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South African dance music duo Major League DJz joins Tim Sweeney to discuss evolving beyond their signature Amapiano sound, expanding into global dance markets, the unreleased early version of their hit “Come With Me” featuring Jorja Smith, and more.
Major League DJz tell Apple Music about their sound evolving past the Amapiano genre into “Beyond Piano”
Tim Sweeney: What’s happened? The sound’s evolving. What’s going on?
Banele Mbere: We have the thing called Beyond Piano. So now, it’s taking it to the next level. It’s still House like Amapiano is House music, but slowed down. So now we’re taking the tempo up and also using the log drum. So a lot of people call it, it’s a mixture of Afro House and Amapiano because you still use certain elements in our songs.
Tim Sweeney: So wait, is there a name for it, you said?
Banele Mbere: There’s no name. South Africans-
Tim Sweeney: Come up with a name right now for me. Come on.
Banele Mbere: It’s more of a movement of some sort. I don’t want people to think we’ve left Amapiano behind, really.
Bandile Mbere: It’s just evolving.
Banele Mbere: It’s just evolving. Just the evolving process of Major League DJz, we call it “Beyond Piano.”
Major League DJz tell Apple Music about the original version of their song “Come With Me” with Jorja Smith and how the sound evolved before its release
Tim Sweeney: What happened with “Come With Me,” because I heard that beat has been around for four years or something?
Banele Mbere: Yeah, the song with the vocals has been around for four years. We tried to release it before, but Jorja was going through some stuff and I think it was also lockdown time, so we really didn’t have a plan right there. But it was more of like an Afro Amapiano song, Pop Amapiano song. But we transformed it more dance. So in the song, you can still hear the elements of Amapiano, but it’s more dance based.
Major League DJz tell Apple Music about their Untitled mix series on YouTube
Tim Sweeney: With the Untitled mix series that you’ve started, is that continuing this evolution? What’s going on with that?
Banele Mbere: That’s us continuing the evolution of Afro House, House, Afro Tech, dance, 3-Step. It’s creating a world for us to play in something that we can carry to the world. Something you guys can watch on TV, something where you can also see the process in which the twins are going through the evolution that is happening.
It’s not that we are leaving Balcony mix behind, it’s just evolution of different phases in our life. And it’s there for you to see, that’s why it’s on YouTube. We record the mix as we put them out for you guys to see this is where it’s going. And I think televising a lot of stuff is very important, especially during this time.
Major League DJz tell Apple Music about the drum being a spiritual tool for them
Tim Sweeney: What does that [dance music is spiritual] mean, and how do you bring that out through your sets?
Bandile Mbere: So, South Africa… Let me say Africans. For Africans, the drum is a very important element for us as Africans. We use it in many different ways spiritually. It’s something where we talk to our ancestors, it’s something that we used to communicate. It’s used as a form of communication during celebrations, during sad times.
So music for Africans, it’s bigger than just parties. That’s why they’ll tell you it’s spiritual because it sends out messages that sometimes we don’t even understand ourselves, the guys who are playing it, but the people who are receiving it, receive it in so many different ways. And that’s why we always say that music is spiritual I think, in general.
But African dance music or African music, when I say dance, African music is very spiritual because we use it for many forms and I like places like Mexico where you see that when you play. People in places like Mexico, Bali, you can see actually what the music does to the people.
Major League DJz tell Apple Music that London was the first city to truly connect with them and their music
Tim Sweeney: Now, with London, I know you did two sold out shows at Koko. And something big happened this fall, some announcement happening for a show in London, but what is it about that city that really connects with you and your music?
Bandile Mbere: I just think London was the first country that connected with Amapiano and connected with us. They used to watch our shows so much there and they pushed the sound to the world. So I just think they’re primary fans of the sound and Major League DJz, so it’s easy for them to connect. But London people in general, they listen to all kinds of music. They connect to all kinds of music.
Major League DJz tell Apple Music what’s in store for the rest of their 2025
Tim Sweeney: For the rest of the summer in 2025, is there anything that you are most looking forward to? Is this the goal for 2025?
Bandile Mbere: We’re looking at more dance shows, introducing ourselves to the dance market, to the VIP market. So that’s my focus right now is getting into that space. So any opportunity we can have to do that, we are in it. More music. More music. It’s a building year. Next year we get straight into it.
Tim Sweeney: Straight into it. But if you’re saying this is a building year-
Bandile Mbere: A hundred percent.
Tim Sweeney: What happens next year when it’s going off? What is that vision then for what that looks like after a building year?
Bandile Mbere: More good times on shows. When I’m in good times, closer to opening for more headliners, closer to-
Tim Sweeney: No, you’re the headliners. What do you mean?
Bandile Mbere: Yeah, hopefully, we’re headliners next year hopefully. But this year is more about building space.
Banele Mbere: It’s more building our sound into the dance scene.
Bandile Mbere: Being as much part of it as we can.
Banele Mbere: Yeah, it’s more of that this year. Next year is more of like, “Yeah, we’re here, come on. You want to open for me?”
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