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B SQUARED..... DJ WITH WIDE RANGING MUSIC INFLUENCE

By Mdubasa | 2020-06-21

When did you start deejaying and what or who were your early passions and influences?

Wow, this is a befitting question to ask, as I am celebrating 10 years of me being a DJ this year. I have always been a fan of dance music since my primary school days. We used to organise small trips as friends to go to places like Cuddle Puddle and the prerequisite was to travel in style. We would hire a kombi with a good sound system and we jammed to whatever was musically relevant then.

Fast track to 2005, I moved to Mpumalanga for my high school and that is where I fell in love with House Music. My friends and I would spend our after school afternoons jamming to new music we got from people who were studying in Joburg at the time.

By the time I got to varsity in 2008, I was a huge follower of the genre and my music collection started then till to date. In 2010, my cousin and would borrow a sound system from a Kasi Groetman to go DJ at the local pub. After some time, his father bought us our own sound system to use because of the passion we had. The highlight of that year was getting a chance to play at Mavuso Fan Park during the World Cup. So within this journey, I have be musically influenced by so many DJs from Eswatini, SA and abroad.

How did you come up with the name 'BSquared' and do you think it still fits with your deejaying?

The name came about as a way to limit the confusion between DJ Bandzi, from Megasound and me. People would always assume I was playing in a certain event yet I was not and vice versa with him because I also used my first name Banzie as a DJ name. I later decided to change the name and use the first letters of my names Banzie Bayanda and BSquared came about.

Can you tell us about your working relationship with ‘Katz’

Katz and I first met back in 2014 at Solanis Shisanyama while we were both there to DJ. We became friends and kept in touch over the years. I was based in Pretoria at the time, and whenever I came back home to visit, we would reunite and play. In 2017, Katz and Jazzinsoul formed the Beats & Bass Podcast, a platform to share music-to-music lovers. They invited me to make a Guestmix for Show 4, and within the same year, I featured on their Show 7.

At the time, I had my own Podcast called Deep House Sessions. August 2017 I decided to join their movement as an active member. It was an easy decision for one to make because they had a much better following in the kingdom than I did. Secondly, I felt like we shared a similar vision and ambition music wise. Lastly, we have a similar music taste, so it made perfect sense to work together. In 2018, we started working as a duo, Katz and I. We have never looked back ever since.

What are currently your main challenges as a DJ?

I would say not being able to play frequently is a major setback. Not only because of the current COVID-19 situation, just in general. As we grow older, we have more responsibilities to focus on and being a DJ ends up being the least of your priorities. In addition, doing so ends up limiting your growth while your peers progress in harnessing and perfecting their skills. Making an investment to buying your own equipment to practice with at home would be ideal, but a good set up is excessively pricey. The non-paying gigs are not helping the situation as well, so one needs to find a balance that works well for him/her to stay afloat.

What do you usually start with when preparing for a set?

It all comes from listening to a lot of music from my own collection and wish list in order to understand the current sound in the market. I spend days listening to a wide variety of music, and as soon as I get the sound I want to portray, I then populate a list of what I might use. Some tracks do not make the list simply because they do not tell the story I want tell on that particular day. I am a firm believer in giving people a great new musically experience. Therefore, in my spare time, I search for new music for the show and compile for later usage when called upon to deliver.

What makes you decide to play a particular record during one of your sets? Is there a criteria?

The mood and the energy I getting from the crowd plays a major role in how I make my track selection. I might also play one or two tracks that I feel like people deserve to know and listen. However, to be able to be flexible, you need to store a wider variety of music in your USBs.

What do you think has been the key moment or turning point for you career wise?

Like I said before, I started playing in 2010 and I faced so many challenges along the road. In 2012, I decided to stop being a DJ, went back to school and focused on my professional career away from music. My love for the music never stopped, however, and I kept collecting music but only sharing it with few friends.

As fate would have it, in 2014, Groetman invited me to play with on radio show and that is when I met Katz. Even then, I still did not want to put much effort to it as I felt like it would not yield the outcome I so desired. In 2018, DJ Tonic Deep and I attended DJ Pedabotic’s Birthday Party in Thembisa RSA. What happened that night became my incentive to work harder towards my love for House Music and to start nurturing my deejaying.

What inspires you, in life as well as in music?

I am a big dreamer and I always try to keep myself surrounded by people who inspire me in a certain way. I feel like you can grow as a person if you associate yourself with people who will help you grow. Lessons come in different forms, good or bad, but you need to learn and move on. Moreover, through it all, music therefore plays a huge role in happy times and in times of pain and sorrow.

