Meet Thakzin a musical prodigy and known pioneer of the 3-Step sound that’s taking over Afro House currently. He describes the sound as being the baby of Afro House and Amapiano. Through his innovative and forward thinking approach to music Thakzin sheds light on culture, the birth of 3-Step its future and fashion.
How did you get into music and has it always been a part of your life?
Yeah, music’s always been in my life. My father was a musician, so he’s the one who plugged me into music. I started at a very young age. Late 2010 is when I started producing but I started DJing 2009 and I’ve been doing it ever since.
When you first got into DJing was Afro House the genre you focused on, or did you start with other genres?
Yeah, it was really Afro House, I think because the genre at that time and even now is considered to be ‘a young man sport’ I think. So at home myself and my family would all have favourite genres. My mother would go for Gospel, my father would go for Jazz, my sister would go for R&B and I’d go for House and the local gem we call Kwaito.
I’m familiar with Kwaito
Yeah! That was what I was taught by my father.
With Kwaito, I have been researching a lot into the genre and with the Amapiano sound a lot of people say that the sound pays homage to Kwaito. Do you agree?
I do agree. I do agree!
From the vibe, the energy it gives even the lyrical part where it’s like free language. It’s a language that we are used to, but there’s also the simplicity of it that makes the whole thing.
I was introduced to you from the MÖRDA – Asante album, by the track ‘Ndiyekekeni’when I first heard it, I thought mmm this sounds a bit Afro Techy but it’s got a different vibe. Your name is plastered everywhere when it comes to ‘3-Step’ and you are seen as one of the pioneers of the sound.
What three words would you use to describe ‘3-Step’ in comparison to ‘Afro Tech’?
Three words to describe it? Mmm. I have a sentence, if Afro House and Amapiano were to have a baby it would be 3-Step. It’s a blend and combination of the two.
How did you go about generating and engineering the sound?
It was during covid times, 2020 where we couldn’t really go anywhere and my sound was Afro House but then later I’d go to clubs, and they’d be playing Amapiano. I’d get there, I’d play my sound and I could feel that there was a little bit of a disconnect with the crowd. So then I started listening to what was moving the people from Amapiano and I took that and I incorporated it on the Afro House sound and it sort of birthed the new thing that is, the new sub-genre 3-Step.
What would you say has inspired you musically, like when we look at the beginnings from Kwaito till now, which musicians, which songs captivate your spirit?
Yoh. It’s songs, its energies, it’s life itself. I can get inspired by just seeing someone who’s listening to music and seeing their energy and how it makes them feel. I believe music is a hidden component and for me it’sseeing the power of music and how it heals people.
That’s one thing that has always inspired me. Why do people listen to happy music when they are sad? I seepower in that, and I saw that at such a young age and by the music that was instilled in me by my father. It’s a blend of the old school and the new school and it’s about also painting the future.
I see myself as a product of the past, the present and the future. You know, I’m inspired by the past because I draw inspiration from it, from the people that have paved the way for us and the present because I listen to whatever is happening and I’m able to incorporate it. I try to paint the future and how it’s going to be, by imagining and that’s the power of music.
I agree, I think with House music it is very spiritual, even with 3-Step. It has such a vibrant sound, it’s hard to stay still. It gets the people moving and it’s uplifting so thank you for contributing to that. So!What’s next for Thakzin?
That has always been one of the most difficult questions. I always find it-
I don’t like saying what’s next you know, I like surprises.
But there’s so much to experience, even with 3-Step a vibe that is happening right now. There are so many parts of it that hasn’t been explored. You know, you go to different countries and then you listen to the music that they listen to and you’re like ooh! I can incorporate that into the music that we’re doing.
Definitely, more international features, more international connections as I don’t only want to connect the sound by what is happening in South Africa. I’ve had the privilege of travelling and seeing what is happening out there and so that is one thing I’d like to bring over.
We can have 3-Step Gospel, 3-Step R&B, that is what I see of the genre where the sound isn’t just linked to Afro House but linked to music as a whole.
Which artists or producers would you love to work with in future?
I think for me, it’s always about the energy. I wouldn’t chase a collab or a feature if it’s not reciprocal energy. I’m all about whatever comes my way I go towards.
One of the people I’d say internationally who I’ve always seen as innovative and forward thinking is Pharrell. I know it’s out of my Afro thing but he is one of the people I’d like to work with and there is also an artist in South Africa called Thandiswa Mazwai. I draw a lot of inspiration from those people because they’re not boxed in. You never know what they’re going to come up with. I like having that element as an artist where you don’t know where the next thing is going to go, but you know, it’s going to be nice.
Like Pharrell you don’t know what he’s going to drop or what he’s going to do but you know it’s going to be nice. You know, it’s that trust. That trust that I want to build with people, it’s the trust I want to build culture, I just want to have a positive contribution to the culture. Where people are able to look at me and say, ‘you did something.’ When the time comes and you go to the heavens or wherever you go, God forbid, but when you get there you have something to say. That’s me.
It’s funny you’ve mentioned Pharrell, because he’s incorporated fashion, music, culture all into one, you know even with N.E.R.D. I can see that you’re quite fashionable you come across as someone who’s on trend.
Which fashion brands would you say you’re interested in or like wearing?
I’m a huge lover of Kick, I’m a huge lover of New Balance.
I’ve got New Balance on
You see! You’ve got the vibes. It’s New Balance but I’m also liking Nike, but my biggest love is New Balance.
I mean, the trainers are comfortable. I really like them, it’s either them or Stan Smiths.
True, there’s also so much local brands from home that I’m like this is it, this is the future. I would love to support. There are so many, for me it is about wearing something that is comfortable, that will make you look good because if you look good
You feel good
You feel good yeah! By the time you’re ready to play you have nothing else to worry about but the music. You’re not like ahh I don’t like it, you know with confidence, the fashion it builds confidence in you.
Do you have a stylist or is this all you?
Unfortunately for now this is all me but all thanks to everyone who supports me. I am open to ideas to whoever may come to me as a stylist but for now it’s just me rocking what I like.
After a performance, obviously it’s hectic the vibes are there, you know you’re feeling amped up. How would you go about unwinding and just relaxing?
For me, I need just two minutes of zoning out. Those two minutes of zoning out. So, usually you see how everyone is out there right now, I’d just come to a space like this where there is no one and call above. Pray, do whatever but I need that time of just focusing on me.
Before I let you go, we’re here in London, I know it’s not your first time in London. How would you describe the London crowd as opposed to other crowds?
London feels like home! I’ve been telling the guys; I’ve had the privilege of going to different places and this place specifically feels like home. The people are vibrant, the people are willing to listen, they are willing to go wherever you want to go. Their ears are really open, they yearn for something new. It feels like a place that is yearning for something new, something innovative. So being here makes me feel like I’m really home and it encourages me to do more and explore. There’s so much diversity in this city and that’s one thing I really like and appreciate about London.
Meet Pierre Johnson a talented DJ and producer from South Africa making his mark on Afro House and putting Cape Town on the map. A lover of all types of music, Pierre shares his passions for deep House and excitement for the future of South Africa and House music.
I’m Pierre Johnson, I’m a DJ and producer from Cape Town, South Africa. I’ve been making music for about 6 years now and I’ve been DJing for about 13 years.
Wow, I’m going to have to stop you there because I think we need to take it back and understand why you fell into music and how you started DJing?
I was brought up in a household where there was lots of music and a variety of music too. Whenever I’d come back from school there’d always be different music playing whether it was Jazz, Rock n Roll, House, just anything really, a lot of Hip Hop as well.
Any favourite rappers?
I’m definitely a Biggie, Nas kinda guy, that’s where I’m at with the 90’s Hip Hop.
I started DJing in clubs from a very young age of 14 years old. We would grab a taxi into town, get the last taxi at like 5pm and then wait until the next morning at like 4am so that we could catch one home.
That’s basically how I started you know; I did that for about 3 years. I also had a DJ residency on a popular radio station in Cape Town and from there the sound changed quite a bit. It went from commercial House music to a deeper sound and some Afro House in between. When I started producing music that’s when I kind of focused mainly on the deep House and slowly over the last two to three years the sound became a more percussive Afro type of sound.
As an avid listener of Afro House, I’ve seen the waves in which the sound has changed throughout the years. From the soft soulful House to a darker tech sound with lots of drums. Would you say that your sound has followed this pattern, or would you say you do your own thing?
I think it definitely has like a big influence I mean if we were to rewind to like not even four years ago, obviously Black Coffee has been like the staple in Afro House. The first person you think about is Black Coffee, he’s really made a huge impact and from there I feel like the sound on its own has genuinely kept on progressing and progressing. Even now when you look at what’s happening with 3-Step, it’s early days but already got like this techy side of it that’s dark and aggressive but it’s also got the soulful side of it and it’s changing so fast.
