Award-winning drummer seeks manager, seriously

BizLounge: You started playing the drums from a very young age. Is that something you always wanted to do? Or have you had any other sort of interests?

Kesivan: My family is made up of a bunch of builders. My father's a quantity surveyor for a construction company, my grandfather was a tiler and everybody was building things, so I was gonna become an architect obviously because I felt kind of groomed that way, but then the music took more focus. I think music was easier for me and it's more fun I suppose.

BL: How did you get into music exactly and how did you know you wanted to focus on music?

Kesivan My family's pretty corny in that at six years old you have to go for piano lessons and I'd always been interested in music and I always knew about it, but when I was about 10, I saw a friend who later became my teacher; he was kind of playing the drums and then when I first heard him I was like, "ok, that's what I wanna do".

BL: Why the drums specifically? Have you experimented with other instruments?

Kesivan: Yeah, like I said, I started playing piano first; maybe I was too young for the piano, but the drums were just appealing to me. I think, with any artist that eventually becomes a professional, you'll find that the instrument kind of calls them. When I first saw the drums, I was like "ok, this is what I wanna do," it made sense. Whereas you get people who play saxophone, and that makes sense to them or piano or bass, whatever. So I think it's a combination of your personality and your bravery.

BL: So you've had formal training on the drums?

Kesivan: I went to a very good school where there was lots of music, we had a concert band - like a big band - and music was a subject and the culture was very big at the school. After that I went to university and studied and I now have a Postgraduate Degree in Composition and Performance. So it was serious studying as well.

BL: You perform with quite a lot of bands, how do you balance it all?

Kesivan: Well, at the moment it is becoming a little bit of an issue, that's why I'm looking for a manager. I try to think of one thing at a time. There are important groups that get first priority, like the stuff that I'm composing for Tribe or The Lights - that's my band - I got into radio, then there's also Closet Snare, Babu, and those projects, they are the things I focus on first and whatever comes my way I balance with a calendar. That's the only way, and I usually plan things 3-6 months ahead cos otherwise it just gets crazy. I already know what I'm doing in July next year.

BL: Do you have a favourite band?

It depends, I would probably say that The Lights are my favourite band, my own personal band, because it's really my voice where I get to make the final decisions. I'm very democratic in my projects, but in the other bands all the other individuals put themselves in there and it's like I'm a socialist where you really have to fight it out to see what's the balance there.

With The Lights, it's newer for me and the musicians are from all over the world, it's not just South African musicians in that band. But it changes as well; there's a certain period when I'm into one project and then after a while I might get slightly bored with the sound. I think that's why I've immersed myself in about four or five different sounds. I think I'm the kind of person that gets bored quickly, so I don't want it to be stale after a while. I'm not the kind of musician that can play the same songs one night after the other for a month. I mean I could do that if you pay me a lot of money, but my brain works in a way that I prefer the creative process and that's why all my projects have a deep sense of improvisation so it depends on the night I suppose.

You know, sometimes you have a good night and the sound is great with a band you might have been bored of, then you think, "This is not so cool, I'm not enjoying this anymore," then all of a sudden you have a killer concert and then you love everybody again. So it really is kind of schizophrenic I suppose. But I like them all.

BL: Do you have a preferred musical style, genre?

Kesivan: My first love is jazz music, that's kind of where I hear things from but I love all kinds of music - music that speaks to me. I can't even put my finger on it. There's certain classical music that I really love and then there's certain classical music I'm not into. Even with jazz, there's certain jazz music I don't really like at all.

Also new kinds of music like new sounds; I like technological advancements in music, I love all of that stuff. I'm also into movies a lot. That's one of my passions, listening to film soundtracks and figuring out how to compose like that. I hardly ever see music as genres; I usually just class it as whether I like it or not. It could be anything, like even house music - not something that I would necessarily play but in the right context it sounds cool.

BL: If you were being tortured though, and you had to listen to a certain style of music, or artist, what would that be like?

Kesivan: It would be like Richard Clayderman, that really drives me nuts. Kenny G drives me completely bonkers. I'm not into too watered down contemporary sort of elevator music. I think I'm just paranoid that I might get stuck in the elevator one day and the music is just gonna keep playing. That would be terrible.

BL: Who are some of your favourite artists?

Kesivan: From the jazz world, I love John Coltrane, Miles Davis of course, drummers like Elvin Jones and I love Björk, one of my favourite musicians, and there's also people from South Africa like the late Bheki Mseleku, Feya Faku and I suppose anything that I like.

BL: You toured and performed with some great artists, which have been the most memorable?

Kesivan: Everything's kind of exciting, I think I might have gotten a bit star-struck when I recorded Miriam Makeba's album. She was quite an icon, so it was like "Wow, I'm actually doing this record." And I knew her from Paul Simon's music, from Graceland and obviously she's like one of the most legendary singers in South Africa so I think I was very nervous when I first met her but I think the most memorable I would say was when I was playing with Bheki Mseleku.