What other types of music currently inspire you?

I know most people never believe this, but I listen to all music. I listen to a lot of Gospel, Reggae, Jazz and Hip-hop, be it old or new to all the listed genres. I only listen to house music on fewer occasions, maybe once or twice in a week. I am a huge radio fan because you get to listen a wider variety of music.

In your opinion. Why has it been difficult for house events to attract the numbers in terms of attendance?

I have a different take on this matter. We the DJs are partly to blame for this because of a number of reasons. We have forgotten that the shows are about the people. We are there to give them a musical experience, not a competition of who is deeper than the next. DJs are there to play for the crowd and they must still find a way to educate them on new music. Everyone wants to be famous and we taking the easy way out of playing popular music.

My take is why would I pay to listen to you play the same song I have at home? Too many theatrics and uncomfortable noise from the effects used. We need to get back to playing music and believing on less is more and good sound quality. DJs of the night need to work as a team and use their combined strengths to keep the patrons happy, not to be the star of the hour and mess the whole night by being selfish.

How would you describe your style of play and the music you play?

I like playing soulful deep house. The reason behind that is that women are able to sing along to the music and the gents get to enjoy the beats on the tracks. Keep the tempo low and set the sound to be softly loud, that way people can still have a conversation with their friends. My target is to see people on their tables clapping their hands, stumping their feet and jamming with their heads. Maybe one or two standing, some sharing their dance moves if the song is speaking to you. No need to have Jikamajika Dance moves, easy does it.

What is your indepth view on the House Music Scene in the Kingdom?

We are growing in the right direction. Music promotors need to be creative and host shows often so that our music pallet can mature. Give more opportunities to upcoming artists and support each other. Mentor more people to grow their craft instead of destroying their hopes. The more we grow, the easier it will get to enjoy all shows.

Over the past two years the House Music scene has improved a lot. What would you love to see maintained and improved?

We need unity amongst each other. This can be accomplished by showing support to each other’s events as well as working together on different projects where we would give each other lessons learned and sound advice on how to improve.

We are currently expanding our horizon by building solid relationships with other artists outside the kingdom. In doing so, we get to work together towards our dreams by complementing each other, rather than being competitive. Beats and Bass is a good example of that.

What can the House Music lovers expect from you post COVID?

We had initially planned to host DJ China Chameleon for our first show of the year, but dates were not booked on time with the venue, then the COVID-19 lockdown started before the show materialised. We still hoping to get him to the kingdom for a good musical experience as soon as the borders open. Apart from that, I am still doing our monthly Beats and Bass mixtapes and recently posted Show 26 with Ntshebe and PDM as Guest mixtapes. BSquared will keep learning, growing, and sharing my music experiences with the masses, both in SA and Eswatini.

What’s your view on the so-called fractions in the House Scene and how can this be resolved?

I think we are being childish for even entertaining this because we have forgotten that the music is much greater than all of us. We found it here, and we will die and leave it behind. All music deserves listenership because it evokes different emotions in different people. We therefore cannot be self-elected custodians of what seems to be better or inferior to our choices. What we can do is create enough spaces for people to enjoy what they want in peace.

What challenges have you faced in the entertainment circle?

I think it is best to sum it all up as lessons. No one will believe in you unless you believe in yourself. Not everything you see is, as you perceive it to be. Not everyone is looking out for your best interest. You are as useful for a time being to someone who still wants to gain something from you. Be friends with people who lookout for your best interests outside of what they might gain from your skills or what you have.

Who do you look up to locally in outside the borders?

I think I would like to mention underrated people that I find interesting to listen to in the kingdom. Just names and no explanations. It is for the readers to do themselves justice and find out why I mentioned these people. In no particular order, Rhythmic Soul, Fela Kuru, The Villager, Msakrie, Bloss, Supa CDQ, Ayacity, Casa-Aladura, Peachboi, MacDeep, Lord Boogie, Katz & Deenox

How important is branding for DJs?

I believe it is very important if applied in a correct way. I am a firm believer of building your brand name with musical content rather than apparels.

Maintain your brand loyalty with what you set out to do in the first place, in this case its music. Yes, it is a fact, some of the fans like the T-shirts etc, it is great to have, but we must not lose sight of what made the brand in the first place. Let us work as hard if not twice as hard in the music as we do to the clothing lines.

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