Swide Magazine by Dolce&Gabbana

South African house DJ’s Goldfish have been gathering cult underground success with their slick, cosmopolitan house music mixes – a live alternative to the usual recycled crowd pleasers. Following opening performances alongside Fatboy Slim, Mr Scruff, and The Audio Bullys, and a residency at Pacha in Ibiza – they’ve secured an international deal with Pacha Recordings and Sony Music in SA. Swide sent it's South African contributing editor Daniel Scheffler to find out more.

Goldfish armed with multi-instruments and the ambitious live creation of music - this young duo, Dave and Dom are setting new challenges in the music industry.

SOME SAY IT'S ALL IN A NAME. TELL ME ABOUT THE NAME GOLDFISH. ORIGIN AND HOW HAVE YOU AS A BAND EVOLVED WITH THE NAME?

Goldfish is a joke about my short-term memory that kind of stuck. Back when Dave and I were studying music together at the University of Cape Town, we used to play in a jazz band together. I was the dopey blond bass player (not much has changed) forever losing my keys/wallet/phone etc. The three second memory 'Goldfish' moniker kind of stuck, and when Dave and I discovered a shared interest in electronic music, particularly stuff like St Germain, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Matthew Herbert, we hit on the idea of starting a live electronica band, combining all the traditional instruments the two of us already played with some samplers and electronic stuff. Goldfish it was!

"No matter how much you wanna leave you're gonna come back!" From Goldfish's latest album 'Perceptions of Pacha'

AS A BAND WHERE DO YOU POSITION YOURSELF FROM A GENRE PERSPECTIVE? WHERE WOULD I BE LOOKING FOR YOUR CD IF I WAS SHOPPING ON EITHER AMAZON OR AT THE VIRGIN MEGASTORE?

Rad music. Hahaha. Kidding. Under house/electronica/dance/downtempo/afro/jazz/hiphop/boogiewoogie...

IF YOU COULD COLLABORATE WITH ANYONE, WHO WOULD IT BE?

Most of the guys we'd love to collaborate with aren't on the planet anymore! All the jazz greats, and come to think of it Frank Zappa would definitely be interesting.

AS A STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS SENTENCE DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC.
Analogue and digital, old school and new school, future and retro, Jazz against the Machine... it's electronic music with dirt rubbed in.

HOW DOES SOUTH AFRICA INFLUENCE YOUR CRAFT AND INSPIRATION?

South Africa is such an amazing place. It's a miracle country that has defied all odds, and continues to do so even with the enormous challenges we face as a country each day. There is such a lot of stuff that has happened here that people have to deal with - but we're actually dealing with it, instead of sweeping it under the carpet like some other countries with heavy colonialist pasts have done (I could mention a few). It's full of the most incredible people and some really hectic people. It's like Yin and Yang with the volume turned up. What we really notice when we're overseas on tour (generalising to a certain extent) is how 'ensconced' and easy it is to live in a lot of countries. People don't have to deal with the kind of stuff on a daily basis that a lot of South Africans do. Because it's not 'dreamland', South Africans are constantly thinking, evolving and dealing with stuff that other countries don't have to (or won't) think about. That is what makes the people of South Africa so interesting and why we are such a global force around the world. And it rubs off in our music - there is dirt, sunshine, hope and happiness. It's the place that has shaped our sound.

IF YOU WEREN'T IN GOLDFISH AND MAKING MUSIC, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING?
Surfing.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THE WORLD TO KNOW ABOUT GOLDFISH?
Life is too short to listen to bad house music.

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY HAS GONE DIGITAL AND MORE PROGRESSIVE BANDS LIKE RADIOHEAD ARE AUCTIONING THEIR MUSIC. HOW DO YOU AS A BAND EMBRACE THIS NEW ONLINE PHASE?

Radiohead is always used as an example of the brave new world of free digital music. The problem is that it fails to take into account that Radiohead were already a massive band - aside from their great music which would have made them famous to *some* extent, this can also be directly attributed to having a good record company spending years and millions promoting them, long before the digital era took off. It's like the tree falling in the forest scenario for new bands. You can make your music free but if the world has never heard of you, does it have any value to the listener out there and how are they going to find you in the sea of bands on the internet...I really don't have a solution to the crossroads the music industry finds itself in, but all I know is the motivation for doing what we do is definitely not about making money. The bottom line is that musicians and artists are never going to make the returns that guys like Michael Jackson, Sting, Madonna and a myriad of other big names made on the millions of CDs sold. Those days are over. All musicians can hope for is that true fans will support artists in whatever way they choose to - be it a live show or a CD/legal download, a T-Shirt or whatever. So long as we can support ourselves and do what we love then I suppose it's all good, isn't it?

Follow Goldfish live on Twitter at twitter.com/Goldfishlive

Goldfish will be playing live in Sydney and Melbourne over Christmas and the New Year. Click here to find out more tour dates www.myspace.com/goldfishlive.

Daniel Scheffler

With special thanks to Goldfish - David Poole and Dominic Peters.

Source & Photo Credits: www.goldfishlive.com

TAGS: music david poole dominic peters goldfish south africa fat boy slim electronic music house music