Dala Records revue, celebrating six years of eccentric soul

By Jessica Lipsky

Dala Records, one of the city’s most eclectic independent labels, has something for everyone. From hard soul sung by an original Blues Brother, to rock and folksy singer-songwriter vibes, over the course of the past six years Dala has emerged as a showcase of Brooklyn’s wide and interconnected music scenes.

Founded by trumpet player Billy Aukstik in 2015—a member of the Daptone Records family who toured with the late Charles Bradley for years—Dala pulls from multiple corners of Brooklyn’s musical community. “[Dala Records is] all these people who I’ve come in contact with from living in New York City, and basically channeling all of their energy and influences,” Aukstik says. “All the music has a soulful quality to it.”

You’ll be able to hear it for yourself on the rooftop of Our Wicked Lady on September 30 as it hosts an artist showcase—Dala’s first since the pandemic—that champions soulful rhythms and unique voices.

The Dala Records revue will feature the first solo performance by Mike Sarason (of Combo Lulo and The Far East), whose debut “Reflections of Self” ebbs between folk rock and psychedelic soul, ‘60s influenced rock from guitarist Fiona Silver, and soul from singer-violinist Camellia Hartman. Each artist will be backed by Dala’s house band The Soulful Saints (featuring Chris St. Hilaire on drums, Jesse Barnes on guitar, Vince Chiarito on bass, Carter Yasutake on trumpet, Morgan Price on saxophone), along with backing vocals from Mel Johnston and Kim Foxen.

Soul singer Bobby Harden, who fronted John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers Band, will be among the headliners at Thursday’s revue. Harden and Aukstik first met at a screening of the documentary “Miss Sharon Jones!” (Harden and Jones were friends and colleagues), then further connected through local DJ Kurtis Powers. Their in-studio chemistry was immediate, and Harden’s northern soul-styled “Runnin’ (To Get To Your Love)” was released in 2019. The two are now working on an album together.

“This is more real, traditional soul but with a little edge to it. Writing with Billy has really allowed me to capture what I really like to do live,” Harden says of his work with Dala. “I’m really singing as if I was singing live, and also putting in that church stuff that I come from.”

What began as a bedroom studio project in between tours with Charles Bradley has since grown into a nearly 20-artist roster headquartered at Hive Mind Recording in Bushwick – the studio Aukstik runs with musicians Charito and Buckley. A self-taught engineer, Aukstik develops arrangements and writes songs (often with childhood friend Steve Garvin) for artists like Camellia Hartman, while also lending his ear to more fleshed-out work. Much of Dala’s output is recorded analogue and live to tape.

Aukstik’s jazz education and experience playing with soul and funk powerhouses permeates the sound of the label, as does his ear for unique chords and harmonies in pop songs. “My melodic sense as a horn player comes into play a lot of the time, specifically for the arrangements. I’ll leave a part of the song open for the horn or for the strings, or for background vocals, because like, I don’t just hear the lead vocal—I hear everything else that could be added to it,” he says. The resulting songs are “a little bit more imbalanced, and a little bit more interesting, and maybe some things you wouldn’t normally hear in a song.”

While the variety of genres heard on Dala Records might seem broad, Aukstik’s dedication to developing community and diving deep into new sounds provides creative, connective tissue. Notes Harden, “[Aukstik] just loves music and he is born to be this type of person, to create that label and put people like us on it. And he’s not trapped and pigeonholed into just one style of music. If he hears music that he loves, he’s going to produce it.”

Violinist Camellia Hartman first met Aukstik as a teenager, when he was playing in an Afrobeat band and she was deep in her classical training. The two have worked together in various projects over the years, with Aukstik nourishing her talent as a soul singer.

“He has really just carried through this vision in ways I never imagined,” she says. “Billy has told me who was going to be brought onto this label I’ve thought to myself, Wow, I can’t wait to see how Billy makes this make sense. One pretty easy throughline is there’s sort of a reverence for the past, and a really deep appreciation for the history of American music in every vector. [Aukstik is a] perpetual student of music, which is what makes him such an amazing collaborator and leader.”

Through Dala, Aukstik has created a wide-reaching, diverse sounding musical community where connections and new projects are made regularly. “Billy is just a positive, joyful being,” says Mel Johnston, who met guitarist Kyle Lacy through a Dala project, then formed Mel and The Tall Boys. “To me that’s the throughline: joy and music that’s about getting together and communing. I think he curates that positivity and joy really nicely.”