Same thing happened with piano, when it first came into the world it was so soft, soulful and jazzy and over time it’s gotten…I don’t want to say darker, but you know all of these sub genres of piano are now existing.
I’m seeing the same thing with Afro House, I used to play Afro House back in like 2014 and even then, it wasn’t very much mainstream in Cape Town. Perhaps in different parts of South Africa but definitely not Cape Town. Now, it just feels like I’m basically going back to that time of my career, where music is concerned where the sound is concerned.
That brings me to my next question, when people think of Afro House places such as Johannesburg, Durban come into mind. It’s not that often Cape Town is mentioned but you being from Cape Town you’ve brought the flavour and the vibes. I’ve even heard that your resident club night ‘Afrovault’ has been very, very popular.
Would you say that has impacted the sound in Cape Town today?
Definitely, I think we’re probably seeing the biggest change in our nightlife since the pandemic, since covid. Cape Town is now in a place where DJ’s and producers are hosting their own events, which in the past wasn’t much of a thing. A lot of things are happening now, you’ve got record labels popping out, left, right and centre and they’re doing events as well. The micro economy that is Afro House, that is deep House in Cape Town is at a point now where you can go out on a Friday and Saturday night and get the music that you’re looking for.
The nightlife has really grown, there’s much more nightclubs. Maybe not as big as here in Outernet but there’s definitely high energy in Cape Town right now. I’ve never been more excited and hyped about being from Cape Town and being from South Africa. You’re seeing it on the global scale, whether we’re talking about Shimza, Lemon & Herb, Da Capo all of the guys really. They are showcasing our music on a massive scale all over the world, I’m really proud to be from South Africa and to be South African.
Is this your first time in London?
This is!
Have you had a chance to explore?
A little bit, it’s been quite fast paced to be honest. We’ve been travelling since June and in the last month and a half we’ve done Spain, Portugal, Paris, Marseilles, Germany – Berlin and Hamburg, that’s been a lot of coverage in a short period of time. But I’m taking in all the different cultures and types of music styles, learning what people appreciate. London’s got something..it reminds me of home a little bit, the other day I was walking around in the streets and I got off the subway and I heard music so I thought let me go and check out this vibe and literally the playlist they were playing it felt like home! It was South Africa. I’ve been enjoying the music here.
How would you say the atmosphere here tonight differs from back home?
That’s a good question, I think the difference is the music we have and the music I’m playing is at least 90% by South African Artists. South Africa is at a point right now where listeners know which artists music you’re playing, whether it’s unreleased or not. One minute into the track they know it’s an unreleased track from whoever. Whereas over here it’s still kind of like I don’t want to say like deep listening I don’t know how to explain it but it’s new, it’s very fresh. Navigating what the sound especially with the broken beat stuff, I think again like with Afro House and Afro Tech that we’re used to is obviously familiar but now that there’s this whole broken beat vibe that’s coming into the genre I think that’s a sub genre that’s slowly forming. It’s not 3-Step you know, it doesn’t follow the same rhythm patterns, it’s much darker and the rhythms are completely different, but the beats are broken. So when you’re playing that in London in comparison to playing in South Africa where we’re used to Gqom the listeners are familiar with it and they’re like ‘oh this is cool!’ whereas in London they’re like ‘what is this?’ But people were vibing out to that very new sound, I mean it’s awesome!
Before I let you go are there any rituals you do before your set?
I’ve always tried to prep sets in advance, but it never works. Even today, I found myself
putting music together at like 4pm in the afternoon you know. For most people they would have sorted it out like during the weekend but for me – this is a battle that has been happening for years now, I just love sorting out music on the day. I just want to sit down for hours and listen to all of the music that I’ve got and put my set together. I try to stay very present and not hype myself up too much or I try to not have low or high expectations. Even tonight I’ve walked in here with an open mind, the only thing in my mind is that I hope that there’s a dancefloor of people that will take this music and enjoy it. I guess that’s my way of prepping.
Meet Lemon and Herb an Afro House duo consisting of childhood friends Skhumbuzo Radebe and Don Sithole from KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa. Renowned for their distinctive rhythms and futuristic melodies, Lemon and Herb are a force to be reckoned with.
How did you fall into music, tell me about the beginnings?
Skhu
Why did we start this type of music? I think there was a lot of influence when we were growing up in South Africa especially with the compilations. For me, that’s when I was first introduced to House music, Soul Candi, DJ Fresh, all those DJ’s would compile a lot of European producers such as Atjazz, and other producers into one CD and those were distributed within South Africa during my teens. So, when I got the software to make music, naturally I gravitated towards the genre, that’s where I fell in love with House music.
Don
Yeah for me it’s the same as Skhu, very similar love to music. I think for me, the initial start in terms of music as a whole was through church. Playing the keyboard at church and then the soulfulness of music, the spiritual upliftment of music, it resonated with House music when I first came across it. Then you have Soulful House, Afro House and then that’s when I began to grow in the genre, we both had this love for the music and we thought maybe we could do something together.
You mentioned you play the keyboard, is that your favourite instrument?
Don
Erm, yes. It’s the only instrument I can play. I would love to play other instruments such as guitar, that’s another instrument I still tell myself I’m going to play. The nice thing about the keyboard is that I can find all of the other instruments in there and play them in my version of how I’d want to hear them.
Skhu
No I don’t play any other Instruments but I’ve messed around with the keyboard, I use it as a medium to produce. I can play a few chords here and there but I’m nowhere near as proficient as Don. He was literally playing the keyboard every Sunday, but I have my way around the creative process, messing around putting things together, I’m sort of like a crazy chef.
I think it’s beautiful that you guys started off as childhood friends, getting into this duo. What would you say are the challenges you face being friends whilst creating?
Don
Challenges…I mean in every relationship there are challenges. We are different people, different beings, we have our own personal preferences in what we do. For us, challenges would…let’s say we’re working on a project, the type of sound instruments the way you want to project it, it is a challenge that is a good challenge for us. I’ll put it that way because for example if I don’t like what Skhu puts in I’m not going to remove it. I’m going to say ‘okay let me find a way to make it work for me’. Then Skhu hears it and then he’ll say ‘yeah I feel you, but this is what I wanted to do’ If he was to put a guitar on the track I might say ‘the guitar is working but I want it to sound like this’ then Skhu will have a listen and say ‘well now that it sounds like this perhaps we may want to use a saxophone instead?’
There’s growth and change in differences you know, and that for me in general is what life is all about. In the differences we come together and in our music that’s one of the differences I find that still works.
Lemon and Herb performing at Til Two in Outernet, London
What’s been the highs, the best part of working together?
Skhu
Best parts of working together is definitely travelling some of the things that I always think of is if I’m travelling just alone it can be a bit…a bit daunting you know. Traveling may not always be sunshine and roses but yeah this is one of the benefits and I get to do this life with my best friend. We’ve been doing this for a long, long time, I mean we grew up together and even till now we’re still together so yeah that’s the best part. Also, sharing our love for music, I think it’s just beautiful and that’s why we’re even here at Til Two today to share the music. It’s what we live for, just to share this beautiful blessing bestowed upon us by the Almighty!
Amen! Is this your first time in London?
Both
2nd time
Ahh, how are you finding it? I mean, we’ve been blessed today by having good weather. The first in a long time.
Skhu
Yeah..we need to change a few things in the future. We come in, land at the airport, go to a hotel, go play and then we’re out. I think in the future I would love to stay for like a week and explore. I think London has a lot of things to offer, it is a great famous city, a lot of history. It would be nice to just stay and soak in the culture for a bit. London is a beautiful city, it reminds me so much of my hometown in Howick which is a small town in the KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa. There are so many places in London that are similar, you know they give me a little bit of de ja vu.
I mean this is going to sound so cliché, but given that you are both South African…have you been to the Nandos-
Both
Yeah! Of course!
But I mean, in London?
Skhu
I see where you’re going with this, carry on!
Don
Okay we haven’t been to Nandos in London but we need to try it
I wanted to find out whether it compares to back home
Both *exclaims*
Skhu
As long as it has Lemon & Herb
Don
Yeah the sauce, the sauce!
Skhu
The chicken can change, but the sauce
Don
Truthfully I think the food is different even with franchises, it differs from city to city, country to country and I think that’s mainly down to the food people eat in these places.
I mean I was going to ask what sauce do you get when you go to Nandos…
Don
Actually, the hot sauce. Mozambique paprika sauce.
Skhu
Yeah!
Oh! So not Lemon & Herb then?
Laughs
Don
We’re not that self absorbed!