I was about 19 and it was the first concert we did together. We rehearsed like crazy from 10 at night to 8 in the morning for like two weeks. The music was very demanding, it was hard music, but that's the time when he was in the zone. Five o' clock in the morning I'm half asleep, but still playing - it was hectic. So that first concert was like a big one for me and it was life changing cos he was like my hero and he still is but I've been listening to his music since I was much younger and I thought maybe one day, when I'm like 25 I'd get to play with the guy if I practise really hard and then I was in third year varsity and he phones me and that was wild!

BL: So how did he discover you?

Kesivan: I don't know actually, it was the strangest thing, I got a phone call in the afternoon and it was him on the phone and he said, "This is Bheki Mseleku," and I was like "What?!". And he was like, "I wanna book you for a concert in three weeks time." And I was like, "You joking".

I was jumping up and down on the couch and it was really bizarre. I think someone had told him about me; I'd been playing at Grahamstown Festival and I think maybe somebody in the audience was a friend of his, told him and he just took his word and ever since then I was Bheki's first-call drummer when he's in South Africa. So that was cool, that was a really big one. Right time right place kind of scenario.

BL:The band has done lots of travelling in Africa, what's the reception been like on the rest of the continent? What's been your favourite touring spot and why?

Kesivan: It's so difficult...funny enough, I have a very special relationship with the Cape Town International Festival, to be honest. I know it's strange, I play concerts in other cities all over the world but I think it's the vibe about playing at home and it's the one time that you feel like the people are really into what you doing. And then also the Grahamstown Festival - I really love the vibe there because you have a mixture of people who are festival goers and then you have like really young students that are so crazy about the music. In Grahamstown you almost feel like a rock star but you playing jazz which is really bizarre. Internationally, I would say the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland is unbelievable - it's like the biggest jazz festival in the world and that's really a highlight for me.

BL: Are you still involved with Silent Revolution Productions?

Kesivan: Yes definitely, that's the company I'm trying to establish. All my projects filter through that - that company with Lee Thompson (Closet Snare), we just basically trying to empower musicians through the company. It started after I put a concert on called Silent Revolutions which was just basically bringing together my favourite musicians in one band on my 25th birthday and no one knew it was my birthday and I put on a birthday concert and everyone was like, "Why are you doing this?" And I was like, "It's just for fun."

So that was the Silent Revolution concert and the name stuck. And everyone was like, "You call a company that," and it kind of makes sense now. The idea is that a lot of things need change and according to certain people's philosophies revolutions are violent changes whereas if you go for the more Buddhist approach the silent revolution is the quiet one that happens inside.

It's a bit strange because music isn't silent if you think about it as an art form you can paint a story on a white canvas, but with music, our canvas is silence that's where you paint the sound on. It all sounds really deep and stuff but it's just about trying to make a difference.

Kesivan and The Lights

BL: What did winning the Standard Bank Young Jazz artist award mean for you? What was the rest of the competition like?

Kesivan: That award was quite a big one for a young artist in South Africa - it doesn't get better than that. Obviously there's financial perks, they give you some money and they also fund your projects and send you to places and you get a chance to relax on the financial side of things and focus on your work which is a big bonus - it never happens in SA.

Also, when you win an awarded like that there's a PR lady and there's exposure and you can phone people in high positions and they take you seriously because you have a title in front of you. I met the King and Queen of Norway, I was invited for dinner with them because I was the award-winner, not because I was a musician from Cape Town.

It was very formal and we had to dress up in a serious suit and the King is really into art and not like the British monarchy - they're actually pretty relaxed. It really does open the doors and Standard Bank granted me the money to record my debut album for Kesivan and The Lights. I'm doing that in January next year in Europe, so that's quite something.

BL: How do nominations work?

Kesivan: The people that choose it are the Grahamtown committee - probably past winners and general administrators who are at the festival every year and there's obviously a list they can choose from and they see every year that the person has matured enough.

It's been going for 25 years now but you can't actually submit yourself, you get nominated secretly, so they're watching. I only figured that out after I got the award so it's like I would have behaved better in the past.

BL: How did you get involved with Babu?

Kesivan: I just came back from India at that point, I had been studying there for about a year and a bit and obviously all that music was resonating in myself and I really wanted to put together more world music.

When I was in India I discovered there were many similarities in the grooves and the sound of the music to African music and so I really needed to explore that thing that I'd just developed and then strangely enough Reza and myself were asked to play at India National Day so I realised that that could be a good opportunity to put a thing like that together so I got (Shane) who's one of the young bass stars that's coming up, Shane Cooper, and I work with him in most of my projects - we have a great rapport together.

Before I went to India I became friends with Ronan Skillen, the tabla player, and then we just hit it off on the first rehearsal and the first concert and we just decided that we should be a band and then we got together and played and that project was just a way for us to explore that sound with improvisation as the core. That's like three years ago, so it's been a while.

BL: Were you studying Sitar in India?

