Seasoned electronic musician/producer, Sibot is a maverick in SA: he’s collaborated with Spoek Mathambo, produced for Die Antwoord’s Ninja and collaborated with many other artists on the SA circuit.
He’ll be performing at Cape Town Electronic Music Festival 2016 (February 6) with visual artist Toyota. This longterm collab promises electronic-lovers a live set that they can never quite anticipate – when they’re lucky enough to see them perform.
Ahead of this visual and audio treat, he tells us where he sees SA music heading and why ‘shit gonna get weird’.
You describe your genre as ‘glitch hop/finger bangers/live ballad sex’ – can you expand?
I should update that… lol. My sound is big, orchestral, dumb electronic music rooted in hip hop. The finger banging refers to the live-sampler bashing I do on stage and the live ballad sex represents what Toyota and I do on stage – a kind of duet of audio and visual.
Where do you see South African electronic music going in the next few years?
I would like to see a bunch of South African labels starting off and releasing music abroad. We need international labels to help but we need local labels to rep us too.
Musically we are gonna see our strong hip-hop and pop scene explode.
I think we’re gonna see a lot more tourists coming out to experience the unique genres found all over the country. I think music tourism is a big thing for SA’s future and we need to find a way to make it happen.
Musically we are gonna see our strong hip-hop and pop scene explode with a lot more young rising stars. We’re gonna see the exploitation of the Gqom sound everywhere and a divide between the commercial and the real. That’s when that sound will become super exciting.
We will become a strong force on the global circuit.
We will see a much stronger passage of travel for local artists abroad. With the exchange rate and the growth of quality acts we will become a strong force on the global circuit.
Looking forward to playing Cape Town Electronic Music Festival? What kind of set are you going for?
Toyota and I do very few shows these days. We choose a select few that we can put a strong set together for. This audience is way ‘heady’ so I’m gonna push my down-part heavy into the weird and try explore a softer experimental side paired with the chaos… shit gonna get weird.
What should we look forward to from you next?
I’ve been on a sort of sabbatical while I built my new studio. It’s finally ready after eight months of having nowhere to work. I’ve been brewing up an EP on the side and lining up some very exciting collabs from some newbies to some biggies.
Check out Sibot’s music here
Follow Sibot on Twitter @Sibot_