Kicks and Strings from Durban

Gqom from Durban is being added to our Norient playlists for quite a while now. On our recent South African tour we finally met some of the producers of this deep and dark electronic music in different townships around Durban. We interviewed them, and edited, mixed and manipulated their voices and music. First take of our gqom edits: Citizen Boy, and his grandmother. We met them at their house in Avoca Hills, Durban. Co-produced by Thomas Burkhalter, Bit-Tuner and Dejot. Check also the Gqom-Takes with Dominowe and Menchess.


Grandmother – Gqom Edits 002 by Burkhalter, Bit-Tuner, Dejot

Tracks (mis)used to create grandmother/SouthAfrican vibe: «Qwa (Lion)» by Qwii – Tebogo Tshotesi (Bushman) from the album Ancient Civilizations Of Southern Africa + «Rhaliweni (Railway)» by Sun Glen from the album The Thula Project / An Album Of South African Lullabies


#Fame

«When fame arrives, a lot will change. I would move from my bedroom studio into a professional one. And I would buy new equipment and then make more money. I would go partying, all Friday long.» Citizen Boy


Citizen Boy on Music Production

Citizen Boy in his bedroom studio, 2016 (photo: Thomas Burkhalter, Norient)

[Thomas Burkhalter]: How do you produce your tracks? What are the first steps?

[Citizen Boy]: Ok. You need a computer, two speakers, and you need the Fruity Loops software. You install it and you play it. The first thing you need for gqom is the deep kick, the bass. It has to be awesome and perfect. Then you need strings, some percussion, a snare, and few samples.

[TB]: How do you edit and arrange these sounds in your software?

[CB]: Ok, let me tell you what I do. I paste a kick, I listen to the kick, and I make it deep. I turn the volume very high – so that sometimes my family complains. I play the kick and I put the string. I listen to this beat properly and I go into that vibe. I take a sample, I put the sample in, and the beat just becomes perfect. Then I put the snare, and it becomes even more perfect. Then I listen to it all together and I have my gqom track. You need only like six or eight things for a gqom track.

[TB]: Do you mainly use presets from within Fruity Loops? And if so, how do you manipulate them?

[CB]: For samples I use effects. I use delay, flanger, phaser, and reverb. The string I don’t manipulate, I just use the preset. And I also don’t do anything with the kick. It is a preset too. I just turn the volume higher, so the music give you that vibe.

[TB]: From where do you take your samples?

[CB]: I find them via Google. I download them, I put it into Fruity Loops and slice it.


Quotes

Citizen Boy in the the backyard of his family house in Avoca Hills, Durban 2016 (photo: Thomas Burkhalter, Norient)

#Dreams

«It is like a dream. I always wanted to shine.» Citizen Boy

#Reputation

«When people come to my house, certain people like famous people, I make sure that someone looks at me while I’m going up. I make sure that I walk slowly so they can see like what’s going on. I’m showing off, basically.» Citizen Boy

#Family

«My parents at first didn’t support me at all but as soon as Francesco came they saw it’s going somewhere. So, they started to support me but they said I must prioritize studying first. So, during school days I don’t do music. I only do music during the holidays, maybe on the weekends and stuff, yeah.» Citizen Boy


Releases

#Friendship

«My EP Tribute to UK is my tribute to Francesco, my manager. I’m praising him for the good things he has done for me.» Citizen Boy

Citizen Boy, Thomas Burkhalter, Bit-Tuner in Avoca Hills, Durban 2016 (photo: Dejot)

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music project «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «South Asian Sound Stories» with musicians from the UK, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.

Biography

Bit-Tuner aka Marcel Gschwend, born 1978 in St. Gallen, lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland Born and raised in St. Gallen, Bit-Tuner works and lives in Zürich today. He's been producing electronic music with computers, mpcs, synthesizers, bass guitars and a fleet of analogue effect gear. He has a fondness for samples from old records, movies and has also been discovering field recording. Bit-Tuner works with heavy beats, blown up bass sounds, gloomy athmospheres, acid-driven melodies and uproaring soundscapes. His musical field of expression reaches from experimental hip hop to electronica, from bass music to noise, theatre productions, fashion shows, and shortfilm soundtracks.

Biography

Dejot aka Daniel Jakob (aka Dubokaj) is a Swiss electronica producer, film composer based in the city of Bern.

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Seismographic Sounds
Seismographic Sounds: Visions of a New World
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The second Norient book «Seismographic Sounds: Visions of a New World» introduces you to a contemporary world of distinct music and music videos. Written by 250 scholars, journalists, bloggers and musicians from 50 countries.

Published on April 14, 2017

Last updated on October 20, 2020

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