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Goldfish joined us at the BPM popup studio at Nexus Lounge Amsterdam.
The South African electronic dance duo who have been named “Best Pop” at South Africa’s MTV Music Awards in 2014. With their unique blend of jazz, African music, pop, and house, they lean on their backgrounds as jazz musicians to create intoxicating beats.
With success like theirs, they have perfected their songwriting process. Goldfish give us some information on how they approach the studio. “I play saxophone and flute; Dom plays keyboard and double bass”, David explains. “ When we’re producing songs, obviously Dom’s doing most of the keyboard production side of stuff from that perspective. Obviously, I don’t want to come in and shoot on basslines for the guy who can play keyboards really, really well.”
With an extensive discography like theirs, Goldfish have many songs to choose from in a minimal timeframe on stage. They give an insight into how they choose their tracks:
“We like open formats in a lot of ways because we improvise, we play instruments [on stage] so there’s a lot of off-the-cuff kind of stuff. The setlist definitely evolves throughout the show. [For] some really big shows, we’ll have a set list, but I’d say 90% of our shows it’s more like ‘Okay, let’s do this first. Let’s go in that direction or not’... If it’s too predetermined, it’s hard to go organically through things and feed off that energy.”
The eclectic duo are unafraid to revisit their old work and remix it to achieve an entirely new sound. “What’s actually great about doing remixes of your own music is you almost get a second crack at the song”, Dom says.
Their quickfire Take-5 answers were fascinating. For example, when asked how they maintain a positive mental health space, they cite the ocean as their muse of relaxation. “It’s such a peaceful part of our lives, and it’s pretty much the perfect antithesis of the club,” Dom says. With a touring schedule and work ethic like theirs, it’s no wonder that Goldfish need a break out of club life from time to time.
They cite Fat Freddy’s Drop’s Jazzanova remix as the first MP3 ever purchased or downloaded, perhaps one of the unique answers we’ve had this year. They also had a poetic note about describing electronic music to someone for the first time: “It is a feeling. I think if you’re thinking about it too much, you’re missing the point… it’s supposed to make you move.”
Listen to the full interview below:
