Okmalumkoolkat, image: Chris Saunders

‘Siyasebenza, afta five we come alive’ (Dirty Paraffin – ‘Download Part 2′)

It’s now 17:17 on my clock. Will you be getting alive tonight?
I do not work a nine to five anymore. I work around the clock but I am focused on my passions so I’m always alive. You pass time until you knock off if you are doing something you’re not really interested in as your day job.

Where does your moniker come from?
The moniker, Okmalumkoolkat, was inspired by DJ Cool Cat on UKhozi FM. From as far back as I can remember, this guy had a kid’s request show on Saturday mornings. Kids would call in and sing their favourite songs and give shout-outs. I thought this was a really cool concept for a radio show. I have never come across any other DJ with a show similar to this. The man was also heavily involved in Ukhozi FM radio drama, which is also a big inspiration in my storytelling.

 
Dirty Paraffin – ‘Papap! Papap!’

For someone who’s never listened to, or had the chance to get familiar with Dirty Paraffin or Okmalumkoolkat, how would you describe your craft?
It’s music that should be made in the now but be inspired by the future and the past.

We aim to trigger a new world mindset in those who dare to listen and understand.

What would you say is the biggest difference when it comes to Okmalumkoolkat performing as part of Dirty Paraffin vs. personal projects?
When I play Dirty Paraffin shows I play Dirty Paraffin tracks only. When I play Okmalumkoolkat shows I can perform tracks from Dirty Paraffin, tracks from Sebenza and tracks from my unreleased projects. I am a mixtape.

 
LV and Okmalumkoolkat – ‘Sebenza’ ( Hyperdub July 2012)

 

In an interview with Dazed & Confused, LV describe you as ‘a unique and amazing artist who makes us laugh and bowls us over.’ Any words for them?
Yebo. LV is one of the freshest production teams to come knocking at my door and I guess we met [so that we could] dent a little of ourselves into music history.

For the album, Sebenza, you didn’t get to meet Will & Simon of LV, but only Gerv. What was the process like, any major hiccups?
I had met Gerv way back in 2010 when we did ‘Boomslang‘ and I had started communicating with Will and Simon around about that time. So by the time we started on this project I was comfortable with the guys.

There were no hiccups at all. We were sending tracks back and forth like we had planned. They respect my song writing skills and my music direction and I trust them with the projects we put out so there were no major misunderstandings.

behind the scenes of 'Sebenza', image: Frances van Jaarsveldt

What did you and Gerv get up to in your spare time (if there was any)?
Whenever Gerv is in South Africa (he usually comes down because he has family out here). We meet up, rehearse, play shows and record tracks. It’s been like that since day one.

I met Will and Simon in Amsterdam a couple of months back and we did exactly the same thing. We met for the first time at round 14h00 at a festival and played their show around 17h00. We went for a young rehearsal afterwards and played my show at 22h00 that same night. We recorded a couple of tracks at their hotel room the very next day.

Some of your lyrics for ‘Sebenza’ are: ‘Since a way back they’ve been trying to silence us…/ Rubber bullets.’ Do you think people are still being silenced?

I guess there are other ‘rubber bullets’ used today. It’s always a struggle with ‘the powers that be’ to adhere to the ‘freedom of speech’ stipulation that comes with democracy.

You mentioned that the first time you saw street racing go down was in Umlazi early ’90s. Have you been back there and what are people doing now to pass time? Is it still car racing?
I was in Umlazi [just over] a week ago. People are really in party mode in Durban, they are very involved in the Durban kwaito movement. It’s a lifestyle. There are a thousand beat producers and there’s a new dance move every two months or so. People also look good in Durban, it must be the tropical climate.

So I saw you busting the ‘Taxi Driver’ in a video – Have you ever done any train surfing?
I was an only child till I was 11, so train missions with my friends were a no-go. Hell, I wasn’t allowed to go to the beach without my mother’s supervision up until I was a teen. Some of my friends did train surf but we all ended up in dance groups in the ’90s. It was a good exercise and the girls loved it.

