Exploring Life & Business with Omar Zehery of Rustgaze Records / Legacy Sounds Studio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Omar Zehery. 

Hi Omar, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Music has always meant community for me since I was a kid. When I first picked up a guitar at age 12, I couldn’t wait to connect with other musicians who shared the same love of music I was into. In 2003, I formed a band called Hit The Lights comprised of friends I had grown up playing music with. We self-booked, self-managed, and self-released our own material and within a few years of our formation, we were able to release records with worldwide distribution, extensively tour the US and overseas and work closely with established producers songwriters, and engineers that we had admired for years. 

When Hit The Lights went from a full-time gig to a part-time project, my focus shifted to using my experience in the music industry to provide non-profit creative development for area songwriters and musicians. After finding the right partners with the same drive and passion, we built a team and began growing our recording studio, Legacy Sounds, and formed our record label, Rustgaze Records based here in Lima, OH. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
With our area’s capacity for live music being based in cover acts and bar bands, it has been an uphill (but rewarding) battle changing people’s perception of what locally sourced, home-grown art and music can accomplish for our community. By pairing with local businesses, we have been organizing benefit concerts in which we partner with non-profits to raise donations for charities and nonprofit organizations, linking area musicians and their concerns directly to their community. 

Teaming up with like-minded establishments has been paramount in moving our vision forward. By working with entities such as the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center, Artspace Lima, and the Council for the Arts of Greater Lima, we’ve been able to spread awareness about the blossoming underground of art and music being made and showcased in our backyards. 

With our partners at Legacy Arts (an arts-based business collective we helped form), we have great mentors and collaborators that share our foresight. By setting up the Legacy Arts Building as a creative hub and entertainment destination in Lima, OH, we not only retain young creatives by enriching these vibrant concepts, but we also revitalize our downtown by drawing people from every walk of life to come together to enjoy and engage in a culture that many feel the need to leave the area to experience. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Over the years, we’ve been lucky to connect with artists creating music that moves us. It’s been the only criteria that decides who we work with in our studio and on our record label. Since 2014, we’ve used Legacy Sounds Studio as a place for genuine creators to come together and hone their crafts in songwriting, recording, performing, and promotion. Through establishing a community on the foundation of mutual respect, we’ve seen relationships bloom in the form of the collaborations between our artists and the people they trust to bring into the community that we’ve been building together. 

If someone is coming in with genuine and honest expression, an open mind, and heart for the willingness to learn and to pay it forward, then that’s enough to get us in their corner. The purpose of broadcasting the talents of these artists to the world becomes an easy and enthusiastic objective when we truly believe in the people we’re working with. 

In 2019, we founded Rustgaze Records to release the music from these artists that we’ve been working within the studio in hopes to help grow them into the next tiers of their careers while turning their passions into something that’s creatively fulfilling, as well as sustainable for themselves. In the short time, the studio and label has been active, we have drawn positive attention from local media outlets and active members of our community as well as thousands of views, likes, and shares across multiple social media platforms. We’ve also been able to develop regional fan bases and awareness for these artists, while changing our area’s perception of what local music can be, cultivating a much-needed pride in our area. 

Check out ‘What a Life’ by Jasmine Goare and ‘Ghosts, Myths and Me’ by Logan Ross; out now on Rustgaze Records, as well as upcoming releases from Trophy Girls, Kevin Ashba, D L Burdon and His Questionable Intentions, and more! 

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
While our recording studio and record label are expanding into a new space in the Legacy Arts Building in downtown Lima OH, we look forward to continuing the philosophy that’s been the cornerstone of what we’ve been developing. Our mission has grown into evolving our creative economy by teaming up with local entities, businesses, and corporations to invest in programs that nurture young creatives in hopes to keep them based in our area to breathe phresh life into a culture that’s been dormant and ignored. 

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.rustgazerecords.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rustgazerecords/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RustgazeRecords
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rustgazerecords
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/rustgazerecords
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-572752129
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/legacysounds419/

Image Credits
David Entinghe
Omar Zehery
Kayla Nocera
John Wehner
John Flanagan