Feature Interview

Looking To CTEMF: Branko

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival Open End Workshops. Access is free to the public and provides you with the opportunity to learn from and listen to many of the artists and masterminds behind the festival.

In anticipation of this week, we had the opportunity to chat to Branko. A prolific artist in his own right, Branko also forms part of the formidable Buraka Som Sistema and heads up his own label, Enchufada. He travels the world finding new subcultures and genres, nurturing a movement dubbed “Global Bass Music”. Here he shares his thoughts on immersing himself in foreign cultures, his view on South African music and what we can expect from his performance.

Many artists would be satisfied with solo success, touring the world and releasing music. You, however, are part of the mighty Buraka Som Sistema and boss of your own imprint, Enchufada as well. Which one of these roles do you find the most rewarding?
They all have a place in my heart and brain. It’s awesome to be part of Buraka Som Sistema and tour the world playing shows, I grew and learned so much, but at the end of the day I still have music left in my head that I need to channel somewhere and that’s why I created the solo character, just somewhere where I can have full control. With Enchufada I always felt the music business these days was half about being an A&R and the other half being a musician, so I naturally think about projects and music in a full 360 way. The label was a natural step!

When you visit a new country, do you immerse yourself in the local music and culture in the hope of drawing inspiration for your own work?
I’m always searching for new music, usually it happens the other way around, I discover something and I won’t stop until i’m on a plane on my way to wherever soundcloud sent me. But a bunch of times I’m also pleasantly surprised by awesome music from somewhere I had no idea existed. This happened to me in a bunch of places already from Mozambique to Cairo.

On ‘Drums, Slums and Hums’ you worked with Okmalumkoolkat and more recently you shared South African producer Dunn Kidda’s track ‘Grip’ via Enchufada’s Soundcloud page and other social networks. How did you discover these artists and what attracted you to their work?
I first heard of Okmalumkoolkat through his work with London producers LV on ‘Boomslang’, It completely blew my mind, so I had to try and get my hands on some vocals. Kalaf from Buraka collaborated with him in Amsterdam on a project that wasn’t going anywhere so I sort of hijacked all those vocals and made a tune with them. To be honest I really love that track but I can’t wait to have the opportunity to actually sit in the studio with him and make some music together. I think I discovered Dunn Kidda on some soundcloud playlist, can’t remember exactly where but the track was awesome and I approached him to put it out via Enchufada.

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You recently curated a line up as part of the Boiler Room x Red Bull Music Academy x Lisbon Takeover. How significant is it to have your opinion and taste shown that kind of respect?
Without wanting to sound pretentious I see myself as sort of a curator of a lot of things, from getting people working together on music, to introducing other sounds to whoever follows me, so it makes a lot of sense to turn all this musical interaction into a stage somewhere and I was really happy to put that line up together to give everyone an idea of what Lisbon sounds like these days.

How important do you think Boiler Room’s role is in nurturing an appreciation for electronic music around the world?
It’s a great channel for sure and I think they’ve created a platform that didn’t exist before. But personally for me the most important thing is the archive. Having all that history and information available online 24 hours per day is so precious for producers, dj’s and people in general. If I had something like this 16 years ago when I started making beats it would be a dream come true.

What can we expect from your performance at CTEMF and what are your expectations of the crowd
Because we always play live shows with Buraka, for my solo stuff I tend to keep it pretty basic in terms of set up, I think that the best way for me to express who Branko is and what I do is really with 2 cd-j’s and a mixer. I don’t wanna make it too complicated and limit my musical selection.

Are you able to recall the first time you heard someone other than yourself play your music in a club or at an event? How did that make you feel?
I can’t really remember the first time I heard my music played in a club by someone else, but to this day it’s always a great feeling to listen to someone else play your music, specially because it gives you a super objective view on what you created. Most of the times if the track is not out and I hear a dj playing it I go back to the studio and change a couple of things.

You are currently working on your debut album, what approach do you take to writing new material. Are you a melodies or beats kind of guy?
For this “album” I wanna do a collage of all these sounds and local genres I’ve followed during the last 10 years and try to turn them into proper songs. I really feel like this is the next step for global electronic music. A lot has been done on the club and dancefloor department but it’s time to aim at people that wouldn’t necessarily go search for it, people that will accidentally stumble upon these tracks and get hooked on them because they’re really good but at the same time there’s also a legacy behind them, a context. That’s what it’s all about for me right now, to tell that story with songs. I sort of have that present in my work with tunes like ‘Waves feat. Roses Gabor’ or the recently streamable ‘Eventually feat. Alex Rita and Bison’, so it also feel like a natural step.

If you were offered the opportunity to live a different life for one day, would you choose something else and why / why not?
I never had a job and I mostly spend my time with what I consider to be the most entertaining thing on earth which is making and playing music. So as a reaction to that sometimes I feel like I would benefit from experiencing a proper job for a while so I could appreciate and be more objective with what I do. Would have to be something like working in a restaurant kitchen or something like that where all my tasks were clear and my orders very direct.

Catch Branko at CTEMF on Saturday at 01:00 in the Auditorium.