Congratulations on the new single this year ‘Find A Way’!
Both
Thank you!
Are there any upcoming projects, something to let the fans know?
Skhu
Definitely! We’re always in the studio making something, a few remixes are coming probably in the next few months. It’s sounding really nice, hopefully we get to see the final piece and you guys can get to hear it. Yeah, we’re working on a lot of music so keep your eyes and ears peeled.
Lemon and Herb performing at Til Two in Outernet, London
Before any performances are there any random things or rituals you do? It could be prayer, banging on a desk etc.
Skhu
Definitely prayer, it might not be right before the set, it could be before we take a flight or individually at home. Prayer is the one thing that I can say for Lemon & Herb, it really grounds us. Just knowing that there is something bigger than yourself that is in control and takes the lead and protects us through these travels. With travelling there’s so much potential for things to happen such as accidents so we always take that prayer very seriously. Things can take a turn within a given minute and so we try and stay grounded and put it all to the man.
Don
When we come on and perform for people once you stand in front of the fans and the crowd who are there to listen to the music with the stage it’s almost like a pulpit and you’re presenting the message. You want to make people leave the place happy, you want them to enjoy and relieve themselves of any stresses they’re dealing with. We pray for that and we say ‘okay God make us your tool’ to relieve them. Prayer is powerful.
I mean that’s the beauty of House music; it brings everyone together.
My last and final question before I let you guys go, how would you describe the development of sound from ‘Edge’ back in 2019 to your last album ‘Aura’ to your latest single this year?
Skhu
There are elements that we like to have in our tracks, I wouldn’t say they always have to be in a specific set or genre but we’re always making dance music. We like to use a lot of percussive instruments; we always have like a little bit of soul elements in our songs. So those are really the elements that we try to mix and play with, whatever the outcome might be. The outcome might be different sometimes, it could be a slow, chill track, sometimes it’s an up-tempo high track. You know, there’s not really a formula to our songs however we try and fuse what inspires us at the time. For a long time, the percussive sounds are definitely something we connect with.
Catch more of Lemon and Herb on:
Instagram @lemonnherb
Special thanks to Sef Kombo and Til Two for making this happen
Meet Ola Zainab, an Afro R&B artist from East London who’s passionate about singing and expression, whilst describing her gift for singing as innate.
With the release of her single ‘Wandering Eyes’ earlier on this year I discuss with Ola her interests, inspirations and what keeps her creativity flowing.
How has your 2023 been?
It’s been productive! It’s been exciting and motivating compared to 2022 which was difficult.
Last year, I completely gave up on the music. I wasn’t present and so with 2023, it’s off to a fantastic start!
I’m glad to hear that you’re now in a space where you feel motivated, why wasn’t that the case last year?
To be honest, two of my closest friends had passed away and I knew it had knocked me, but I didn’t realise how much it had stopped me in my tracks. The whole situation was like ‘Argh!’
But towards the end of the year I realised I needed to take the time out and I wish I knew that earlier on in the year because I felt a lot of guilt. But I needed that time and I decided to give myself the time out so that I could then get back to feeling present.
Do you often feel like as a creative you have to be consistently on the go?
Like, there’s no time to recoup your energy and get focused?
100%. Especially with my age like in terms of the music industry I’m basically an OAP. I was teaching before, that was my career, and I was doing really well but to go from that to taking singing seriously I’m basically starting from scratch. Feels like I just have to keep on going.
But on the flip side, sometimes you need to listen to yourself because in the end you’re going to hurt yourself in the long run.
Just to flag to readers, I actually know Ola from school and since I’ve known you, you have always been singing. Tell me how you got into music and how you began this journey?
My first musical memory is actually from year 2 when my teacher was holding auditions for my school’s Christmas show. I just remember sitting on the carpet and her reaction after I had auditioned. I didn’t really understand what was going but she really liked it. She then called my parents and gave us the contact of a Saturday school for me to attend to for singing.
I have to be really grateful for my parents because they’re so supportive. There was one time I thought to quit main school choir and my mum was like ‘hell no’.
The support from church and family have always been great.
Congratulations on ‘Wandering Eyes’, let’s get into it. Where did the inspiration come from?
Okay so with writers, generally some are quite melodic, or lyrical and I’m on the lyrical side meaning I write first before I figure out a melody. I think I was either watching something or speaking to someone and they had mentioned ‘wandering eyes’ and I just thought about it and how it can be something to be explored. I thought about my experiences of being in a relationship with someone who’s not interested in you, yet they’re very much interested in everyone else.
That was the inspiration, but I knew that as much as I love R&B I also enjoy experimenting. I’m very experimental in my nature so I knew I wanted some funk in the song. I had worked with a producer and developed a beat and sound for the track. We finished recording back in 2021 but then re-recorded it again in May 2022. Didn’t touch but then it got to the end of the year and I was like, I need to release it I really enjoy this track.
Why did you not want to release back in May?
I just wasn’t ready; I wasn’t in the right mind frame. With my two other singles although I loved them, they weren’t fully me and representative of my artistry. I wanted to do this right. Not gonna lie I also did want to lose a bit of weight for the promo, but I just kept eating and eating! So, I had to just think you know what? That will come later.
You wanted to get your sexy back.
And I did get my sexy back and not in a way I had imagined. It was more of a mental thing, I just felt that I was now ready.
The track is definitely a sexy sultry song, even the beat.
Yeah, that’s what I wanted! That’s what I want to portray in my music is grown. I’m grown. I never wanted to tap into that before because I never used to believe in my sexuality. When you’re in a rotten relationship it really does a number on you and so I couldn’t believe I could be sexy. Then I thought no, this is how I feel about myself, this is how I feel about music and this is what resonates with me. It’s a song for the sexy sad girls!
How would you describe your artistry?
It’s experimental, it’s sensual, confident, and cheeky. Also, it’s really honest and the first two singles I put out did capture the honesty but it failed to capture the essence of who I am right now. I was unsure of myself and I was sort of going for what I thought would people would want but with ‘Wandering Eyes’ I just thought if you like it, you like it and if you don’t, you don’t. I’m going to find my audience and this song felt like it was for me.
I definitely do agree, I think in knowing you this song definitely encapsulates your personality.
Who would you say are your music influencers?
Solange, she’s bae. ‘A Seat at the Table’ changed my life I used to listen to that constantly from top to bottom. I’d also say Ari Lennox, Jasmine Sullivan, Rihanna of course. I think the reason why Rihanna is even up there for me is because she’s so experimental I get so excited about her albums. I just feel like that’s how music should be. I get that we have genres in terms of the business side, and you know finding your audience but essentially it is an art. You want to experiment. Things we have to say doesn’t just fit into one box.
But besides artists I get my inspiration from people around me, things I hear. It’s a mixture.
How do you deal with music blocks?
I’m quite fortunate to say I don’t usually get them. Even in my darkest days last year when I wasn’t present, I was still writing music I just wasn’t putting anything out. Sometimes I even find it overwhelming because I have too many ideas and not enough time to get them out.
This is why I think when it comes to music, I just know that this is God given and I’m supposed to do it.
Even when I have doubts and I’m like should I just give up? I realise to myself this is the only thing in my whole life that isn’t difficult in terms of creativity.
It just shows how passionate you are and how it comes so naturally to you.
Yeah, it feels innate that I can’t not do that. It literally feels like blinking, I can’t imagine myself not being able to express myself through writing or singing. It’s my medicine and I feel like it’s a way that I connect with God.
I guess this makes it harder to ask my next question but if you weren’t doing music, what would you be doing?
I’d be dead. Okay God forbid! But if it wasn’t for music, I’d probably be doing something creative. That’s one thing I’ve realised, like as we grow, we stop learning with our bodies and suddenly everything is just with our brains. I feel like especially with me discovering I have ADHD I feel like I just have to be creative or else I feel stuck. I’ve always been creative and seen the world differently. You know even with creative direction; I love that especially with music. When I create a song I think about how am I going to share this with the world visually.
With that being said, give me examples of a few music videos you really enjoy?
Erm, one of them would be my girl Gisèle – Dance & Gyrate, Rihanna – Work and We found Love. I enjoy when there’s a narrative involved, feels like you’re watching a movie. Oh! Can’t hold us down by Christina Aguilera and Lil Kim.
The ultimate feminist anthem!
Feminism started there! But also, Bootylicicous by Destiny Child I just love how fun it is with the colours too.
Which decade of music do you believe you resonate with?
The noughties, early noughties. I know people will say the nineties and usually lump it together with the noughties despite both decades being very different. But I just love the production, it’s so rich.
