All Night to Dance With Das Kapital

 INTERVIEW 

DAS KAPITAL DANCES ALL NIGHT WITH US

As one of the biggest DJs in South Africa Das Kapital continues to headline festivals and club nights across the country, bringing a party vibe allied with his excellent technical skills. His brilliant DJ sets, crowd reading ability and infectious energy ensure that nobody is left unmoved.

Previous highlights for Das Kapital include remixes for Waxhole USA, Neon Records & MOS Australia, Universal USA, F! Records / Soul Candi in South Africa and Mixmash (Netherlands); he has also written music for Hollywood film trailers and USA TV shows as well as for a number of brand campaigns.

As owner of Do Work Records, he has been heavily involved in bringing through the next generation of South African electronic talent where the label will shortly release its tenth release. Artists include Hendrik Joerges, D_Know, Tyron Woods, Leechi, RVWR and Garcon.

Hello Kyle and a very warm welcome to think IN electronic. Thank you for doing this interview with us. :)

My pleasure

How you doing and what has been the highlight of playing at vac so far?

I’m great thank you!  So many gigs coming (Plett Rage, Hardwell) and the SynergyLive Takeover for Do Work was immense – so much fun bringing the label to a huge festival crowd who really went for it.

1.     We noticed your twitter handle has sad faces in it, why the sad faces?

This is a cool place to start. The answer isn’t really straightforward – I put them up at a time when I really wasn’t coping with how demanding my lifestyle was becoming.

As I worked through it and found a better routine, I didn’t have a need for them, but I like leaving them there as a reminder to keep working the way I am.

2.     We know you are from Cape Town - we are from JHB. As a Capetonian what’s the one thing you love about JHB and what’s the one thing you hate about JHB?

I love the fact that the party scene tends to feel a bit more open-ended in Johannesburg. You get a lot of people into very different things in the same places, which means you can really “explore” your music collection.

The thing I don’t like, at times, is that some of the staple party venues have really self-entitled dickheads frequenting it. I don’t need to stand behind a woman arguing that she deserves more white wine in her already full glass, when she’s paying R16 for it. Get over yourself and go enjoy your night, miss.

3.     Tell us who is Das Kapital? What inspired the name and how did you end up in music specifically electronic music?

“Das Kapital” is Kyle Brinkmann for a part of every day. The name came about when I was 17, reading a lot of political, economic and philosophical texts. It’s Karl Marx’s book, first published in 1861, criticising the construct of capitalism in Western society.

There’s a ton of irony in using the name of that book - heralded as the origins of modern communism – as the pseudonym for a music project, but I liked it for a ton of reasons, so stuck with it.

I started producing music to have tracks to rap over (I started writing lyrics when I was 12 and 13), and as I got deeper into the production side, it became the thing that I put all my time into. Because I started on my old home PC, the music was always electronic, and as I improved and upgraded, incorporating evermore live sound into my tracks, the electronic roots have stayed true.

4.     DJing is very different from producing. Which came first for you, and how did you get your big break?

Production came first, by a long shot. I started DJing about 4 or 5 years after I started writing tracks. I got my first club set at Fiction during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, having played a lot of house parties in the years before. It really just spiraled from there – Good people heard my sets, liked what they heard and pushed my name further, and with that, I grew as a performer and artist.

5.     For your age you have achieved a lot how does this make you feel do you ever get overwhelmed by it? I mean, having a track featured in international movie release "21 Jump Street" trailer, and on American TV shows is something most can only dream about.

If anything, I’m aware of my age because of how much more I want to get done.

I look at a lot of my achievements as things to smile at, but the moment you become satisfied or overly self-congratulatory is, to me, the moment you become inert; tame – If you don’t see the need to better your work and constantly surpass yourself, you’ll stop moving forward.

6.     If you could pick any place in Cape Town to describe your music, what place would you pick and why?

Brilliant question, and really tough to answer. I guess I’d say somewhere overlooking the sea, really high up, in winter, at night. There are a lot of emotions that could play out there across the spectrum, so I think that’s perfect. That’s where a lot of the inspiration comes from at least. Thanks to everyone that’s supported the music, the label, our artists and the movement we are building. This is a team effort, and I’ll rep my team to the death of me.

7.     When producing where do you draw your inspirations from are there any producers you turn to for advice?

I listen to a lot of music, with very little regard for genre specificity. I take cues from outlying genres and what I FEEL needs to be written, and combine them.

It’s always an adventure, but I go in with at least one idea or movement that needs to happen, and let the rest of the parts fall into place.

8.     You are on the line up for Mad Decent Block Party. What about MDBP stands out the most for you?

I am excited for one reason – I am playing an awesome party with a lineup of stupidly talented people (both local and international). It’s not often that I’m so sure of both my place in a lineup and the place of those around me.

I’m really looking forward to sharing the stage with old friends and new friends alike – they’re all veritable artists in their own right.

9.     Major Lazer (Diplo), Dillion Francis and Flosstradamus make for a pretty sick lineup. Who are you looking forward to seeing, and which one of them do you look up to?

All of them have been influential to me for years. Flosstradamus used to rep the Chicago footwork sound hard, and recently really came to represent the face of “Trap” music, which is closely linked to my musical roots in Hip Hop production.

Dillon Francis has been a fantastic producer for years, whether it be his Dubstep, his Electro or his 112BPM stuff. I’m really excited to meet him, because he’s a character, and I love when that comes across in someone’s music. As for Major Lazer, I’m really looking forward to meeting Jillionaire, seeing the whole show, and playing alongside Diplo again. It’s a no brainer.

10.  This year you started your own record label. In your opinion, what sets your label apart from other record labels out there?

Do Work is really multifaceted, and that makes it hard to pin down. I think that’s what makes it work – We do a lot with our music, in terms of targetting tracks to places where they need to be heard, and pushing the talent of our artists forward.

We get really hands-on with the tracks we sign, working with the artists directly to push their tracks and their abilities to levels higher than even we expect sometimes. Stylistically, all that we care about is “great”. We have everything from Techno, to New Wave Hip Hop (I think I just made that up but it’s a real thing), to Electro and Progressive and Deep House, to whatever works. We care about music that means something to someone, and pushing that further.

*self-wank over*

11.  Growing up what was your favourite cartoon to watch?

I will give you my top 3, because I FUCKING LOVE cartoons:

1.     The Magic Schoolbus

2.     Batman (the 90s one)

3.     Spiderman (the 90s one)

12.  When you not “Doing” music what would we find you doing?

Honestly, in the little time off I have, I try my utmost to see friends, eat good food, and do exciting and fulfilling things.

13.  What are your predictions for the sound of 2014?

90s Hardcore is making a massive comeback right now. I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s going to be integrated and reinterpreted by producers. Otherwise, there are a lot of sounds drowning the sonic landscape right now, and I’d very much rather let those drain away than become bigger. I want to see growth, and I know a lot of my contemporaries want to as well. Here’s hoping NEW is direction we all head.

14.  Any last message for fans and what s next for Das Kapital?

Watch this space, because the best is still on the way. As much as I’d love everyone to know all the details, I need to play a lot of this close to my chest.

Thank you so much for taking time out to do this interview with us, We look forward to catching you play sometime soon in Johannesburg.

Thank you ladies. I’ll see you soon.