The first thing I saw was a pink drink and a pile of scavenger hunt cards. Not the usual start to a Cape Town music launch, but Pretty Loud has no interest in doing things the usual way. On 7 August, co-founders Erin Elliot and Amy Tjasink — two women with the resumes and stage presence to back it up — introduced their new women-centred music collective with The Pyjama Party. Invite-only, unapologetically femme, and designed to feel like the sleepover of your dreams, it doubled as a statement of intent: the future of music in this city is collaborative, not competitive.
On a warm Cape Town afternoon, Lynn Cupido is somewhere between tending to her indoor plants and building worlds out of sound. The two…
When Nasty C announced the relaunch of Tall Racks as a digital platform for independent artists about a week ago, it landed with real…
Creativity thrives here, creative careers do not. Can we begin taking steps to build the music industry that Cape Town needs?
When Kristi Lowe first released a song into the world, she wasn’t thinking about airplay or playlists. She was fifteen, navigating an impossible family…
Last week, we laid it out for venues: if you can’t offer artists the bare minimum — working sound, working toilets, and a shred…
You wouldn’t invite someone over for dinner and ask them to bring the cutlery, cook their own food, and leave before dessert. Yet somehow,…
Right now, somewhere in Lagos, Johannesburg, or Nairobi, a kid is uploading a beat that could blow up in Berlin, London, or Paris. Meanwhile,…
It’s 7:45pm and you’re three songs into your set when a waiter drops a tray of shooters in the front row. A birthday group…
