Jay Pillai and his Lazie Indie Magazine

And what could arguably be considered a crowning achievements Founding the world wide read Lazie Indie Magazine and subsequent founding of IIMF - the International Indie Music Festival, a massive platform featuring brilliant musicians from across the globe, the likes of which have never before seen in India. Jay’s career is at a fanciable stage and is gaining momentum on his 3^rd anniversary of his magazine. The irony of the name Lazie J is not lost considering he is also the man behind Autumnleaf the big stage in 2018 - the award winning TV show promoting Indie musicians in South India. In 2020 he founded the Lazie Indie Magazine - which is read in over a hundred countries spanning all continents and have featured over 500 artists worldwide.

Lazie Indie Magazine was founded in 2020 by Jay Pillai of the band Lazie J. It is currently going into its 36th edition and is read across 100+ countries across the globe, in all continents except maybe Antarctica. It is a carefully built up community by musicians for musicians with its trademark interviews where none of the responses are edited and Jay Pillai’s staunch belief that music should not be critiqued - rather the musicians are to be given a platform to explain their craft and art. 

Lazie Indie Magazine has featured artists from over 50 countries cutting across geography, genre, gender, race and religion - successfully garnering a dedicated readership across the world. It was started as a one man effort by Jay, and as the community diversified and grew in numbers, the magazine also has contributors from around the world now who themselves are artists of great repute thus making it a global magazine for the musician by the musician” And it has come to feature numerous icons and heavy weights in the industry along with countless up and coming artists, with their proven record of outstanding craft and body of work. 

The magazine has also covered numerous prestigious awards like Josies, ICMA, LDM, ISR awards and have featured many Grammy winners and voting members. The community also boasts quite a number of recording academy mentors too. 

The IIMF or International Indie Music Festival is an offshoot of the magazine as a collaborative effort with Kerala Arts and Crafts Village. The first edition of this annual fest ran for 5 days in the beginning of November, 2020 and featured around 21 artists including artists from Singapore , Malaysia, USA, UK, Papua New Guinea, Italy and India. It saw names like Will Johns, Sami Chohfi, Anslom , Lyia Meta coming and playing in India for the first time. Artist and bands openly expressed the camaraderie and the comfort they felt at the fest like none other when they returned back after the event that was held near Kovalam - a beautiful beach in Trivandrum city, International artists seamlessly collaborated with Indian artists and performing as a band. The philosophy and artistic ethics set forth by the pioneering work of Jay Pillai does not seem to show any signs of slowing down the either. 

There is absolutely nothing Lazie about the man who has managed to carve out his own space with the independent rock scene world over with his magazine that is going on to its 36th edition and featuring musicians world over. The most admirable thing about his endeavors is that Jay has managed to develop lasting friendships and lifelong collaborators throughout - a testament to how much he is dedicated to the art and craft of the sounds and melodies we all love so much. In the run up to founding the now highly reputed Lazie Indie Magazine… ay keeps his feet firmly on the ground when he says “ It has been a journey of exploration and discovery for me and I am sure that if a Jay who comes from a small town in the southern most part of India can connect artists world over to help each other and contribute to each other’s growth anyone one can do it” .