On her 2024 EP, South African producer and DJ DBN Gogo brings together an array of house, gqom, tech and amapiano elements to create a dance project that showcases her range—and blurs the boundaries between sounds and scenes.
“It was really important for me to showcase the different sounds and levels of South African house music, and what we can do when we bring it all together,” she tells Apple Music. “Obviously still putting a spotlight on amapiano, but in a different way, exploring creativity and just doing something that not everyone is really doing at the moment. I don't want to be constantly boxed in a certain vein. I came into the scene playing house, and amapiano is a subgenre of house. We should be collaborating, exploring, and making music all together.”
Fleshed out by a diverse cast of guest stars, the mood across the project’s seven tracks is all about fun. “When people who weren’t originally in the ’piano space transitioned to ’piano, the rest of us obviously were in it already,” DBN Gogo explains. “And then when hip-hop artists, house DJs and hip-hop DJs started playing ’piano, [people would say to them] 'Oh, you guys are selling out,' or whatever. So for this project, I was like, 'We're making a dance EP, so Click Bait makes sense, because it's like I'm also baiting you.’ Because you could say the same thing to me now—‘Tech is popular or whatever, so now you also want to dabble.’ But [the sound] doesn't belong to anyone. People always want to have a lot to say or have opinions about things, so you bait them and then they can talk, but you've done [the work] already, it's here. Here, there’s nothing negative. Everything is good. We're in love, we're happy, we're dancing, we're satisfying ourselves, everything. And it shows all the sides of me as a DJ, as an artist, as even just a person; where I come from. ” Below, DBN Gogo talks through key tracks from Click Bait.
“SKOROKORO” (feat. Yumbs, Dee Traits, Dinky_ Kunene & Soul Jam) [DBN Gogo, Omagoqa & Baby S.O.N]
“This one is about the layering—it’s just so beautiful. I can't believe that song was made in different sessions. It still is wild to me; it's like everyone was there [together] and they were just on the same wavelength. The lead producers on the song are strictly gqom, but they have this futuristic sound that they bring, and this was one of the songs that we struggled to bring together. It was quite broken when it came from Omagoqa. And when I think of broken beat, I think back to Pretoria, how that was such a big part of our culture in the Pretoria ’piano scene or house scene. And I said, 'I like this; I need that sound. I like it—but how do we make it fit and make sense?' And they were also struggling, like, 'Okay. We only know it must go hard.’ Yumbs is really, really brilliant. He came in and he changed some of the keys and made it merge. He was like gluten—he made it all stick together. He said, 'I need a continuous vocal.' So we tried different ones, and then I did it and then auto-tuned it, and then Baby S.O.N came in and put in his verse. He was the one that said, 'I think Dinky would be perfect—she’s eloquent.’ A lot of our Durban vocalists obviously sing in vernac, but Dinky sings in English—but the way her voice is so layered, it sounds like she could be singing in Zulu; it’s crazy. Here, and across the EP, we're not talking about heartbreak or pain, we're talking about having fun. I'm talking about going out; I'm talking about getting money. Don't come here with your ‘skorokoro’ [old; worn out] car.”
“UTHANDO” (feat. Yumbs, Shazmicsoul, Dr Thulz, Mashudu & Leandra.Vert) [DBN Gogo, Atmos Blaq]
“‘Uthando’ has tech elements, but it didn’t even start like a tech song. Shazmic started this song; Dr Thulz played the keys, and he laid the main vocal which became the bridge. Mashudu came to do ‘Mali’ and I think Leandra was just accompanying her—she wasn't even here to record and she ended up also jumping on the song. But it was missing something. I needed a song that's also specifically targeted to the Afro-Tech crowd. So Yumbs took it to Atmos Blaq, and they worked on it together and it changed completely from what it sounded like at the very beginning. It's everything that South Africans love, it's a sing-along, it's about love, and then it's a question and answer, so you're singing back to each other. So it was like, 'Okay, this would be very nice, obviously for Valentine’s.’ And I think it also shows the duality of Mashudu.”