Let’s take Timbaland for example, there’s just so many layers with his music. Even the fashion of the noughties, you had the bling. It was extra, it was layered and over the top and that’s how I feel like the music was.
Who would you say is your favourite artist from the past and currently now?
An artist I’m currently enjoying is Victoria Monet, she is a superstar. She’s so incredible and talented. A past artist has to be Destiny Child I know it’s cliché but the impact they had, the vocals, the visuals.
Which phase of Destiny Child?
People are probably going to hate me…but my truth is Kelly, Michelle, and Beyonce. That’s the group I grew up watching, I grew to love. I can’t dance but I’d dance to their music videos, they are the ones I modelled my outfits on.
That’s what I miss from the early noughties, you had your singers who were performers. When it came to music videos the artistry, the visuals were on point. Like everything was a huge production.
Yeah, it was unapologetically cheesy and just over the top whereas I think now a lot of artists are faced with the pressure of having to maintain this act of coolness and not giving a f*ck.
I think, nowadays there isn’t so much of a market for music videos where artists are able express their creativity and capture their audience visually. Feels like there’s no music video culture.
Yeah and that’s a real difficulty because even with ‘Wandering Eyes’ we’ve actually shot a music video for it but I’m just thinking what’s the point? I mean of course there’s a point of putting it out there you know I love the concept. I love how my people came through for me to bring this production to life. But I do think do people even care about it? You know if it’s not on Tik Tok…
As an artist what do you think about having to use platforms such as Tik Tok to engage with an audience? Do you find it difficult if you aren’t on Tik Tok or if the song isn’t what people appreciate on there?
It is disheartening because you feel like you’re whoring your song out because you have to find the part of the song which people are going to like the most, use the most etc. When really and truly on Tik Tok I just want to be free and do dumb stuff. I get that some musicians may do that as a strategy, but I just want to put out music that people love and enjoy. I don’t want to have to force it down their throats, but I feel like in this day and age you have to.
Sometimes you really appreciate your song, and you don’t want to have to chop it up to appease a mass audience. I even feel the pressure when I’m writing because I am thinking will people on social media use this song? Are they going to be playing it with their ‘get ready with me’ videos? That does take out the beauty from it but at the same time that’s the realities of it you know making music is also a business at the end of the day and we have to respect the behaviours of consumers.
Although, I may not always necessarily want to. I understand why certain artists would prefer to be signed and work with labels because as an artist you don’t want to be dealing with all of that. Like, I just want to make music.
But you know me I am also a Tik Tok addict, and you find that it can also create so many opportunities for people. I’ve connected with so many amazing people and so it can be very valuable.
You’ve previously mentioned how this year has been a much better year than the last. How is the rest of 2023 looking like for you musically?
I think content is king right now with getting music out there, I’m glad I’m having this interview. My first interview! But definitely more shows, more performances. I love performing that is my safe space. No matter what, I will perform. I’d like to work with more artists, producers and experiment a bit more. I’m trying to get all the stuff I’ve written out there and maybe start writing for other musician. I just want people to enjoy the music.
Meet Chelsea Como, a musician born and raised in Miami. Known for her soft like engaging vocals on prominent dance tracks ‘Waves’ and ‘Until Tomorrow’. Chelsea is currently enchanting listeners of Afro House as she marks her ground on the scene.
I’ve been given the amazing opportunity to sit down in sunny Valencia and discuss with Chelsea her love for making/writing music and divine femininity.
I like to write music that’s not only uplifting, but for black women, from a perspective of happiness, love and believing. I don’t feel limited in my writing.
I like to romanticise on things that make you think of someone even if you’re not with them anymore but acknowledging the beauty of that moment when you were with them.
When I write music it’s supposed to uplift or inspire me, make me dream or make me remember amazing experiences that I’ve had. So maybe that’s better for Afro House because when people are in a club listening to it, they want to be uplifted. It has a spirituality to it not a religious standpoint but like what’s the beauty of life? The beauty of love? The beauty of a woman? That’s what I would like to see more of within our community.
So, you’ve mentioned how you like to write when you’re in a good place, has there been times where you’ve felt quite low and want to express yourself through writing too?
Yes, in the beginning. Before I went to Italy, I would write a lot of sad songs, but it wasn’t from heartbreak, it was from losing a family member. I think it’s a good process. Adele is an artist who I like who does that. I like the album 21, as an artist we should be true to what we’re going through. Although, if every time I hear your music and it’s at a frequency where it’s not so high to me it’s like ‘where’s the growth?’
Musically you can talk about love over and over again because love is eternal. When I feel that vibe, I like to write because I believe people can connect with me more and I feel like I am sending out something that is needed.
Which song would you say was written from a place when you weren’t that happy?
‘Until Tomorrow’ was a bit of a sad song, we were in the middle of a lockdown and with covid. Although I was still able to turn it into something positive ‘even if the sky should fall, I’ll hold your hand through it’ it guarantees listeners with that reassurance.
It’s funny you say that because when I first listened to ‘Until Tomorrow’ I didn’t feel sad. I felt quite solemn, or perhaps a range of emotions it being a love song and the progressive sound. I felt quite calm and at peace.
Thank you! I mean it is different to ‘Waves’ and ‘Flames’ I felt lyrically I went somewhere else, and I usually don’t. I think I had been timid or afraid to write something different. I usually have easier and catchier stuff but ‘Until Tomorrow’ lyrically it was advanced.
When it comes to my songs, they’re like my babies. I’m very sensitive about my art, so if I don’t think it’s ready or I don’t know how people are going to receive it, I’m always careful about who is going to do the remix.
How does that process work, so with ‘Waves’ did Enoo Napa reach out to you to do a remix?
I remember saying this song has so much life to it, what is the sound that we would like? Jacko brought up Enoo Napa, I had heard his mix on the song ‘Conqueror’ and I’m a big fan of Jackie Queens. I was like yes! Let’s get him to do it. I sent him the track and he changed it into something, like wow! When he made it, he was like ‘what do you think?’ I was like can you bring the vocals back in? It was supposed to end after the second hook and so when he brought it back in and the way he did it, it was so good. I like to stack my vocals and on the track you can hear I’m singing counter which is not usual in Afro House. At the time when ‘Waves’ came out, Afro Tech was very big and vocals wasn’t in. I’d say ‘Abiro’ was one of the biggest songs at that time, there’s the chance and then you had the soulful sound.
Did you expect ‘Waves’ to get the traction it did?
I thought it would be nice to have a mix from Enoo and we’ll see what happens and then it blew up! I can’t speak for him, but we did not know ‘Waves’ would blow up, but it was a result of the massive support from Black Coffee.
Explain to me your songwriting process?
I write my songs without an idea of a beat. I just write, I think because the songs are melodic and they’re kind of pure. I’m not singing on a track; I never sing on a track. I always write my stuff with keys and then I add a beat. That’s why I think lyrically and melodically it’s so unique. The vocals can stand on its own, you can literally take these vocals 10 years from now and do a new treatment to them and it will work because they weren’t written to a beat of a certain time.
It’s very important because I think vocalists in Afro House are not as valued as they can be or used as much as they can. The elevation of the music can come from, let’s say 80% of the song is just the track and we put a vocal on there but if that vocal could bring more then you’ve taken the song to another level. Which is why with ‘Waves’ till this day people still play it.
It is very timeless
That is the biggest compliment because I’m a big fan of timeless artists and music. When you look at artists such as Sade, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill vocally their music is timeless. If you put another mix over their songs it is going to work. It’s not like you just want a song to work for the current time. The message of the song, the melody, the way the song is written, it is meant for a purpose. There is form to a song. I do love chance and I think that there is room for that, but it shouldn’t only be that in Afro House. We want this genre, this form of music to be timeless and not just periodic. There are a lot of singers who have the potential to do that I think we have to make room for them.
As an Afro House listener, I’m always curious in knowing what people perceive the genre as because since I started listening to it from 2015 till now, I’ve seen the birth of several sub genres – What is Afro House to you?
I’m actually doing a paper on it, so different people have ideas of what is Afro House? I know with South Africans they have elevated Afro House so much but then when I speak to people from New York they would say they had Tribal House and they had Afro House before South Africans were able to take it to where it is now. When I was introduced to South African house, I was listening to Bucie and Black Coffee, I got into ‘Turn Me On’ & ‘Superman’.
It’s interesting because with Black Coffee and Bucie’s project I wouldn’t say it has the elements of what Afro House is today. If anything, to me it was two South Africans coming together to make house music.
