The CTEMF unlocks the music industry
|||Helen Herimbi
As is tradition, the fifth annual Cape Town Electronic Music Festival (CTEMF), will be preceded by a plethora of workshops called CTEMF Open End. The festival, which will take place on three stages at the Cape Town City Hall from February 5 to 7, will host talks and sessions that aim to educate and inform aspiring musicians and music business practitioners from February 3 to 5.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, a few workshops will take place at the Red Bull Studios. First up will be the Artist 2.0: Online Presentation workshop, from noon to 6pm on Tuesday. This Open End session is all about the artist in the online game. These days, it goes a long way to have a healthy online and social media presence and this session will teach you just how to do that.
Industry professionals will help the artists set up social media pages and show them how to maintain these. There will also be an opportunity to have headshots taken by a professional photographer at the studio.
Although all of the workshops are free to everyone who is interested, this particular one requires registration via studio@za.redbull.com.
Aspiring artists will also need to answer these two questions in the body of their e-mail:
1. What is your artist/band name and what kind of music are you making? And
2. Why do you feel you need a digital makeover?
After that session, record label owner and DJ, Ralf Kollman, will be imparting his knowledge of the industry and giving tips on how you can be both in front and behind the scenes successfully.
On Wednesday, the Button Bashers concept will be revived again this year. The concept entails four producers being given the same track to sample, flip or anything they can think of in order to create a whole new and original track. They will then have to battle it out among each other and in front of a crowd.
From 2pm to 4pm, the past winners of Button Bashers will go through their processes and school others on the art of sampling.
Following that, DJ Lag and Rudeboyz will unpack the genre that has taken the east coast of the country by storm and infiltrated just about every province. They will discuss Gqom and give a rough guide to the newcomer.
At 5.30pm, French DJ and producer, Chloe, will be on the couch to talk about her career and give insight into what it takes to have a job you love for more than two decades. Then at 7pm, South African export, Petite Noir, will take the audience through the journey of being a Cape Town artist bubbling under to being name-dropped by the likes of Solange and more.
On Thursday, all roads lead to Guga S’thebe in Langa where a discussion with the illustrious Nightmares On Wax will take place at 4pm. The British electronic artist has been a mainstay in the industry for many years.
And so has Goldie, who will be on the couch from 8pm. With jungle and drum ’n’ bass being closely linked to the man who has been at it for 30 years, this should be an interesting end to what will surely be not-to-be-missed Open End sessions.
The Cape Town Electronic Music Festival takes place at the Cape Town City Hall from February 5 to 7. Tickets are available at Nutickets.co.za. Workshops will take place at the Red Bull Studios in the CBD, Guga S’thebe in Langa on February 3 and 4. Entrance is free.