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Trying your hand at DJ-ing and hosting your own nightclub event has become relatively commonplace in Jersey... but putting your own stamp on the music scene in the island, and becoming a nightlife mainstay, is something few succeed at.
However, a team of local house and techno enthusiasts have done exactly that in less than two years.
In the next edition of our 'Enter the Entrepreneur' series focusing on those doing things differently in Jersey, Express speaks to underground music events company 'The Loft'...
‘The Loft’ was started in 2021 by Francisco Brazao (Cisco), Sam Tumkaew and Hugo Alves, who all share the same passion for house and techno music.
Cisco said the original thought process behind The Loft derived from a desire to provide a space where people could regularly listen to house and techno music.
“Me and Sam and Hugo sat down one day and had a conversation about it and we thought to ourselves; there isn’t somewhere in town where you can consistently go and listen to good house music, some clubs can be very hit and miss.”
Pictured: The Loft team, Francisco Brazao and Sam Tumkaew. (Rob Currie)
So far, the pair have hosted six Loft events at various clubs in the island, all of which have sold out, they have featured at music festivals and regularly aim to provide a platform for young aspiring DJs to showcase their skills by allowing them to record mixes in Cisco’s home studio.
“It is about creating that sense of community,” said Cisco. “For me, the Loft is all about community and connection. We want to bring people together through their love of music. I have met so many new people through The Loft who I didn’t know before, but now consider a good friend.”
Moving forward the pair explained that the long-term goal is to turn The Loft into a record label and to branch outside of Jersey by hosting events in the UK.
Sam said: “At the core of everything we do is community and bringing people together, but we want to do that through more than just night time events. We would also like to run our own clothing brand and in the near future and we would like to start bringing international artists to Jersey.”
The pair both said that they would like The Loft to provide them with a full-time income in the future. However, they agree that there are a number of difficulties of starting such a venture in Jersey.
“The difficulty here is that you are limited in the size of your potential audience as only so many people live here and to fill a club regularly can be a challenge. That is why we want to expand beyond Jersey,” said Sam.
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Cisco explained that networking and collaborating with other people in the industry is crucial to success.
“We are very open minded and have never been scared to approach people and pitch our ideas to them. It is about who you know,” he said.
“I would love for someone who had no clue about The Loft or the music we play to come to an event and go: 'Wow that was really good, I enjoyed that and how they made me feel and I would like to come back'."
This article first appeared in Connect Magazine, which you can read in full below...
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