Name: Njabulo Kgobisa aka Radic The Myth
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Nationality: South African
Current release: Radic The Myth's Back to You EP, featuring contributions by Jimpster, is out via Freerange.
Shoutout: I'd love to give a special shout out to Jimpster and Atjazz. I was with these guys last year and they both dropped wonderful information.
plus a big shout out to Ron Headback who recently started a record label and let me join his team as A&R. Plus I'm learning a lot from this Man!
Ohh ... and not forgetting my mates In SA AVC (Audio Evolution Crew) and all the guys at Made In The East.

If you enjoyed this Radic The Myth interview and would like to find out more about his music, visit him on Soundcloud, Instagram, and bandcamp. 



Production is a discipline bordering technology, art, and creativity. How do you see the relationship between these and what is their balance for your own music, do you feel?

For me everything about my music revolves around the creativity and the art.

Technology helps or assists with execution of the whole process and brings life to the initial idea of my music and that’s how I balance everything out.

Which part of the production process do you draw the greatest fulfilment from?

Arranging sounds and instruments really gives me fulfilment. I really enjoy it when all the pieces come together and form one artform.

For you personally, where does composition end and production start (or vice versa)?

Composition ends as soon as I have the chord progression and bass line, everything else comes after that. I always feel like that's the hard part when I make music because I believe the chords and the bass are the heart of my songs.

The production process comes as a finish touch.

Is technology something that you would like to have disappear behind your music – or is it a musical element that you want to bring to the fore and play with?

I always strive to balance it out.

I don't want my music to sound too digital. I like my music to have a raw feel to it. Like most of the music that came out early and late 2000s.

Could you describe how your relationship with your studio/set-up feels like - is it an extension of yourself/body, a partner and companion, a creative catalyst, a challenge to be overcome, something else entirely?

My studio set up feels like an extension of myself.

A day can't go by without me making music or trying something new. I always want to grow as an artist, so I feel the need to learn or at least try somethings out everyday.

How and for what reasons has your music set-up evolved over the years and what are currently some of the most important pieces of gear and software for you?

I don't have much gear at the moment, but I recently added the Akai MPK Mini MK3 to help control some of the plugin effects manually since my Sanchez midi controller does not do it so well for me. Plus the MPC style Pads are really good.

Mostly I've been getting software as hardware is a lot more expensive. Some of the software I use sound close enough to the real thing and I've been working with The Korg M1(Plugin).

I really love most of the sounds there, but the goal is to get more gear.

Tell me about the space of your current studio/workplace and how you've set it up to further your creativity?  

My set up is quite simple. It's a table with my screen, midi pianos and monitors just by the door so I can catch some air as I work.

It gets hot In SA.

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility with electronic music to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that?

I also believe musicians should never limit themselves. We have an infinite number of sounds that can merge and create something new and unheard off.  

I mean, even on the track "Back To You" the extra kick sounds a bit similar to when a person bangs the table.

Tell me about one or two of your early pieces that you're still proud of (or satisfied with) in terms of production – and why you're content with them.

There's a track called "Zulu Dub" released on Stay true sounds and it has to be my number one song. It introduced me in the SA Industry.



Then, there's a remix I did For Asphalt Layer (Tommy Harrison) from UK called "Morning Coffee" which was my 1st release and it dropped on Laboria Park, a sub-label of Just Move Records.



I really love that track as it shows how much I've grown as an artist over the years.

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, tell me about the production process for your current release, please.

On the Back To You EP the goal was to showcase my skills as a producer from the broken beat side of my music to the hard kicks and mad bass lines, not forgetting the bright chords you usually find my songs.

But mostly I wanted to merge my deep house sound with soulful house as I did with my previous release on Freerange entitled ‘Love (Kinda Thing)’.



There are seemingly infinite parameters to change, influence and shape the sonic results. From your experience, what actually makes a piece better and what sets a “finished” version apart from one destined to linger in the archives?

For me I just make sure my music does not sound digital ... The balance between the technology and the live feel is really important to me.

That's why, when Jimpster said he would add the keys on ‘Summer Solstice’ to add that live feel to it, I was really happy. When the song came back it sounded more bright and it had more life to it.



How do you see the relative importance of arrangement versus sound design versus composition (including, potentially, lyrics)?

Arrangement is key to all great songs.

The sound design together with the composition of the song can be perfect but if poorly arranged the song can sound average and even an average sounding track with average elements but arranged greatly can become a great song.

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

Sadly I can't say much on that as I still only DJ live. But hopefully soon I'll get to do live performances.

Have you used AI or generative music tools for your own productions? If so, in which way and what did they add?

No I Have not used AI in any of my music.

One big question resulting from the use of "intelligent" production tools and AI is whether the results are as important (or even more important) than the process (and the joy of creating). How do you see that yourself?

For me how I see it is that the DAW is already making life easy for us musicians with all the new upgrades.

If it gets a lot more easy than it already is it's just gonna take the fun out of it.

How much potential for something “new” is there still in production? What could this “new” look like?

The sound keeps changing with time so something new is bound to pop up. I mean, in SA we came up with a brand new genre and now we have producers merging that genre with already existing genres of music.

As long as the sound keeps changing something new will always come up plus South African house is always changing - the sound we have now is not the same as the sound we had 2010.