Your track – ‘Download This Part II’ (listen above!) – has the lyrics ‘VIRGIN EARDRUMS GET DEFLOWERED’ – What deflowered your eardrums?
I’d say listening to a guy named Johnny Dimba when I was young. He would take instrumentals from Motown and recite Zulu poetry/ stories over them. Mind blowing stuff. Also the first time I heard Kraftwerk I was taken aback, especially because I had just read about them in that book ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: History of the DJ’.

What do you think of kwaito today, and the fact that it has more house influences now than back in the days of artists such as Arthur Mafokate, Zola and TKZee, where it had influences of hip-hop?
Kwaito was really house music slowed down to like a 100 BPM when it hit in the early ‘90s. Kwaito is influenced by what the world has been feeding us, so all these artists making kwaito will make it the best way they see fit. There is no one formula.

On LinkedIn you describe yourself as ‘A student in packaging and selling ideas’. What is the biggest idea you’ve ever been sold?
Biggest idea they sold to me at college was ‘ think outside the box’. I bought it so much that when they organized an internship for me I turned it down because it was contradictory.

Okmalumkoolkat Koolhunting Klub , image: Thanda Kunene

You’ve said that “Okmalumkoolkat’s Koolhunting Klub” is not a fashion label or a brand. So what differentiates a project from a label?
Well, it’s an on-going project because it’s developing still. I started the club as a side project where I could source and sell lifestyle products to my friends more than four years ago. Then I got really interested in remixing clothing so we started on denim jackets last year. This year, I went crazy and collaborated with people to make products for the club. What I have also realized is that I get to improve my design language with every collection we work on – it’s more exciting than a gallery exhibition in my opinion.

My label will come in the future. I am just gathering tools for now.

Also you mentioned that it’s a project you’ve been working on for as long as you can remember. Is there perhaps a certain memory/time that you do remember that could have led to this project?
The remixing was triggered by Dr. Romanelli and Taz Arnold in America. Then I remembered how I used to customize my gear. The fascination with denim really stems from the fact that I couldn’t afford it for a long time back in the ‘90s. Check out my blog for a more in-depth story on that (go HERE).

The OKMKK Kool Hvnting Klvb MMXII Kollezioni 2012 Part II

The parrot is a take on how people have different personalities online compared to their real life ones.–> Does this apply to you as well? What’s the main difference between your persona online vs. real-life?
There’s a big difference. Online, I can reTweet something you tweeted because I know I wouldn’t necessarily put it out there but I am still backing you up. There are many ways of saying something online. You can put up an image to show your mood and feelings. You can do the same with your daily outfits but only a couple of people catch those messages. I am also pretty shy in real life but I can come off as a loud-mouth on my blog and my music.

As an avid observer of everyday life – anything you’ve come across in the last few days that the general observer might have missed?
The climate and weather patterns have really changed, it’s not a joke. Stores need to stock jackets in summer and vice versa.

Is there anyone you would like to interview and what would you like to ask?
I’d like to interview Shaka Zulu and ask him if he knew his influence was going to last this long and also what inspired the empire concept.

What are you listening to right now? What’s your “go-to” track/artist?
‘Manage Expectations‘ by Cid Rim.

Dirty Paraffin X Paul Shiakallis, image: Paul Shiakallis

Apparently Pioneer Unit’s Damien Stevens considers you one of SA hip hop’s best rappers. Do you consider yourself a rapper?
I don’t know if I am a rapper. My style is more poetry, I play electronic gadgets and I tend to sing a lot so I consider myself a musician.

You worked with Spoek on his new album, Future Sound of Mzansi, with the track – ‘Skorokoro’. Have you owned one?
I am actually looking for a cheap cheap skorokoro next year. A Honda Civic would be ideal but I would settle for a station wagon Toyota Cressida any day.

What made you decide (along with Spoek Mathambo, Bra Solomon & Ayobah) to do a rendition of Brenda Fassie’s classic ’80s hit ‘Weekend Special‘?
‘Weekend Special’ had to be done. It’s a classic. It was Spoek’s project though so maybe he would satisfy that question.