“UBUMNANDI” (feat. C-Blak, Yumbs, Shazmicsoul & Soul Jam) [DBN Gogo, Zaba & Sfarzo Rtee]
“I really, really love this song, from how it started off slow, to how Sfarzo came in and just made it whole. I think it was a loop, from Shazmic at first, and then C-Blak came to the studio. We were recording a bunch of other songs and he's really shy, so he couldn't record [in front of us]. C-Blak sent him the song, and he did his part. Then I sent it to Zaba and he liked it. Sometimes someone's first like, 'Okay, I really like this.' He recorded and he did his story. And then when we kept listening back and forth to it, I'm like, 'Okay, you're talking about you don't want to sleep at home. Ubumnandi, it doesn't finish.' They were like, 'Okay, it's a bit mellow for what you're actually saying. Let's maybe get something to up the ante.'Yumbs and Soul Jam tried to touch it and make it a bit more musical, up until the point that Sfarzo came in and brought the two elements together. I love it; Zaba’s voice is incredible.”
“MALI MALI” (feat. Baby_S.O.N & Mashudu) [DBN Gogo, Shazmicsoul & Yumbs]
“‘Mali Mali’ is the only song on the entire EP that was done in one session. I think it was the first or second session, we had been trying to fix another track, but we had been listening to too many songs, and we were just getting tired. But also everyone's like, 'You know what? Maybe let's leave, let's go home.’ Then Shazmicsoul played a song— a complete song; it was done—and I asked him to send it to me. In the next session, when Mashudu came to put vocals on ‘Uthando’, I go in there and they're working on ‘Mali Mali’, and Yumbs is there. So they fixed it, changed it up, and then Baby_S.O.N. just added his vocals, and Mashudu added that rap. I don't even know how she came about it. It was so strange. I'm like, 'How did you even think of this?' I don't think I've ever heard her sound like this on any song– it was so effortless. I’m sure some people won’t even think it was her. And we just left it like that. It was really cool. I think we left the studio at 6:00am that day; it was crazy. And it just flowed.”
“STINGRAY” (feat. Durban's Finest & Effected) [DBN Gogo, PRIVS3 & Triple X Da Ghost]
“PRVIS3 sent me the beats. It wasn't really complete yet, and I'm like, ‘I really like this. Let's actually work on it and see, but keep that section in the middle.’ We needed to keep the basics, and we needed that one that's just a heartbeat—where people can dance. So it was really nice for me to finally work with Triple X and Effected on my own thing, besides the features that I have with them.. Those guys are really, really, really, really good.”
“SAdesFakSHen” [DBN Gogo, Benny Benassi & Thuto The Human]
“When I wanted to do a remake of [Benny Benassi’s 2003 single] ‘Satisfaction’, I didn't even realise it was [the song’s 20th anniversary]. I had sent it to someone, like, 'Can we remake the song into Durban version?’ People weren't taking me seriously; taking long to get back to me. I was like, 'I'm going to call Thuto.' If there's one person I know who's eager to learn something and figure something out, it’s him. He doesn't like to let things fail him. He had never heard the original, ever. I'm like, 'Watch the music video. Listen to the song.' He sent it the next day, the very next day. He sent it the next day. And then I sent it to [get cleared by Benny Benassi’s team]. And literally a month later, they were like, ‘Okay.' I'm like, 'Do you think Benny would want to be on it?'And they were like, 'Well, it seems like he's cool.’ So we didn't just get a remix—we actually got Benny to be on the song. I think it just solidified to me more, the fact that I really want to be known for more than one thing. My thing is dance, it's not just ’piano. I might release a rap song—you don't know. The world is my oyster. I can do anything I set my mind to. I don't want to be limited by other people's assumptions of me, only by my own.”
Tracklist:
- DBN Gogo, Omagoqa & Baby S.O.N - SKOROKORO (feat. Yumbs, Dee Traits, Dinky Kunene & Soul Jam)
- DBN Gogo & Atmos Blaq - UTHANDO (feat. Yumbs, Shazmicsoul, Dr Thulz & Mashudu)
- DBN Gogo, Zaba & Sfarzo Rtee - UBUMNANDI (feat. C-Blak, Yumbs, Shazmicsoul & Soul Jam)
- DBN Gogo, Shazmicsoul & Yumbs - MALI MALI (feat. Baby S.O.N & Mashudu)
- DBN Gogo & Inter B & Draad - INKUNZI (feat. Sykes & Jay Music)
- DBN Gogo, PRVIS3 & Triple X Da Ghost - STINGRAY (feat. Durban’s Finest & Effected)
- DBN Gogo, Benny Benassi & Thuto The Human - SAdesFakSHen
Stream the full EP below.
Comments
Post a Comment