Exactly. My question now is, are we naming Afro House correctly? What is it going to be like in 5 years? When ‘Waves’ was written Afro House was Afro Tech and that kind of music we don’t consider that to be Afro House anymore. The term Afro House has become loosely used. We can say the same with house music because at one point it was music played at warehouses but then when you play house now it’s not that sound. So, I think we need to become more clearer but for me when I heard ‘Superman’ it’s a modern R&B vocal singing about something which is romantic not struggle, timeless with a musicality that I wasn’t hearing in house music. I was very drawn to it; I would play it over and over.
With afro house in general, It predates what we know now. What has happened is that it’s grown in multitudes in engineering the way the drums are done it’s not only tribal African drums it’s techy drums with the rhythm of Africa
I’ve noticed a shift in Afro House from Soulful and Deep house towards a darker techy sound
Also, away from vocals. I think they were trying to move away from the branding of soulful house as it had already peaked in the 90s so if you weren’t a big name there wasn’t a lot of room for you to be discovered. So I think the newer DJs were doing techy and tech house was in so they applied what was in with an African interpretation which was unique and is beautiful to see. I just want to see the next level which includes vocalists.
Which producer would you say works very well with vocalists?
Other than Enoo Napa who is one of my favourite producers, I would say Caiiro. I’ve actually met him before, last year he’s so humble, very musical and just really had his own sound that works very well with vocalists. The first song I heard from was ‘Black Child’ but then I really got into the album he did ‘Agora’ and even though a lot of the tracks doesn’t include vocals I’d get into the music. It feels like a trance.
I would love to see a collab. I find it so perplexing that you haven’t been to South Africa yet. The fans are waiting!
I have so many people who send me things and will tell me how much they love music and they do ask, ‘When are you coming to South Africa?!” It has to happen.
It would be amazing if you performed out there
Oh that would be a dream! The best thing that I have ever felt, as a creative, as a song writer, as a musician is when they sing the words to my songs and it’s even better when a DJ sings the words.
Speaking of DJing, I see on socials you DJ. How did you get into that?
I learned how to DJ years ago using serato. I’m a big Erykah Badu fan and I saw that she DJs, so the origin had nothing to do with house, when I started, I was DJing to all types of music.
How did you get into music?
I got into music because it makes me feel alive. I find it therapeutic, and it allows me to feel like I have purpose. It’s something I would do for free. If tomorrow I won, the lottery I’d still be making music.
I got into music as a child, anytime I had a rough day I’d go on the keyboard and just play. I remember when I was a lot younger my mum would put on music I’d go on the table and my mum and aunts would be like ‘Go Chelsea! Go Chelsea!’ I was also in the kids’ choir at church and that’s how I picked up rhythm.
With the image of Chelsea Como, you’re someone who is an advocate for divine femininity, and you own your sexuality. How do you navigate through the music industry under the distinguished male gaze?
As a woman, I do feel the male gaze is there but it’s like if you’re a rose they’re going to look at you and they’re going to desire you. You have to stand and say, ‘I know’ and that’s it. Don’t let it become a thing. This whole idea of how one needs to be non-sexual so that I can be in rooms with men is just no. I know who I am, I know what I’m coming to do. I’m not here to take anything away from anyone. My music is going to define where it belongs so that’s where I’ve gotten to. If you’re an intelligent beautiful and talented woman and you’re sexy, play it all up.
Meet ROYOS an all round creative from South London with passion in music and film. Known for his wide plethora of sound, he is also the founder of underground creative community ‘NESW’.
ROYOS is the stage name, and it stands for ‘Reflect On Your Old Self’. Leroy Da Silva is the creator with all the things I do.
Why reflect on your old self?
It’s a whole mantra, a way to live well for me at least anyway. I like to hold myself accountable, I like to improve on myself. I think it’s quite fitting but that’s not how the name came about in the first place. It was more of a dumb nickname that my friends and I came up with. The name stuck and then I later added on the meaning because it represented me.
I’m pretty excited about this conversation, I get to pick the brains behind the artist who crafted one of my favourite songs ‘Can’t Go Outside’.
When I initially heard the song I thought you had only produced the beat it’s only when I watched the music video I then realised you were also on the vocals.
Yeah yeah yeah, hands on everything man! Since the beginning there hasn’t been a time that my songs weren’t somehow manipulated by me. It’s the only reason why ‘Can’t Go Outside’ can sound like that from Stardust because it’s all from music I’ve been influenced by.
Had you always known you wanted to be a musician?
Nah, you know what? I like to learn. That’s my real talent, my curiosity. I did write raps back in the day but at the time I’d hear a song for example it might be 50 Cent and G-Unit and there’d be a space at the end of the song, and I’ll start rapping. You don’t know how many issues I had with YouTube trying to use different beats. So, with producing, I kinda just learnt through experimenting my friend’s MacBook, using it to create beats. I bought a PC for Uni but luckily, they gave me a MacBook so then I thought instead of using my friend’s to make beats let me bust open my own!
The recent single ‘Come Around’ tell me how that came about?
I can’t speak about that song individually without talking about the project that I’m about to release. Each of the songs made on the project were made around the same time of ‘Can’t Go Outside’ about 3 years of 1-2 songs being made per year. I wanted to release each song as a single but never did, then at some point this year I listened to them back-to-back and it kinda had a theme of time. The reason why I hadn’t released these songs when they were created was due to ‘Can’t Go Outside’ doing so well. I was thinking do I follow up with something that sounds like that or do I continue doing with what I’m doing? A different sound.
Yeah, ‘Come Around’ is a very different sound to ‘Can’t Go Outside’
Yeah 100%. ‘Can’t Go Outside’ was different to anything I had ever made before that. I guess I stuck to the theme of I’m a wildcard.
It’s interesting because you don’t tend to see a lot of artists experiment with their sound. It’s so easy to get comfortable with the sound that does sell, it’s just easier to create similar music.
Yeah, the advantage I have is that I know no one really wants the same thing again. No one really does, as much as maybe people may think they do they want to feel like ‘oh, didn’t expect that!’ and that’s more of the dopamine rush that I think listeners get. At least for me because I use myself as the subject of the experimentation because I am a fan of music. So, I base it on what would I like to hear.
What drives your passion for music, what is your biggest inspiration?
The wanting to learn but even now with this project it felt like there was nothing left to learn. I mean of course there is never nothing to learn but I think I need to learn an instrument next.
What instrument would you like to learn?
I think naturally, I’ve been around keyboards and piano and I’ve been learning by ear but it’s more so when I’m around a pianist I don’t know the theory and terminology. I’d like to learn that. I don’t think I’m a beginner, I have an understanding of the basics, but I just don’t know what they’re called.
Let’s speak on genres because when I listen to your music, it’s a wide spectrum of genres. You can hear that the creator (you) is an avid lover of music
It goes with my identity; I’m born here around the way Lewisham my parents are from Angola. I wouldn’t say they are music people but when it came to them picking up the music when they came over here, it was Linkin Park, it was Jamiroquai. All of that had an influence on me. You’d never expect my parents to listen to music like that, they didn’t stick to the “typical” genres. I found Rap and Hip Hop almost by myself. I remember my dad gave me an Eminem CD ‘Slim Shady’, that was the first CD he gave me. I’d definitely say that my sound which isn’t rap comes from my parents.
You hear the funk in your sound and if your inspiration is from the music your parents listened to whilst you were growing up, it doesn’t surprise me.
Yeah, literally even when I’m sampling I try to relay the feels of the certain time/decade of where I’m sampling from. I think with sampling nowadays there isn’t that much of a homage to the usage or like, it doesn’t sound like they took anything from the sample but the sample if that makes sense.
Would you say you feel like maybe some of the modern sampling doesn’t feel cleverly made?
Yeah, it’s like they’d take the biggest recognisable sample part. They’re repackaging the bit that everybody likes and reselling it as nostalgia, but it doesn’t sound nostalgic to me. Not to point fingers at anyone but an observation.
I have a beat I made not too long ago where I sampled Tinie Tempah ‘Wifey Riddim’, it’s a song from my time you know the Channel U and Channel AKA days. When sampling I had that feel in mind, if it gets done or it’s already been I think it won’t be done the way I’ve done it.
Would you say ‘Wifey Riddim’ is your favourite grime love song?
I don’t want to say yes straight away and remember something else although DJ Ironik’s ‘Stay With Me’ I wouldn’t say it’s a love song more so a sad song but yeah. Mmm…I think ‘Wifey Riddim’ might actually be it. Let’s see what else… I mean there’s Kano.
Yeah, Kano – Brown Eyes that’s my favourite
Hmm, yeah Wifey is up there. I mean we have to respect Tinie Tempah for being the ASAP Rocky he is of our region. He’s really forward thinking, it put him in all of the right places. He deserves it for just being forward thinking.
With UK Artists, who do you currently indulge in?
It’s all pretty lowkey people I like listening to people I can easily reach out to and let them know I enjoy their music.
