North Texas Daily

Courtney Garza

Staff Writer

Business junior Dallas Crilley turned his passion for music and entrepreneurship into a record label, Singularity Records, which focuses solely on Denton talent. Owning his own clothing line, along with his knowledge of web design and promotion, inspired Crilley to attempt yet another business venture after stumbling across local music acts with no means of promotion.

One night after seeing his friend’s band, Afro Deezy Axe, Crilley decided to invest time and money in them. Eventually he created Keep Denton Loud, a movement designed to promote local musicians. Crilley’s main goal for KDL is to create the mindset that there is quality music to be heard locally and deserves to be listened to and supported.

“It’s never going to be about making money. It’s going to be about bringing attention to bands like Afro who have the talent but just don’t have the means to get their sound out there,” Crilley said. “I’m excited about it because the more I think about it, Keep Denton Loud is separate but intertwined with Singularity Records because both of their end goals are to bring attention to Denton artists.”

Afro Deezy Axe was the first band signed on the label and has seen nothing but rapid growth in the short time they’ve been with the company. Crilley helps design the band’s merchandise, website, Facebook page, and set up photo shoots and studio time for their new EP. Founding member and bassist Jonny Lurie said he sees the opportunity as nothing but beneficial.

“We have definitely noticed an increase in the hype that is built up since he joined with us,” Lurie said. “We went from a few people seeing our work to so much more, and our shows have shown a bigger turn out than before.”

Crilley is able to use his income from web designing and selling band merchandise to support the local acts. He sells Keep Denton Loud T-shirts online, and 20 percent of the proceeds from each shirt go to supporting the Denton music scene by donating to music charities and organizations, setting up local festivals to showcase new talent and sponsoring more local bands.

General studies sophomore Alex Boos is a fan and supporter of Afro Deezy Axe and KDL, and said he’s glad to see Denton’s bands getting recognized for their talent.

“I’m glad Denton has something like this finally going on,” Boos said. “I think Denton is picking it up so well. I’ve already seen people walking around with the T-shirts on and it’s becoming a great community movement.”