What’s your favourite slang word/phrase?
Shambeez ( crazy ).

Ultimately, when it comes to Okmalumkoolkat (Smiso Zwane) there are no words better to describe him than his own:

‘I am the one. The 8bit champ! The member, the compadre, The Bigbootyholic, Booty Inspector, Duke of Casio. FutureMfana MfanaFuture. Zulu Compura. Smart Mompara. Super Tsatsatsa. International Pansula. Bhuti Yang’chaza. Bhuti Yang’ Washa. Boomslang. The Sjambok Ambu. okmalumkoolkat. Okmalumkillacombo. Holy Oxygen. Smiso’

LINKS:

Blog

Tumblr

YouTube

Twitter

SoundCloud

interview by: Sarah Claire Picton, November 2012
images by: Chris Saunders, Frances van Jaarsveldt, Jamal Nxedlana, Paul Shiakallis, Thanda Kunene

DP Documentary – still

Let’s start from the beginning, how did Dirty Paraffin come about at what point did you guys want to start making music together?
I met Dokta SpiZee when I arrived in Joburg from Durban in 2006. We linked through his brother Koolurk. We worked on a couple of design projects together but we both really wanted to make music. I had never recorded a song before then but I had been writing these weird poem-like rap verses for years. Dirty Paraffin was born out of our like-mindedness in music and communication. So, it came to us in 2009 to start making music. It happened to us really.

Tell us where does the band get its name?
The name came out of that nostalgic feeling about yester township life. Most families couldn’t afford electricity at that time, in Durban; the stove was the Primusstof and it was powered by Paraffin. This came to us when we started listening to a lot of brilliant ’80s local music that wasn’t embraced in the country, it was deemed bubblegum. We thought it was special though. We wanted to represent those artists and their hard work. We believe that we are on a mission to bridge that gap between that crazy time and now, so it’s future meets retro in a current melting pot of things.

You guys are every active on social networks, what value do you think this adds to your brand?
Most of our work is online because the local general media is too lazy to jump on new sounds/acts. So being online gives us a worldwide appeal. We dropped the Greatest Hits vol.1 Mixtape in 2009 but we are still getting international coverage from that till today. We believe that local lifestyle journos should be in the know and should always be chasing the new, not the other way around.

image: Paul Shiakallis

You guys have been covered by the likes of The Fader in the past, do you fear that you will become one of those acts that will eventually be bigger abroad than they are at home?
It really doesn’t matter where we will be welcomed. We used to fear that so much in the past but now it really doesn’t matter to us. How can we compete with the same gospel track and that same house beat with new artists taking turns at remaking every year? How are you supposed to sway Afro-pop lovers to something new, that doesn’t sound like watered-down Jazz or whatever else is in that winning formula. If our sound is big in countries abroad, then South Africa will catch up later. We will keep rapping and singing in our languages (there’s eleven to choose from). We will keep talking about our environment. It’s kind of like a Charlize Theron life story. Kind of like how Bob Marley got big after he got bootlegged in London. You just have to keep doing what you do, put shit out online so everybody can see. What happens after that, only time will tell.

It’s not like we don’t try to put our stuff in local media, but they are too lazy tanned scared to break something new. Look at what happened with Die Antwoord and Spoek Mathambo (watch our video interview with Spoek, here). South Africa will claim what’s theirs when the whole world jaw drops, but they still wouldn’t know what to do with you.

Dirty Paraffin mixes a lot of genres why have you chosen this?
We are making music in the 2000s, this is supposed to be the future. Michael Jackson is dead. The new South Africa is 18 years old. Lil B has dropped over a thousand tapes in the past two years. America has a black president. Virgin is trying to organize trips to other planets and the moon. Will Smith has grey hair and he is ghost writing for his son, who is also a rap star/ movie star. We have a semi-bullet train from Jo’burg to Pretoria. Cape Town is design capital of the world in 2014. Religions are falling on their knees. Men are marrying men and making babies with surrogate mothers. Vice versa. There’s penis enlargement and vagina tightening posters all over Joburg city. AIDS is killing people left and right, kids are smoking ARVs (ARVs are supposed to halt the AIDS).