I’m going to put this on record. I discovered Pink Pantheress before she was Pink Pantheress. I was on Soundcloud, found this song from this artist who was not Pink Pantheress then. I flipped her beat and sent it to her; she had heard my stuff as well, so we were going back and forth. Yeah, flipped her beat she messed with the beat and then she became Pink Pantheress.
I like her, I like her vibe.
It’s not a new sound but currently it’s refreshing
Yeah she does it well, she’s someone who does sampling tastefully. The texture of the music sounds like 2000’s sound just hits you right there.
Something I would like to know more about is ‘NESW’
Why the name? What does it consist of? What do you do? Let’s give the fans something to talk about
So NESW it’s the way I kinda figured out branding and it stands for ‘Never Eat Shredded Wheat’
I took offence, because I actually enjoy Shredded Wheat!
It tastes like hay! But I never had anything against shredded wheat out loud. The name didn’t come from any hate for shredded wheat but actually from remembering North East South and West in primary school. I started it because I wanted to do events in these areas, find artists from these places and hold events. Instead of it being just music I broadened to creativity in general, so videography, photography.
Do you know AWGE – ASAP Rocky’s creative house?
So AWGE is essentially what we’re doing, but if you see ASAP Rocky’s videos it’s cohesive because he’s always working with his mates with videography. So I made ‘NESW’ for here you know ‘clean girl aesthetic’ but for underground creatives.
What’s 2023 looking like for you?
It’s looking like a good year! Everyone’s coming out their shell. I’ve come out my shell a lot. I’m really trying to be inspired and just take in life. In March we’re doing a hiking trip at Lake District, a school trip kinda vibe so 30 of us. A big NESW show at some point in the summer is in the plans. I’d like to do it at Flippers the roller-skating venue, but we’ll see.
My personal plan is to travel more, I got the taste of travelling abroad when I performed last year in Paris. There’s a group called ‘Cozy Sound System’ who are out in Berlin, we were both in Paris last year and decided to link up this year. Also Portugal but that’s mainly because I’m Angolan and can speak Portuguese fluently. I released a song in Portuguese, which is going to be on the project.
So when is this project dropping? Can you say?
Yeah I can say, March/April just based on my workload but yeah everything is in the plans currently. It does become hard being ROYOS and doing NESW stuff, last year I spent a lot of my time on NESW but now I want to spend more time developing as an artist.
Meet AshZone a music producer from London working his way through the dance/electronica music scene through the lens of his online animated persona.
How are you getting on this evening?
I’m really good, thanks for having me by the way
Of course!
Seeing as we’re now in 2023, a fresh new year… How was 2022 for you?
In terms of music, I released two singles and an EP last year. The first single was ‘Mirage’ which was based on this video game which I loved playing as a kid. It’s a racing game called called ‘Wipe Out’ really amazing game and it was one of those games that got me into electronic music. I literally wrote an EP based on it ‘Anti Gravity’. I went all out pushing the best that I can do with electronic music. It’s my proudest work of 2022, the best part of it was the opportunity to get ‘Mirage’ played on BBC radio.
That’s really amazing, did you know they were going to play it?
The thing is I submitted the track I didn’t think anything of it and then they messaged me to say they’re going to play my song and I just thought “wow that’s so cool”. The second single I released quite recently is called ‘Papaya’ and it’s a mixture of House and Lo-Fi music which I just call Lo-Fi House. The funny thing about that song is that I randomly made it on holiday. I was at Centre Parcs with my family and I just thought this track sounds fun. I imagined listening to it whilst driving because I do enjoy driving, I love cars, racing and all of that stuff. When I made the song I was like yeah I feel like making a house track. I put it on Tik Tok thinking nothing of it, I woke up the next day and found out that it was blowing up on there and I was like woah!
It’s interesting because nowadays Tik Tok’s actually quite a good platform to get music out there
Literally! Like it’s weird because I’ve been on Tik Tok for about two years and it’s only now that my music is starting to get picked up properly on there. When I put out ‘Papaya’ loads of people were saying oh my gosh this song is so good when are you dropping it? I’m like yeah it’s coming out in December, dropping it on my birthday but the thing is it blew back in November and so I was thinking ooh wait, what am I supposed to do in this situation? I don’t have a manager or anything and I’m not really good at promoting properly so yeah I had to get it out there all by myself, I’m hoping to follow that kind of formula in future.
Had you always put out music on Tik Tok or was it that particular song?
Yeah, but not as much. I only built like a solid audience on there when I did a remix to ‘Bad Habit’ by Steve Lacy.
Congratulations on that by the way!
Yeah it built a solid following for me, before then I probably had about 50 followers then after the remix dropped it went up to 2,000. A lot of people were genuinely interested to see the next few songs I was going to put out. I’m definitely looking forward to the songs I’m going to put out this year.
Are you planning on releasing any new remixes following the success of ‘Bad Habit’?
The weird thing is I’m not a huge fan of remixing music, I like doing original stuff. It’s weird though because when I first got into music I was known for doing video games remixes. So most of the songs I remixed were from Sonic games and everyone knew me for that and then eventually I started creating my own original stuff. I enjoy it because I always want my music to tell a story, something original. I want people to imagine stuff and because I do art as well I can give the listeners something to look at. So yeah… I think I’m going to stick to making originals for now but maybe I’ll go back to remixing stuff, who knows?
It’s basically a journey of your creativity and what I’ve noticed is that with a lot of music producers when they first start out they usually tend to make remixes and then build on their sound.
Yeah exactly, I remember speaking to another producer he’s really big in the video game industry too. He was telling me that the best way to build a following is to start off with remixes because you’re capturing an audience, so that when you start creating originals they are more likely to stick around. So that’s what I begun with and it’s definitely helped with my following. I’m hoping it continues to grow because I’m pretty excited for the next few songs I’m releasing.
Where did the desire for music stem from?
Before I got into music, I was really into art. Not so much graphic design but give me a piece of paper and a pencil and I’ll draw anything, I love creating characters too. Back in secondary school I had just seen the music department and although I love art I saw that not a lot of people in my school took up music and since I love creating in general I thought music was something I could get into and maybe it’s me being competitive but I wanted music to be something I could be really good at and something I could be known for. Once I got into it I realised I really enjoy it. Initially it started off with music for video games because I enjoy gaming, all of the Sonic games and the music was so good and I said to myself I want to create something like that. I mean I sounded horrible when I first started but if my 12/13 year old self could hear the music I create now I think he would pass out on the spot.
It’s good to notice your accomplishments from when you started to where you are now. You’ve also mentioned how you enjoy art and like to create and I think it’s really cool how you’ve assigned the face of AshZone to this animated purple character with long locs. How did that come about?
It’s a bit of a long story but I’ll cut it short. So basically the way AshZone came along together was when I first started creating my online personality I wasn’t too comfortable with showing my face on the internet. I’d always hide behind my art work. So with AshZone I based the character on me minus the facial hair, I’ve created an entire cartoon world based off real life. I did get the inspiration from Gorillaz and it’s something that not necessarily I’ve always wanted to do but something I really like doing. I’m very imaginative with my art work, for example if I wanted to be on the streets of Tokyo I can draw myself in Tokyo. Or if I wanted to be behind a wheel of a Nissan Skyline I can draw myself doing that too which I actually did for my 2020 EP ‘Nightingale’. I wanted to capture animated characters into real life shots again quite similar to Gorillaz. I really want to have an artist gimic with my music even the colour of AshZone he’s purple and that’s my favourite colour. It looks really cool and it’s fun.
If you were to start creating music videos, would AshZone be the centre of it all?
I’ve actually started that with my latest single ‘Papaya’ although it’s not a music video it’s a short video clip of an animation where I’m sitting in front of a white Mazda RX-7 one of my favourite cars. I also captured live footage of me driving which my friend helped me with. A mixture of real life and art. With the entire process I got screen grabs of the car then drew over it and animated in the after effects. I wouldn’t say it looks realistic but in terms of camera work it looks cool with the character.
When I listen to your music, I want to know what goes through your mind? I usually think of 90’s anime, literally a compilation of night time clips in Tokyo. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the music video ‘Easy’ by Porter Robinson the electronic DJ but the entire music video is animation and when I was listening to ‘Papaya’ that’s what I was thinking of.
I’m familiar with Porter Robinson but I’ve never seen that music video but I can imagine what you’re saying. Most of my music and artistry does take inspiration from video games and anime. More so video games but you know the whole night time driving feel in the streets of Tokyo. I was very inspired by Japanese culture and you can hear that in my earlier work it’s not as much anymore. I’d say with my current artistry I draw inspiration from western cartoons so shows like ‘The Regular Show’ and a bit of ‘Adventure Time’.
