The Mixtape Vol. 107

Lonerism is a 21-year-old producer, DJ and Wits student Kai Lockstone, whose ever-changing sound sees him genre-hopping between French crooners, jazz, hip-hop (“the good kind, not that mumble shit”) and plenty more. This not only keeps things exciting for himself, but more importantly, his listeners, who are always in for a surprise. Lonerism's schizophrenic style is the perfect foil for a Monday, so try and keep up and find out more about this exciting young artist after the jump.

Which bands did you grow up listening to and what are you into nowadays?

I grew up listening to, on my own accord because my family had a shit taste in music (except my gran), artists such as Hendrix and Zeppelin. That old-school rock kinda stuff. I still listen to them today (I have albums by them on my phone in fact). Looking at my phone right now, because I guess that’s what I’m listening to nowadays, I’ve got Keaton Henson (number one fan right here), Arcade Fire, the new Father John Misty album which everybody should listen to, the ‘Promise Once More’ compilation from the Soulection babes, BIRP compilations, Ty Segall, Robert Glasper, Carlo Mombelli, Bass Drum of Death, together PANGEA, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and a whoooole bunch of other stuff. My phone has a lot of memory, and I listen to way too much music.

What type of music are you currently playing and making?

I used to play drum and bass a lot, but now I basically just play out hip-hop and Kaytranada-esque house. I’ve been making a lot of hip-hop and that Kaytranada kinda stuff lately.

What's your favourite music festival and why?

I don’t really like festivals to be honest. I don’t really go out much. The last memorable festival I went to was in 2013 (yes, that long ago). It was RAMfest. RAMfest was my favourite local festival by far. Always great bands and DJs, and a really big reason as to why I started to DJ. However, I do want my favourite festival to be Glastonbury, but I haven’t been. Almost all of my favourite bands land up on the lineup one year or another.

Describe your dance style.

Drunk.

Who are your favourite artists to collaborate with?

I’m quite scared of collaborations to be honest, because I don’t really know my own workflow yet and I feel like that makes me a horrible person to collaborate with. But I really, really love working with vocals and I guess in turn vocalists (hmu vocalists). I do have a bunch of unfinished and nearly finished collaborations with FRNGE, Vox Portent, Thami 2 Shoez and one with Jon Casey which I should probably get back to work on because I’ve been promising to work on it for ages (sorry Jon).

What's the best and worst part about being a South African musician?

I would say that the worst part about being a South African musician is that on top of it being so damn expensive to (hopefully) play shows overseas, is to get that exposure overseas. I feel like this point must sound like a broken record by now, and I also feel like my opinion is pretty invalid as I’m not knee deep in the local scene, but it seems like South African musicians (or rather electronic producers as I don’t want to speak for musicians as a whole) have a really tough time getting out there as opposed to their counterpart in, for example, North America.

The best part about being a producer in South Africa is definitely the warmth it has. I mean, there is definitely its cold and harsh side to it, but f**k those dudes. Anyway, when you find friends in the scene it’s a really good feeling. Especially when you land up playing at gigs with them/go to each others’ gigs. You also land up getting influenced heavily by them in terms of music production, and it’s really nice. It makes you feel part of something cool, which is the South African music scene.

What’s on the mix you made for us?

The mixtape has tons of songs from artists that I love to listen to, and play out live! Artists like Kendrick Lamar and Steve Lacy (from The Internet. He’s 18 wtf. He also produced ‘PRIDE.’ on Kendrick’s new album using his iPhone wtf). There’s also some Monte Booker, Kaytranada, and I ended off with a remix I did of American Boy by Kanye and Estelle, which I hope you like.

Where can we keep up with all the things you're doing?

You can keep up with what I’m doing on Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud.