the origins of Walled City Media. Jamie: “I decided to start it after thinking of the idea on the 1st of January. I was driving about with my mum, and I was saying to her ‘What if we make people’s CDs for them? They send us their music and we make it for free’. I was chatting to her about it and trying to think of names but couldn’t think of anything. I texted a couple of people, and I finally decided on Walled City Media.”

READ MORE: MacD on Music

Daniel: “It all happened within a couple of days. We decided to get it up and running. I’ve done a lot of networking, and he’s gone to gigs and sold the CDs, as well as producing them.”

From there, we talked about how long it takes to get from idea to disc. Jamie: “Depending on how much they want, one CD takes about fifteen minutes. I just print the art out for it, cut it and get it ready, then I burn the disc which takes about five minutes, then it’s ready.”

Daniel: “We don’t make a single CD until we get an order for it, or a band wants us to make them for a gig. Essentially, we’re not making any CDs until we can sell, or we know we’re going to get paid for them. We’re not losing any money by keeping a bunch of CDs stacked up in the corner. They’re made to order. Our business just has the goal of being the prime centre for getting your music out there, into the world, making money out of it and really supporting local musicians.”

And that’s it from Jamie and Daniel of Walled City Media. You can buy Seventh Heaven’s single ‘Riot’ on their website walledcitymedia.org.

Now, onto other business. First up, we have The Loop, “a brand-new digital community resource for upcoming events in Derry and we have a very simple mission. Our one goal is to connect the people of Derry with the arts, live music, theatre, workshops and creative events in our town. A central directory for Derry that can be accessed without social media”.

The Loop hopes to “bring the focus back to supporting local artists and creatives in a meaningful and impactful way; no more scrolling through social media to find dribs and drabs of what’s happening in our circuit or missing events because you haven't seen an Instagram post”.

The first Loop gig will be in Bennigan’s on March 27th and features headliner Eimíle (Emily McCormick) with support from Siân(na) and Dylan Bradley. Tickets are £11.55 and can be bought on eventbrite.ie.

Next, another gig, this time from Boachitta, and the release party for her latest single ‘Lifeguard’. This one is happening this Thursday (March 12th) in Sandino’s and features support from Grim17 and Suspect Device. Tickets can be found on Eventbrite and doors are at 8pm.

Finally, time for the socials. Boachitta can be found on Instagram @boachittamusic, Eimíle @eimile_, The Loop @theloop.irl and Walled City Media @walledcity_media.