In three words describe the music you make
Energetic
Catchy
Rhythmic
Explain the transition from upbeat electronic to the Lo-Fi house you make now?
It’s funny because when I started making music I started out with Rap and Hip Hop beats.
Is that because it was the music you were listening to at the time, so it felt more comfortable?
Hmm, not just that I mean I wouldn’t say it was easier but i felt like I could go extremely hard with this music. Each EP that I’ve released over time has different phases. I released my first EP ‘Bedroom’ back in 2016 and that was heavily influenced by Rap and Hip Hop including a song by Kaytranada. Eventually after that I moved onto electronic music, drum and bass, house.
What made you take that leap from Hip Hop to Electronic music?
So during the time I was watching a lot of anime and I had started creating a web comic, like a manga. The setting of this manga was based on a futuristic city in Japan, so whilst creating this web comic I decided to make an EP to go with it to capture the scenery and the environment. Electronic music captured it so well and I had a blast doing it which birthed my second EP’ XENO’. With the following EP ‘Nightingale’ it was a mix between electronic and Hip Hop, there were a few trap beats even a bit of drum and bass too. At the time I was trying to find a target audience. I already had Sonic gamer fans who were listening to me but were unfamiliar with my Hip Hop stuff then I had people who are more familiar with my Hip Hop stuff but unfamiliar with my electronic productions. I really wanted ‘Nightingale’ to target both audiences and it went really well, it started off as a university project but went onto to be something really good.
Are there any producers or artists you would like to collab with in future?
I honestly would like to make a song with Knucks, he’s my favourite rapper. Definitely would like to create music with Todd Edwards because he’s my favourite producer of all time. The way he uses sampling in his music, he’s definitely one of my biggest inspirations. I would enjoy working with more UK artists, there is this producer called Scruz and he does house, rap and garage music. He even recently released a Headie One remix on spotify but yeah he’s a sound guy. I’d also love to work with a British DJ Sammy Vurji he makes the most absolutely amazing garage music ever.
What is your current favourite song and what is your all time favourite song?
That’s a tough one. I would say… Scruz’ remix of Headie One’s ‘50s’ because it sounds like something you’d hear on Mario Kart. It’s a fun, bouncy garage song and very different from the original. My favourite song of all time has to be ‘I hear him’ by Todd Edwards. I just love the sampling, my favourite sampled melodies of all time. It’s completely timeless.
As well as producing I know you also DJ, how did that all come about?
I actually didn’t have my first DJ gig until Summer 22, I’ve always wanted to DJ I just didn’t know that many people who could get me into that sort of scene. It’s funny though because I was actually invited to DJ in Paris by someone I know – Marie for her show. She had heard my ‘Anti-Gravity’ EP and she really loves my music so she wanted to give me the opportunity to DJ for her. I’m still gassed to say that my very first show in Paris.
Meet Hagan a British born Ghanaian producer and DJ known for his rampant drum beats and bass. With the release of his debut album ‘Textures’ Hagan is making his mark in music and recently has been nominated by DJ Mag for best album 2022.
Congratulations on the nomination! How are you feeling about that?
Wow erm, thank you so much! It was actually quite a surprise to me, I got the email into my inbox and I was like… what?! Nominated for best album 2022, where did this all come from?
As soon as I saw it I just had a big smile on my face. It took me back to recording, I’ve been recording this album for three years! As soon as I got the notification I just started having flashbacks of the last three years, going back and forth to Ghana. The pre planning the whole ideation, putting it all together, the musicians. It felt good, I’m not gonna lie the work was getting appreciated, it felt good.
Before Textures
It’s really important to reflect on the past, you being a DJ, producer, artiste…
Why did you get into music and how?
Through church, there was always a segment – praise and worship. For me praise and worship was vibes, I didn’t even see it as praise and worship. I just saw it as vibes for me to just dance. They would sing in twi and with that you know there’s naturally rhythm there, there’s movement for you to dance to. So for me I was always intrigued by why is there so much rhythm in this music? I fell in love with drums, percussion from a very young age.
Would you say drums are your favourite instrument?
Yeah! Rhythm, the rhythm section of music is what I love dissecting a lot. I had to start utilising stuff in the house and started using pots and pans just to understand about groove and different tones. From sixteen to eighteen I started playing drums in church, started playing jembe and percussion too. When I went to uni, one of my friends who was DJing at the time, he went uni in midlands and that was the period where funky house was popping. He reached out and was like “Hagan I need you to make music that I can play that’s exclusive” and prior to that I was making music but very basic, I never thought I’d be making music like this. So I started making some basic UK funky tunes and it started popping off in Leicester. He used to send me videos of people vibing to my music and so naturally that gave me the motivation to continue. I kept sending over music and then one day a DJ from Rinse FM messaged me to say he’d heard my tracks and he wants to play them on Rinse. I remember I even missed my lecture just so I could hear it on the radio.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
I find that so hard to answer
*laughs* It’s such a vague question
It’s not even that it’s vague it’s just…I have no answer because my music is very unique to me. It’s a Hagan sound, it’s very much influenced by stuff that I’ve listened to whilst growing up. So that includes Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Afro House, African influenced dance music. There was a time where I was listening to a lot of Black Coffee, Black Motion and Kwaito house. Those grooves were very similar to the grooves and rhythms you hear in praise and worship. So naturally I was drawn to this, you know that tribal sound. My sound is very tribal but I love music from the UK club scene where it’s bass heavy and you hear that in my music. I also love sounds from the diaspora especially music from South America, Afro Brazilians, Afro Colombians and some of the percussion they use. I have a lot of influences or I try to listen to a lot of their music so I can bring it into my sound. It’s basically a melting point of all of those sounds.
Oh! I forgot to mention Highlife and Hiplife. How can I forget those two?!
Who is your favourite Afrohouse artist/DJ?
My favourite…I know I’m probably not going to answer this correctly because I know I’m going to forget names but it might have to be Da Capo. Probably because of how broad his music is and I definitely can’t forget Black Coffee because when it comes to DJing his technique, the way he plays with the FX is how I learned. But with Da Capo I just like the music he plays, his style, he’s just so versatile. Also, Culoe De Song his music it’s just, he’s just got range. There are songs from where you’d get that dark Culoe De Song sound and then he mixes it up and you get that where his songs are a little bit more vibes, little bit more happier. Jackson Brainwave too, he’s another guy from South Africa, he’s got the tribal sound and it’s almost unforgiving. The way he plays and the way he makes music, he doesn’t care about the rules of low end. The low end is so heavy and basy with the mix and the sound, the quality of his mixes you can hear all elements and I love it.
Who would you most like to collaborate with?
This is crazy, so the person I really wanted to collaborate with was Sango and that’s happened quite a few times and still till this day I shake my head at the fact I’ve collaborated with him. When I speak to him on whatsapp I’m like how am I speaking to this guy on whatsapp? He’s so cool and he was one of my dream collaborations for time. Who would I like to collaborate with now? Hmm, probably Mansur Brown the way he plays guitar…spiritual man. Its like the guitar is speaking to you and I just really respect him as a musician, his talent and where he’s taken the sound of UK Jazz music. It’s very unique to himself. It’s very black. The way he plays guitar, he’s a pioneer for his generation. I definitely have more people I just can’t think of them right now but yeah I just went to a Mansur Brown concert about three days ago and yeah he’s just given me some massive inspiration so it would be dope to work with him.
If you could open a show for any artist, who would it be?
I’d love to open up for Kaytranda, people like Kaytranada, people like Juls, people like Sango. The reason why I respect them so much is because they’ve created their own sound, like they can have their own show and just play their own music and you’ll vibe to it. That’s what I’m trying to do with my music, that Hagan sound so just being on a lineup where everyone is contributing their own sound would be ideal for me. Makes me realise that I’m doing the same for my music. Also KG from the London, she’s doing her own thing too.
A bit of a silly question but do you sing in the shower and which songs?
I sing everywhere. I’m joking, I can’t sing so what I do is beatbox or hum in the shower or on the way to work, on the way to the gym. It’s to the point where my mum thinks I’m crazy because I keep talking to myself, beatboxing to myself but it keeps the creative juices flowing. The other day I kept beatboxing to ‘Ku Lo Sa’ also Wizkid’s ‘Money & Love’ I was beatboxing that for days! I was singing the backing you know trying to hum to the backing, but my voice was too deep!
Do you have any upcoming shows?
