Gazelle Interview

Gazelle is a small but colorful part of the African Renaissance promoting the growth and world view of any African born art. Apart from a fresh mixture of sound, a strong visual performance involving various artists and dancers makes it a very entertaining theatrical show. Combining influences from funk, reggae, disco, 80's electro/pop and traditional African melody, the sound comes alive in a fresh genre.

Gazelle is a small but colorful part of the African Renaissance promoting the growth and world view of any African born art. Apart from a fresh mixture of sound, a strong visual performance involving various artists and dancers makes it a very entertaining theatrical show. Combining influences from funk, reggae, disco, 80's electro/pop and traditional African melody, the sound comes alive in a fresh genre.

There is more to Africa than Safari and Civil War…..
We got dance music….
It is where dance music began anyway….

The group was born in 2006 following a long journey of discovery in music. Xander Ferreira, the founding member, started his journey as a reggae singer known as the White Lion.

Introduce us to Xander Ferreira, your likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests?

I like walkers not talkers, people that manifest what they say. I am an artist that creates without limitation to medium. I think Ill probably get bored if I really had to stick to one thing. After all we should express ourselves through any talents we have or can learn.

The Music video “Die Verlore Seun” was filmed on your parent’s farm, did you grow up on the farm and how would you describe your experience of farm life?

Yes I grew up on a farm called “Nie-te-ver” in the “Ohrigstad” Valley Limpopo Province.

Yes you might ask where, so maybe its my task to put it on the map… Growing up on the farm was a simple life without mass input of media, therefore I believe I had more time to dream and use my imagination.

You grew up on a farm, tell us more about the farm?

It was a tobacco farm in a very beautiful valley close to Pilgrims Rest about an hour or so from Kruger National Park. A very beautiful place surrounded by world wonders like; “Gods Window”, “The three rondavels” .......beautiful..... If you haven’t been there get your ass there...

Does the song “Die Verlore Seun” have any reflection on your life?

Of course, I think anything that comes from you, somehow has a reflection of you.

 Your previous project was entitled “The White Lion”, what was the project all about?

Basically a reggae project that I took on....producing some dub style beats.....a one man project...... was amazing to get respect from people that inspired me in the first place like “Teba Shumba”..... I did a reggae sound system with “Teba” and “Dubmaster China”. Remember the first time I really felt strange when we were performing in Berlin once and there is all these amazing reggae artist from SA on the stage with me... I was honored...

When did you know that you would have a career in music?

Always liked performing since I was a kid....to be on stage... Music came naturally... Never studied it..... But since I figured out that you had to be a rock star to date a supermodel, it was good motivation..

How did the group “Gazelle” start?

Basically started with me on my computer playing around with a mixture of different genres of music.... I created various songs in a “lo-fi” production and then later met up with technical master Nick Matthews to produce the final product of our act.

List the members of the group and what they do in the group?

Its basically myself and Nick Matthews. I do the vocals and we co produce the music.....Which means we both play various instruments on it...... Nick is the technical wiz behind the production....

We also work with various session musicians depending on where in the world we are, but like to work mostly with Grenville Williams on Bass and Dubmaster China on percussion and Backup vocals.

You have classified your music as being LIMPOP, elaborate?

We see it as an exotic cocktail of different sounds...from electro mixed with funk, dub reggae and traditional African music. We had to start a genre since we couldn’t keep on saying that we don’t know, when people ask us what genre to fall under... O yes we hope some more LIMPOP bands come out of South Africa... Basically derived from Limpopo without the last o, the province I am from.

What do you want to achieve as a group?

Never to stop...

Of course we have goals but they change all the time..

For me it was to be recognized in a magazine.... And then last year we got into Rolling Stone magazine in Italy, so then I had to realize you never achieve success you strive towards it.

How has your music been received on the international market?

Unbelievable....last weekend we played in Warsaw and the people were acting as if the Beatles had a revival tour…  ...was amazing…  ...people in a country I have never been to singing the lyrics of the songs with....shit......crazy.....and this tour were able to hit about 10 countries, so its spreading wide.

Tell us more about your latest album?

It has been damn hard work, but finally probably in the next month it will be available in stores like “Musica” and “look and listen”. It is a special little package with a lot of media inside. So definitely a little collector’s item....

What are some of “Gazelle’s” highs and lows?

Well amazing that we are able to be really appreciated internationally. Defiantly sad when you play in front of 2000 people going crazy in a foreign country and you go to a new city in South Africa and people stand around not sure what to do, maybe we all just need to learn as South Africans how to let loose and dance, express ourselves without necessarily having to be “fuckt”.

What is the African Renaissance arts project?

Just being proud of being from Africa and using from whom we are and what we know in our aesthetic.

Is there anything that you would like to say to your fans?

Don't be over self-conscious, shake what your mamma gave you...

What are your musical influences?

Prince, Fela Kuti, Jhonny Clegg, Micheal Jackson, Parliament, Ladysmith B M, Stimela and Boney M.

When did you develop your unique on stage fashion sense?

It grows with time....my inspirations are people like prince and Micheal Jackson, George Clinton who are real showmen, people that not only played music but were entertainers.

What are your thoughts on the South African music industry?

It’s growing, but really need to learn a lot from the rest of the world. We have too many unprofessional promoters that don’t spend the money they make in the right places, to make it a great show. Also greedy distributers kill the incredible undiscovered talent to rise. We need the media to write pro active publicity, write about what they like rather than what they don’t, because it is a waste of paper and time, nobody wins, not the reader, artist or writer, in a small and growing music industry what we need most is proper support, to rise and be recognized. Australia is a great example of this, at the moment they are exporting some of the greatest talent to the world like “Empire of the sun”, “Cut copy” and “ladyhawke”. Simply because they support each other and create a scene that the rest of the world can’t look past. In SA too little support from fellow artists...and not to talk about exploitation from corporate companies that uses artist for advertising campaigns without offering them what it is really worth. So yea it should really shape up if it wants to make an international impact. I mean the media sometimes doesnt even know of SA artist that are hugely successful internationally, they’d rather stick to the same old story.

What South African music do you listen to?

There’s many different genres I support...And probably I listen mostly to my friends music, from rock to electro, kwaito to house. Don’t want to call band names in case I forget a friend’s band.

What are your plans for the future?

Well at the moment we are o our major European tour promoting our new album 'chic afrique'. playing in Basel, Bern, Zurich, Milano, Warsaw, Barcelona, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, Hamburg and Amsterdam.

So we just pushing as hard we can, non stop, aiming for the sky...to put our music out to the world. We also just finishing up our second album that will be released later this year. Also one of the hopes is to create as much opportunity for different people to do what they want to do whether they be dancers or musos. It is an amazing experience to share. Hope to collaborate with as many artists as possible local and international. I am actually writing this from Sonar Barcelona where I will be collaborating with the “Bloody Beetroots” on a show, have just recently featured on their new upcoming album.