Putting spin on it: East African DJ Kampire has built a successful international career playing African sounds. Photos: Alexis Maryon
As an amateur DJ of almost 25 years, I have made peace with the idea that I will always remain that. But, like most hobbyists, it doesn’t diminish my passion. Quite the opposite.
And when I got the opportunity to chat to a pro such as the East African DJ Kampire, I bent her ear with questions about the craft.
What is your favourite length for a DJ set?
I guess the experience varies a little bit. I think two hours is probably good. Three hours if it’s the perfect venue, the perfect crowd — then you get a bit more time to get into it.
DJing is like photography in that there are wedding photographers and news photographers … people who are there to do a job and give the client what is expected.
And then, on the other hand, there’s art photographers.
So, DJing is also like that. Sometimes you’re there to give the people what they want.
And other times you have a bit more room to stretch out and take people on a journey and, hopefully, teach them something.
Some African music is not four-to-the-floor beats music. How do Western club-goers respond to the music that you play if they’re not used to it?
It depends where you’re playing in Europe and the UK — a lot of club-goers or festival-goers are quite interested, open and prepared for something else.
But every so often I get booked at a festival where everyone is playing house and techno and I’m not really sure what I’m doing here and if people are going to be open.
But, unless it’s the most close-minded audience, music discovery is so global now that even in the whitest places in Europe they’ve also had some experience with African music.
How much planning do you do ahead of a show?
Usually, I have six to 10 shows back to back on tour. So, I try to prepare three or four hours of music that’s a variety of moods.
DJing is a mixture of being prepared and being able to face whatever the moment and whatever the equipment …
Sometimes you can’t necessarily predict.
Can one assume that people will come with open ears?
No, it’s not a given. I think you just have to trust the promoter who booked you.
Fingers crossed. And they know you, so they know what you’re doing.
Are you storytelling or a dance DJ?
I try to do both. I’m very much driven by making people dance. So, I even get a little bit nervous when people are not immediately responding in a dance.
But I’m okay with slight discomfort because I think that’s where the interesting things happen.
I always try to build a story with my sets and think about the flow of what I’m doing.
But, yeah, dance first.
Do you mix between different genres?
Always, always, always. Which I think is another thing European audiences don’t necessarily expect.
I’m always jumping around from genre to genre.
But one of the reasons why I really love the UK is that that’s just standard. Like here, especially in London, there’s just such a mix of music that it’s standard to jump around from genre to genre.
Are you a seamless mixer?
I try to be seamless. So, yeah, beat matching and all of that. But I think there’s always a tension and a challenge between the music and the next song that you want to play.
It’s like a puzzle piece that you want to make fit. Yeah, so sometimes you have to surprise yourself.
Sometimes you have to fuck up a little bit, which is also okay.
Yeah, I’ve done that.
What makes you a good DJ?
I’m definitely not the technical person; I’m not a nerd about the equipment. I just learn based on what I want to do and what I want to achieve. But I’ve obviously got better at that over time.
I think what makes me an interesting DJ is coming from not the usual place. In addition to all this older, classic African music that I soaked up in my childhood, I also come from a community of East African underground artists and a global community of Afro and Afro-diasporic underground artists.
I think that’s where really interesting music is being made and interesting conversations are being had.
And I just love music that makes people dance.
This supremacy of house and techno — Western dance-club traditions — it’s time to dismantle some of that and to raise other genres of dance music … that are just as good and are going to make you just as sweaty in the club or also have a transcendent experience on the dance floor. Playing that, I think … that’s what makes me interesting.
Have you got any dance floor rescuers? I would put on the Staple Singers or Dawn Penn or something like that to save myself …
Yeah, it’s funny you mentioned Dawn Penn, because I do have a reggaeton remix of No, No, No. And that’s definitely one of those that I will throw on, in case the dance floor needs rescuing.
There’s another one in the reggae tradition, my friend did a remix of a Sister Nancy — Bam, Bam — which always goes down really well.
And then, recently, I’ve been playing another remix, a 150bpm [beats per minute] of Chase The Devil — people always respond to Max Romeo.
So you are an introvert. How do you get yourself in the right frame of mind before a set? Drinking? Smoking?
Drinking’s very incompatible with a touring lifestyle, which is the contradiction of being a DJ. But I’ll have a glass of bubbly.
And I like to watch the sets before me. I like to spend 20 minutes on the dance floor and get a sense for what other people are playing and what the audience is into.
DJing is this interesting balance between paying attention to what’s happening on the dance floor but not letting it throw you completely.