Next year I have a few things planned, it needs to be confirmed but hopefully it’ll be a Hagan creative lineup. So yeah just trying to confirm that at the moment. Got quite a few nice ones around the March period, one or two festival books. Looking forward to 2023.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
The best advice would be from a guy called Elijah, he does ‘Yellow Squares’. It’s not really advice but it’s what he’s told me and he said “when you get opportunities that are given to you, for example you’re given the opportunity to buy new equipment for whatever reason you’ve acquired the money to buy some new equipment. Always make sure that you’re trying to inspire those that are either younger than you or do not have access to the equipment and give your old equipment to them.” That’s always stuck with me that with whatever success comes out of this make sure that you’re passing it down to those who are maybe starting, maybe those who don’t have the opportunity.
Textures
What I would personally like to know is where did you get the name from?
Textures…it just came from years of feedback given to me about my music. Everyone’s said to me that “Hagan, your music especially your drums it’s so layered and intricate so detailed” and that’s because I love making sure that there’s feeling within the groove. Even just capturing people speaking for example I would try and incorporate that into the groove and the drums, give it that human life feel to it. So if I’m making an album I need to extrapolate that whole mantra throughout the whole project. Not just through drums but through the melody, the visuals. Through the whole rollout and implementation of the project, I was looking through samples on youtube and compiled a playlist of sources of inspiration. Some of the things I was searching was African drummers, Ghanaian drummers in particular. The whole concept of Ghanaian Jama, the fishermen in Ghana, the very interesting thing about them is that when they go out into the sea to catch their produce they’re always chanting, like they always have a percussion that they’re chanting with and every time they start, things are very peaceful but as they go into the sea the sea conditions change and things become a bit rough and that depicts the sound of Hagan and who I am as a person as well. For years now I’ve tried to deny the calmness of my personality but everyone keeps on saying “you’re so calm” and I keep on telling people you haven’t met me on a frustrating or angry day. There are two sides to me; the calmness that you see from the fishermen and then I guess in my music the very bassy side is my aggressive side and again that’s depicted by the fishermen with the changes of the sea condition. Compiling all of those things together there are so many layers it’s not just me making music, many textures so I thought why not just call it ‘Textures’
So when I first listened to Textures, I would say it’s very experimental and different from your older stuff. Like with your older stuff, it’s very focused on Afro House but with this album it’s much more smoother. I mean, there are certain elements of Afro House in there but it’s also got a different sound as well.
Yeah, the thing is when you’re making the album you have to shape it so that there’s a journey from the start to the finish. So if I was going to make an album to keep people locked in for about 46 minutes then there needs to be a range of feelings and emotions. So you’re right there are elements of Afro House but there’s even Afrobeats in there, the merging of traditional West African instruments with club sound as well. So in terms of inspiration the core foundation for inspiration is just me coming from Ghana. That’s throughout the whole album, if you’re Ghanaian there are certain parts of it that you would understand than someone who is not from Ghana. The whole concept of Afrobeat as well, that’s why you hear the horns in the album because with Afrobeat music you hear a lot of horns. As I’ve mentioned before, Brazilian music as well ‘baile funk’ and you hear that in the collaboration with Sango and Luedji Luna. I just love the sound of portugese and I love Brazilian music so when the opportunity arose to collaborate with them I had to figure out a way where I can keep my sound in there but also bring theirs into it and that’s the melting pot you hear on ‘Telha’
When I listen to ‘Textures’ the main genres that did come to mind was Afro House and Highlife. Literally a fusion of the two and I’ve been calling it ‘When Afro House meets Highlife’ how do you feel when people describe this new sound as that?
Wow, I’ve never thought of it like that. I might have to continue doing that. It does make me smile because that was my aim. In this project I want listeners to hear where I’m from and hear what I love listening to which is Afro House. I just want this to be a project that when I listen back in 10 years I can say “I really like this” and I can show my children that yeah I’m trying to keep the concept of culture alive through music. I always say how am I going to retain my Ghanaian culture? Especially because I don’t live in Ghana. So for me this is personal, just to retain the culture through music so trying to make sure that I keep the Ghanaian forms of music alive but kinda merge it and twist it in a way that is contemporary and modern and unique to me.
Who is the lady speaking Twi at the end of ‘Pray for Me’?
So that’s my grandma, every week I speak to my grandma and she always prays over my life and one time there was this prayer she said that was very powerful and so I thought let me keep this because one day I’ll use this. So the whole idea for ‘Pray for Me’ came when I was with Ayeisha Raquel and I was like, I have a tune that I want to dedicate to the concept of prayer. So she started writing on the whole idea of prayer for someone who doesn’t really know about prayer.
Who are your musical inspirations, past, present and someone who you’re excited for in the future?
Past
I used to listen to Appietus, the Ghanaian producer and I just loved how dominated a lot of the Hiplife, Highlife music scene back in the day. For me, he was one of the top Ghanaian producers and he inspired me with how he was able to change the sound. Like, how he would go back and forth from the two genres and you could still see that he was bridging the gap between the two. I just liked the whole concept and his mindset. Of course, Timbaland! What I enjoy about Timbo’s music is the way he processed his drums. It’s very punchy, the kick drums always knocked, the snares were tight and he also found weird and wonderful sounds to sample. Also Ambolley, another musician from Ghana an Afro Jazz musician known for the ‘Simi rap’ and the reason that I like him he’s just so wavy the way he would rap on the rhythms and he’s very gifted, like he plays the saxophone, I’m sure he can play the keys too. I listened to a lot of UK Funky as a teenager because I found similarities with that sound and West African drumming. So early producers like Crazy Cousinz, Hard House Banton, Greyman, Scratcha DVA, Apple, Invasion Crew, Donaeo, Fuzzy Logik and more.
Present
I’ve already mentioned Juls and Sango because of how they’ve made their own sound.
Benjiflow – he’s very much a fusionist with a deep love for percussion and Brazilian music. He can effortlessly blend that with UK music styles to create a unique sound.
Nana Rogues – you can hear in his productions how he was inspired by The Neptunes. I respect how he’s utilised that sound to create rich melodic compositions. “To The Max” is a very soulful riddem!
Yussef Dayes – such an incredibly talented drummer in the UK Jazz scene and beyond. I’m really drawn to his style of playing and his high ability level. From a musicians standpoint, i just respect his craftsmanship.
Future
I’m very excited for Charisse C she plays Amapiano and Gqom and her energy and aura when she’s playing is sick. She’s got a great ear and knows how to keep the crowd going.
Musicians I’m excited for Mansur Brown, for my boy Alex Cosmo Blake who plays guitar he’s so talented! He’s played for Jaz Karis, he’s played for Wizkid’s album as well.
A lot of the Amapiano producers, that aren’t necessarily upcoming, inspire me. There’s a particular level of energy South African producers inject onto the dance floor. Producers such as Felo Tee, MFR Souls, Mellow and Sleezy, Kabza De Small, Vigro Deep, Thabza Tee and the list goes on
So as a listener of Afro House, I feel like with Amapiano is probably the only genre within Afro House that has been received quite well in the UK and I’m always trying to understand why is that because with Gqom I felt that it didn’t really hit the scene in the UK. I mean it was there but it wasn’t as rampant as Amapiano.
Yeah I think with Amapiano it’s a lot more slower so there’s time to really enjoy the music. There were also I guess world events that occurred that allowed people to take in the sound. So like during Covid, everyones inside and that was the time Amapiano started growing and people were taking to it. Also, I think with Amapiano there are a lot more songs compared to Gqom. I also think people enjoy listening to lyrics and singing along so if you have groove that’s infectious and tribal, that there are lyrics people remember and can vibe to and slow enough that people can dance to then it’s a winning formula. Also the groove you hear in Amapiano you do hear it in a lot of African music but the way the South Africans have been able to innovate with electronic music and have a nice balance with low end because the log drum is low end and very heavy and balance that with the chord progressions it’s a winning formula. Whereas with Gqom, it’s very much underground like when it first started and began to bubble within the scene it was very much within the underground scene. It didn’t really make its way to the commercial sound and wasn’t played at day parties as opposed to Amapiano. It’s a dark, night time sound so it depends where you can play the music. That’s one thing I had in my mind when I was making the album because I come from that underground sound scene, and I needed to make an album that has replay value. How am I going to do that? By slowing down the tempo and explore genres outside of what I usually do and make it more melodic.
So, the next question is a little striking, you may not want to answer but what is your least favourite and favourite song from the album?
Okay I’ll say the tracks I had the most fun making; ‘Pray for Me’, ‘My Love’ and ‘Welcome to Ghana’ because they were face to face. Many of the features on this album are based all around the world but the three tracks I mentioned, they are based here so it gave me a chance to work in the studio with the artists. We were exchanging life stories we weren’t just talking about music you know I got to know them on a personal level and those are some of the memories I’ll remember forever. I got to understand who they were as people before musicians, it was fun.
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