There’s a bunch of stuff we could mention, just so you could understand that genres are meant to be blurred. Everything must come to an end, get destroyed, then something fresh blossoms. We are right in the eye of that storm, right in the middle.
 

PAPAP PAPAP! from Ravi Govender on Vimeo.

The local music scene is very saturated, how then do you guys distinguish yourself from all the music that is out there?
The local music scene is not saturated. The local music scene is trying to find itself. Gatekeepers are old and they want the same damn song. Gatekeepers are not in touch with what the youth is currently fond of and up to. We are not competing locally, we are competing internationally. We don’t think about how we are going to sound though, we just listen to a lot of new stuff and we really like the old obscure stuff so the result is usually automatic. Local artists would like to push boundaries like us but they are scared that they will be unnoticed like us, and that leaves them frustrated. We just don’t care, we do what we want.

Let’s speak a little bit about DP EP – what was the inspiration behind the project?
New South Africa and what a lovely thing it has become.

How did you guys go about creating and putting together this new offering?
We took songs that we really dug off of our first mixtape and we remixed them and then we added some more tracks. We also had new toys this time, SpiZee had just bought the Electribe machine and I was learning to play the Harmonica (I added that on Papap! Papap!) We grew quite a lot too, we are both proud fathers, so there’s a sense of maturity in our work, which equals quality. We also recorded it at Red Bull Cape Town studios instead of our houses.

How is this project different from music that you have done in the past?
The Greatest Hits vol.1 mixture was mainly remixes, so there were lots of sampled beats on there, but this one was mainly beats by SpiZee. Also we weren’t referencing this time but we were just making music that felt good to us.

Let’s speak a little bit about your creative process, how do you guys go from a concept or an idea to an actual finished product?
It’s all organic, some tracks come from situations, and some tracks come from the depths of my mind when SpiZee plays me a beat. We have tracks we have been talking about for four years and they are not recorded yet. Imagine what the final piece will be like? Shambeez!

image: myspace.com/dirtyparaffin

You music is very ear- friendly but also transitions well into live performance, how do you manage that balance when you create your songs?
We are performance artists first, so that just happens naturally. I have been dancing since the age of eleven or so, so the music is only an extension of what I’m put here to say. The holy oxygen speaks through me.

What value do you think music like yours has to South African audiences today?
We are creating music that encourages the youth to look around them and make something. The youth thinks you have to look far, but actually the dope shit is around you daily. Pay attention and analyze everything, you will be surprised how rich our society is.

One of the key elements that makes you guys standout is the styling, tell us a little bit about that and what value it adds to Dirty Paraffin?
The styling has been there since, since… I don’t know, I started beasting on the best clothes since I was about twelve because my mom was a seamstress and an avid second-hand store finder. Mainly because we couldn’t afford brand new clothes. I think the swag is from my dad, I don’t know, he left early, I have a couple of pictures of him as references. SpiZee comes from a similar background. It just so happens that we make music. The value added is that we don’t need a stylist, ever.

You guys have toured, what are some of the weird and wonderful experiences you have had on the road?
I’d be lying if I’d to say we have toured extensively, but we’ve had our share of fun times. Like the time I danced so much I got a cramp on stage at a Doepelganger show in Cape Town. I kept telling people that I had a cramp but nobody believed me, even SpiZee. So I had to walk off mid-song. So we are back stage nursing this cramp and people are telling me different ways to cure it, all the while taking photos with us, buying me drinks etc. Hilarious shit!

What do you think it takes to build a following like you guys have over such a short period of time?
Hard work, faith and a relentless push online.

Pray to GOD and Cc your ancestors.

Dirty Paraffin from Meja L. Shoba on Vimeo.

