A Very Important Apology from Laromlab!
Dear anyone who liked Laromlab,
To start an apology letter off is one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do in my life. To start this apology letter off is even harder because I am letting down my peers, my family, my friends, and just about everyone I know. So I will get right to it: Laromlab as a music making project was a hoax, a complete fallacy, all of the music on the Laromlab "S/T" record on Mushpot was made by the collective known as the YM Rockers, more specifically Crazy Q and Dma-SC. I never once thought it was the right thing to do, and I never was happy with myself for stealing these hard working musicians music but I did and now I will be paying the consequences for it! Whether it be legal action, monetary payment, or humiliation, I am deserving of all three. To justify this would be a laughing matter but I would at least like to explain myself to get it off of my chest, because I am in fact a real person. A couple of years back I was making electronic music that sounded very different and I hit a dry spell. There is no explanation for it but the music wasn’t very good anyway, and somewhere deep inside of my brain it told me that I should just grab these guys' music and pawn it off as my own. The trouble started when people began to notice the "Laromlab music" and a record label was interested and everything got out of hand. All the while, I had this in the back of my head that I was going to get caught but never dreamed that it would get this much attention. And stealing their music was not done as a malicious act but rather a pathetic one. I am a painter by teaching and I would not know what to do if all of a sudden I didn’t know how to make another painting that I liked ever again. That is what happened with my music! It took a lot of gall to do what I did and I take full blame. I pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, including my wife (she had no clue), all of my friends, my tour partners, people that bought the CD, people that listened, everyone!!! But it also takes a lot of balls to come to everyone and say....I am a fake, none of this shit is mine. The people that made this music...are all amazing composers, seem to be nice people, and I could only hope to be as amazing at whatever I attempt in the future, but it wont be Laromlab. There are some exceptions to this, not all of my music was stolen, and the people that I made those special tracks for will be notified and I will tell them that these songs are really done by me, but this most recent record is not created by me one bit. I am ready to deal with what I have to deal with now but I do not think that I will be able to deal with myself for doing this to people I care about. If I still have friends after this is over they will be the best friends of my life and I encourage anyone who is thinking of writing me off as a friend to please call me on the phone or email me and I will show you that somewhere inside of this lying shell of a music thief is still a good person and this is the first and last time lies will seep their way into my life, it has destroyed an credibility I have, any credibility I hoped to gain, and any that remains. I would like to end this rationally with all parties involved and I think we will be able to and I would also like to apologize by name to a few people that I have hurt the most.
Mainly Jenn De la Vega of Mushpot Records: you have done so much for what you thought was an amazing musician and I did nothing but lie to you, I am worthless at best and have already accepted full responsibility for our "working relationship" but if somehow inside of the amazing person you are there is room to continue a friendship I will consider myself the luckiest boy alive, I am sorry that in one fatal swoop I have tarnished one of the most amazing record labels to ever exist and I hope Mushpot can stand up after this and brush off the dust that was Laromlab and continue forward. If there is anything in the world I can do for you, Jenn, I think we all know I owe it to you.
The Ym Rockers: all of you make music so great that it makes unstable people, like myself, do insane stuff like want it to be theirs. I know it means nothing but you have the most respect I can give you and Crazy Q, Dma-SC, Dubmood, all the others you have boundless talent and that is enough to conquer things beyond my wildest dreams! Each and every one of you seem like great people and had we met in different circumstances I know that I would want to get to know you all individually. I am sorry for this injustice that I have brought before you and I hope we can settle this thing righteously and move on with our lives.
To my friends and family: once again I am sorry beyond explanation and I had a major lapse in judgment. It saddens me to know how many of you I have disappointed and if you find it in your heart to forgive me you will find the same old guy that you have always known. With this I say, the times were good (even if they were fabricated) and I hope to move on with my life and I hope that me and my wife can live a normal life without ridicule and embarrassment.
Over and out,
Brandon Harrod
http://myspace.com/laromlab
also within the day an official statement from Mushpot Records and robotcowboy will be posted at http://www.mushpotrecords.com
Here is the statement from Mushpot Records:
Laromlab Separates from Mushpot
April 1, 2008 — 12:37 pm
On behalf of Mushpot Records and affiliated artists:
Upon discovery of copyright issues as well as a breach of contract regarding Laromlab/Brandon Harrod, and his recently released self-titled album, I had no choice but to immediately halt digital distribution and disable all purchase links. The matter resulted in the separation of Laromlab from the Mushpot catalogue. As a person who is heavily invested on both sides of the music industry, I do not condone plagiarism and will not tolerate such behavior.
I am taking steps to communicate with the offended parties. As far as I could gather, here are the original track names and artists that make up the Laromlab album:
Laromlab / Original Title / Artist
1 Rock!! Hard!! / Nightvision / CrazyQ
2 Mission for Glory / Haschkaka / Dubmood
3 C: Dancer / Cybernetic Dancer / DMA-SC
4 Phat and Phunky Pt. 1 / Phat and Phunky Pt. 1 / CrazyQ
5 Zipp Zapp / Zip Zap Space Attack / CrazyQ
6 They’re back!!! / Return of the Fighters / DMA-SC
7 Sid Attax / Atari Attacks / CrazyQ
8 Return of Da Stomp / Local Hero / CrazyQ
9 Punk Funk / Pink Phunk Monster / CrazyQ
10 Nightdrive / Stars of the Night / DMA-SC
11 T-girl Dancing / T-Girl / Lotek Style
12 (Hidden) / Hiapoe / DMA-SC
I manufactured Laromlab with the belief that Harrod was indeed the sole copyright holder. I regret any inconvenience this has caused.
Best,
Jenn de la Vega
Mushpot Records
Mushpot@gmail.com
4/1/2008
Here is the statement from robotcowboy:
My name is Dan Wilcox and I accompanied Brandon Harrod, known as Laromlab, on the Consoles Afire Tour from Jan - Mar 08. This news is shocking to me. I had no idea Brandon’s latest self-titled Laromlab album was stolen from the chiptunes and demo scene in Europe. They have graciously shared their music and software and he decided to pass it off as his own. I will never condone such flagrant plagiarism. I call for him to make a public apology so as not to taint the reputations of his label and associated musicians such as myself and to acknowledge the work of the original artists.
As I distance my reputation from Brandon, I would also like state that I do not distance my friendship. He has made a very bad decision and he will deal with its just consequences. I feel no anger, only disappointment in my friend. He is a good human being with a kind heart and he is better then this. I hope that Brandon will do the right thing and come to terms with whatever demons drove him to plagiarize the works of others. I also hope that all parties involved would seek a peaceful resolution to this matter.
Thank You,
Dan Wilcox
danomatika@gmail.com
robotcowboy.com
3/31/08
Here is an additional reference of interest from Laromlab's myspace profile:
The music from "Laromlab S/T" is still real and was created by real musicians. See for yourself:
Dubmood
http://www.myspace.com/dubmoodst
http://www.razor1911.com/dubmood/
http://www.last.fm/music/Dubmood
Crazy Q
http://www.myspace.com/crazzzy_q
http://technopolitan.se/~crazyq/
http://www.last.fm/music/Crazy+Q
DMA-SC
http://dma-sc.atari.org/
http://www.last.fm/music/Dma-Sc
Lotek Style
http://www.lotekstyle.de/
http://www.last.fm/music/?m=artists&q=lotek+style
http://www.last.fm/music/Lotek+Style
Also check out the YM Rockerz page:
http://www.creamhq.de/ymrockerz/
