From friends to podcasts to a record label, be led into the narrative of the Cape Town based music collective, where they’ve been, where they going and what it takes to record a podcast on tour in a bus.
We took time to watch the YouTube clip of your SA tour with the London based Erased Tapes producer, Rival Consoles. We loved what we saw – we think it’s a brilliant concept and it looks like a lot of fun. Please tell us more about that experience and how it came about.
The experience was incredible! Being able to tour with a musician of that caliber was an eye opener for us. It wasn’t like a regular touring experience where you are in and out and don’t get to see the other artists. We essentially lived with each other for a week and a half, which was excellent! The whole tour came about incredibly quickly after Black Major (A Cape Town based music agency that books and manages some of us) came forward with the idea in partnership with Connect ZA, The British council and Erased Tapes. The whole tour would not have been possible without those four groups and we’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity they gave us.
Your sixth podcast, ‘12AM Roti Boys’ was recorded in the bus during that tour. This must have had its pros and cons. Please share some of those with us. Also tell us how that environment helped you in getting your latest material ready.
The podcast on the bus had a lot of challenges. Recording microphone sound in a moving minivan with minimal space made for a relatively interesting experience. That paired with sitting in a moving sauna was not ideal but it was still loads of fun to play each other’s music and listen to some of Rival Console’s work and talk about his experience on the tour. The podcasts are a space for us to play music to each other that is new, old or even the start of ideas. It’s mostly just another opportunity to hangout.
This tour must have, in one way or the other, given you a new/better perspective of the South African music landscape. What interesting facts can you share with us based on your findings during the tour?
- Joburg is incredible. The best show we’ve all had as a group, by far!
- Durban hospitality is the best and thank you to everyone that let us stay with them!
- Grahamstown is great and we think more people should drive through for tours.
- SA has incredible electronic musicians and incredible promoters everywhere.
Quit Safari has been putting out some really good music through podcasts for a while now. Can we expect a full album anytime soon?
You can expect more releases coming from Quit Safari! Quit Safari is now run as a record label that releases the artists in our roster. This means there will be a lot of new music coming from the people we’ve been releasing. The podcast will always be the space you can go to that will have unreleased music/old music/friends music being played.
There are quite a few guys who make up the Quit Safari collective. We are interested in knowing a bit more about each of you and your respective responsibilities within the collective. How did the collective come into existence?
The label started as a podcast series with:
Luca (Damascvs, Swishascus)
Seb (CTS, Hessien+, Yes in French, Sebastiano Zanasi)
Bas (Hessien+, Yes in French)
Nic (Fever Trails, Bateleur)
Dan (Swishy Delta, Swishascus)
Luc (CTS, Selfir, Desert Head)
We quickly found that we all had music to release and we created this home as Quit Safari where we could all release music under one roof. It helped that we are all close friends and spend time together outside of our music. Bas, Luca and I now run the label. Seb handles A&R/PR, Luca handles everything online and I do the design/coding/art direction. The label runs incredibly fluid and decisions are discussed with everyone.
You guys do absolutely everything yourselves, from recording and mastering your music to shooting your own videos and designing your artwork. What is the motive behind this?
I feel that as long as we have complete control we’re always going to be able to release the best quality material.
What are your plans for the rest of 2016?
Moving forward there is going to be a lot more music being put out, more shows starting from next year + possibly a Sunday Quit Safari party once a month at the Waiting Room. Hopefully we’ll get to tour again if everyone will have us!