LINKS:

DP on Tumblr
DP on Facebook
DP on SoundCloud
DP on YouTube/Vimeo

Read our previous interview with Okmalumkoolkat, HERE.

interview: Sihle Mthembu
Images: Paul Shiakallis, Myspace, DP documentary (shown above)

Image: Thanda Kunene

Image: Thanda Kunene

Tell us a little bit about how you got into fashion and what attracted you to this art form?
First and foremost I believe artists are born as opposed to ‘created’. However, a couple of early influences that helped me find my path were that my father modeled in his earlier days; it’s hard to believe, but he was a clothing model. My mother has to be the highlight as she used to buy and sell clothes locally in the hood and she had a very intricate sense of style. My hood – Umlazi, Durban – had a lot of influence. Still solemnly, there is no other set place in this country that possesses such a vast range of style; most of the looks I wear personally and my inspirations are based on this township.

How did your brand, Tempracha, come about and why did you pick that name?
The name was coined about six years ago during my early days in the industry. My partner and I started out with wanting a name that related to Durban, so the name alludes to Durban being known as the sunny city. Not the best of concepts, but for me it speaks a lot. And when my partner and I went separate ways I chose to stick with it, not knowing that in the later stages of my life it would become such a workable concept brand.

Let’s speak a little bit about your creative process, how do you go from a concept or an idea in your mind to a complete piece of work?
I’m very flexible with my creative process, meaning I let my ideas run with me. I don’t have a set model or method to creating any pieces. Ideas come to me in many different ways, be it dreams or impulsive inspiration from a piece of material or be it something I saw downtown; I am a very observant person and have a photographic memory, so I never know what my eye captures half the time.

Image: Thanda Kunene

Your clothes have a very offbeat feel to them, I want to ask how much of your work is conceptual and how much of it is organic?
What I do is never calculated or conceptualized half the time, most of my work springs from what’s in front of me that very minute. Offbeat? I do not know about that, but I can say that whatever ‘they’ consider offbeat now becomes the tune of the day later.

You have styled some of Spoek Mathambo’s videos, such as ‘Let Them Talk’, tell us a bit about that and how it came about?
Spoek and I met through a recommendation but we had met before in a studio in Joburg – he was in the process of recording a track with a close friend Smiso Zwane for his debut album. For me, doing the project wouldn’t have been possible if Spoek wasn’t willing to give this young soul a chance – GOD bless him for that. The collaboration was written in the stars, however, in the sense that he is to South Africa’s new-school music scene what Tempracha has directed its sails to being in SA’s new-school fashion scene: a breath of fresh air.

How difficult is it to plan something for someone that is already a brand like Spoek?
As with any work of art it’s important to put your heart into what you do. However, because Spoek is such a big ‘brand’ there was more focus on efficiency and considering I had two weeks to put the project together there were also strenuous time constraints. It was very concept-focused and ‘to the book’, which (as I mentioned above) is a method of work I’m still grasping.

Image: Thanda Kunene

Tell us a bit about what inspires your ranges?
I’m trying very hard to infuse a local flavour to western trends and cooking up something we too can label as local, not really drifting away from what we used to, but seal a South African stamp to it.

One of the things that I get from communicating with you is that you are against this idea of vintage – why is that?
It’s not necessarily the idea of vintage that I’m against, I make my own clothes but I still ‘thrift’ till today. It’s the steady growth of mass fashion at the expense of individual style that I am opposed to. This obsession with vintage fashion causes the industry to stagnate from an innovative point of view. As far as I can remember we hunted to create or finish off looks we couldn’t afford or get our hands on, and, more so, create looks without necessarily looking like you stepped out of a time machine.

What advice would you give to people that are still trying to find their own style?
Use your sources, but conceal them well – that’s basically originality in a nut shell and don’t be afraid to experiment and life is not a rat race but a journey.

Image: Thanda Kunene

South Africa has a very strong style tradition, what relevance do you think fashion has as an art form to South African youth today?
Fashion is instrumental in deciding and documenting the lifestyles and direction of the youth of today. From bell bottoms, to Dickies, All Stars and fitted caps. The connotations that come with certain trends in our country’s fashion help shape the youth.

What are some of your future plans and initiatives that you are working on?
Got a couple of colabs coming up, I’m not going to say much but stay glued to www.tempracha.com.

Interview by Sihle Mthembu
Images by Thanda Kunene