DUИИ - The path to his new album

DUИИ, formerly Dunn Kidda, returns to Red Bull Studios Cape Town after his first visit in 2017. In studio to work on his upcoming album to be released on Stay True Sounds, the release will feature a combination of house and hip hop. We caught up with him to find out about the break he took from music in 2018, found out about his comeback releases, getting comfortable with his sound, the upcoming album and where he thinks the future of music is going. Read below for the full interview.

Last time you were here was mid-2017 working on a project?

I was in between two projects, I had enough music for two separate projects, split them up, gave one to Red Bull and took one for myself.

By Ashiq Johnson

2018 you took a bit of a break?

In 2018 I quit music for a while. I quit DJing for a short period of time as well. I started a day job and was just playing around with music, but for a couple of months, I quit music and was like fuck this. For whatever industry reasons and lack of motivation, creativity and inspiration. Burnout, over-thinking shit, taking industry shit and making it personal. I overcame that and was happy. When you’re in that hole of quitting you don’t know if you’ll get out of that. You don’t see it and only after you’re out, do you realise I’m doing the shit again. And the music sounds dope. I’ve grown. It’s a weird thing and I think every artist goes through it.

In 2019 you came back with a bang, you dropped 3 EPs?

Yeah, Halo Effect was in Feb., then Peach Diesel then Chrome Slugs. They were all strong bodies of work. Got some national attention. I got big off that. The first one was half house, half hip hop, Halo Effect. Peach Diesel was house and Chrome Slugs was all house. All deep house shit but done in my way. All bass-heavy.

Last time we talked you mentioned that because of your grime background, it was difficult for you to make hip hop or house without it sounding like grime. How did you manage to make that work for you now?

If you can picture my sound like that goo that kids play with, it’s falling and you don’t know how to pick it up. I just learnt how to control it. Instead of fear the sound I learnt how to take my sound and take it in that direction. I’ll take my sound and put it in the drums for this track, synth for that track and bass for another. So I could kinda direct what I couldn’t control for a long time.

I think I only got there by practicing. 10 000 hour rule. Just practice, practice. So I can now navigate my creativity. So that was dope. It took a long time to figure that out but now at the point where I can do anything and it will sound like me. I’m super happy about that, very grateful, but it wasn’t an easy path getting there. It’s just being consistent. A lot of self-doubt in that process.

That’s why things like this are good. Having sessions at Red Bull is good because you’re getting to bring other people into your world. When they like the shit you’re like I am on the right path. You need that validation 30 percent of the time because a lot of the time the tracks that you like, people don’t, they like what you think is your less good stuff. So you need that reminder that what you did there was good because of these reasons and what you did there was okay because of this…

I think that goes with any art. Visual art as well. You have a gallery show, you might have a favourite and people might lean towards a different style that you did or something else. You do need to present your shit to the world on a frequent basis. Maybe not to the public but to peers.

By Ashiq Johnson

You’re here in studio now. What are you working on?

I’m working on an album for Stay True. It’s half house, half hip hop and whatever in between as well. 15 tracks, so I needed the studio space to get that motion going in terms of recording vocalists, there are going to be a lot of features, so that’s why we’re here. It’s really helped in terms of the peer to peer thing we just spoke about. I wouldn’t call it validation, but confirmation of the path.

You’ve always dabbled in hip hop and house. What brings you more into that space now?

In 2019 when Kid Fonque asked me to make a house EP, which was Peach Diesel, I thought I have nothing to lose and I might as well give it a shot. Everything else I’d been doing, the future kwaito shit, was going way over people’s heads. They just weren’t catching it. Now in Cape Town, you’ll find DJs that play a full future kwaito set, but when I was doing it four years ago no one was into it. That was around the time when Nonku was doing some future kwaito with Narch, Felix Laband was doing for years. There were future kwaito elements all around but it was just flying over people’s heads. So I decided I’ll do the house thing and see how it goes. I didn’t think it would blow up like that. I gave him a couple of rough drafts and Peach Diesel was the one and he kept playing it. It got quite a bit of traction. It was one of the biggest deep house tracks of 2019. I wouldn’t have got that if I was still doing my old stuff. Sometimes you just have to get out of your shell, whatever genre it is. I’m grateful that people say I can still hear it’s you, but it sounds dope, irrespective of what genre it is. So that’s cool. But I don’t know what the future is going to hold, we’ll see how it goes. I’m not going to tie myself down to a genre. I’m not going to release a full house EP for a long time. It’s going to be split. I’m always going to go left-field.

Is there a thread tying the record together?

My sound. Everything I touch will have my sound. So continuity wise, if you listen, I make very good bodies of work. I theme it out. It all flows. I like doing bodies of work like that. So irrespective of it all sounding like me, it will all still flow together as one movie.

Do you have a release date?

There’s no time on the album but I’m pushing for April to finish it and send it off to mastering. But we’ll see how it goes.

Are you dropping any singles?

There will probably be 3 singles. A track with Sio and I need to choose the other two with the label. But it doesn’t matter what singles they say I should do, I’m still going to shoot a video for whatever I want to do. If I like a track, I’ll shoot a video. So there might be a single with no video. Which is fine, it gives the project extra legs. So there will be 5 or 6 videos.

By Ashiq Johnson

Are you taking the project on the road?

There will be a tour. I’ll do a Jozi tour. I might hit up PE because they really support my sound. So there will be a tour, definitely.

In the lead up to the launch are you still going to be playing or are you focusing on studio?

I’m still going to DJ, but I want to focus on getting these ideas out of my head and doing it in my own space and time and then sending the stuff off. It’s a bit hard making stuff from scratch because you’re not in your element. You’re not as fast, there are people watching you, it’s different. So I need to stay at home a bit more and take it from there.

Who do you want to connect with through this release?

I’m not trying to reach any listeners, but I think I’ll have the majority of people listening to it because it won’t flow like a playlist, but it will feel like a playlist because of the different genres and the different sounds. It will still connect through me, so that’s why I don’t feel like I’m targeting a specific house head or staunch hip hop head or whatever. If you download my album it’ll be like a playlist and enjoy it like that. Because I’m tired of genres. I truly feel that within this decade, no one is going to give a fuck about genres. It’s gonna die out. Genres exist because when you went to a record store, there would be your soul or folk or whatever. For me, that’s why genres are split. But if you’re streaming music and you’re making a playlist, the playlist is about a vibe. That concept alone is going to break genres. So I think that’s where the future of music is going to go.

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This interview first appeared on Red Bull Music