Kesivan: No, I was actually studying, officially, the way you can use Indian classical music rhythmic structures and harmonic structures with jazz instrumentation in the jazz world rather and I did dabble on the Tabla a little bit and I studied the Indian classical music system with a Sitar player. It gets a bit confusing but you can learn music from anybody and that was all very much theory and understanding and also understanding yourself and cultures and all of that stuff.

BL: Is it quite spiritual?

Kesivan: In some ways it is, there's a lot of spirituality in India, it's almost the spiritual centre of the world because there's so many different religions there, but I met a meditation guru and I followed his techniques of meditation.

Indian classical music is much related to your psyche and your spirit so I did change my view on what music should be like after that or what the potential of music is. But then the young people are also partying their arses off like they are in CT but it is easier if you wanted to do Yoga - you don't have to pay for it in India it's pretty much free.

What I realised while I was there, which is very important to me, is that even though I love where I'm from, I love being an Indian and I love being South African Indian, I'm actually more South African than Indian because I never grew up in India. Even though a lot of the culture and tradition has still been passed down in my family, in terms of who I am as an identity, I would tend more towards being a South African because I love what we do here more and that's why I came back home. That was an important lesson. It's an ongoing process but at least I know where I'm from.

BL: Would you say the South African industry is a cultivating environment for young musicians?

Kesivan: I think it's getting better. I think we have to work really hard to be artists, there's not a lot of structure. If you are fortunate to come from a family that can support you to become a musician, it's not like everyday you hear stories of people coming out of the township and becoming professional musicians, so it's hard.

When I visit my friends in Europe they have it much easier than we have because of the structures. It is a little bit of a contention for me because there is money that's rightfully ours as young artists, that's supposed to be used for us but it's not, so that's a bit of a problem for me.

But it's getting better, the industry is growing, there is space for people to do things, it's just the economics are a bit of a problem. It's expensive to live and get instruments and go study and have lessons. Without those things you never are going to compete with other artists that are on the planet. I'm an extremely lucky individual to have had great teachers and mentors and exposed to good schools and have supportive parents who were financially able to help me. That's the reality, so hopefully with Silent Revolution Productions we can change all of these things.

BL: What are some of your hobbies - when you're not focusing on music?

Kesivan: My cousin is a fitness instructor and he recently convinced me that I need to get fit again because I've been eating too many cream cakes after concerts. My hobby now is to get fit. I'm actually enjoying it cos now I can move but it's only gonna show in a few months time. He's a professional so I've got to follow this diet and train at certain times but I feel better like I'm more awake. I actually don't sleep as much. I can handle the whole day.

You get stuck in your career and you forget that you still have to live. In the music world you get invited to all these parties and there's free food and free drinks and the next thing you know you haven't exercised in three years and turn into Mr Blob. My arms and legs are strong - I can probably kick a hole in the wall or something but drumming is not proper cardiovascular exercise.

I also love movies; I'm always watching some series or cinema but that's also kind of professional related because I listen to the sound and the music - I'm kind of like a nerd in that way - it's always generally music based and I dig going on holiday like sitting on the beach and doing nothing - give me the change to go to the Eastern Cape with the warm ocean, no problem I'm there. I can be a beach bum if I retire.

BL: What advice would you give to aspiring artists?

Kesivan: At the end of the day it depends on how dedicated you are, if you disciplined and dedicated to a vision and you want to achieve something and you wake up everyday and you picture yourself in that position you'll get there. Everyday, you've got to have the faith in what you want to do. It doesn't matter if you want to be a pop singer or a classical musician or a jazz artist, every waking day you've got to realise that that's what you want to do and you got to practise and make sure that you're moulded to your art and your art is moulded to you. It's that simple - practise makes perfect - you can have so much talent but if you don't spend the time you not gonna get anywhere.

BL: If you could be an animal what would you be and why?

Kesivan: I have two favourite animals; I'd like to be a tiger because they're very mystical and beautiful creatures and a wolf as well - I like that whole wolf-man mythology thing - werewolves are cool. I'm not into vampires, I think they suck.

BL: What's the most fulfilling part about what you do?

Kesivan: Being a musician you have a lot of freedom - there's that creativity that you keep on nurturing and being creative means that you becoming closer to the source of making things. It's strange with music because you can't see it; if you make a table you see it, but with music it's cerebral - you can feel it.

The most fulfilling thing for me is when you play a really good concert and someone comes up to you and they felt the music and I think the best thing is whether they're an architect or a plumber and they actually see or feel the music after watching the concert they realise that they need to be a better of what they are and that's the best thing. You can actually inspire people to do their thing properly.

Music is a way to bring people together, if you imagine a world without music it would be really really weird - no more radio, no more music on films, no more iPods; it would be a really dull place.

If I'm feeling in a strange way there's certain records that I won't put on, it's like it's too hectic for this morning I need to calm down a little. I don't think we fully understand the magnitude of life without music, so maybe that's why the musicians don't get the appropriate funds we're supposed to.

BL: What are your plans for 2010?

Kesivan: I'm recording a debut album in January in Europe for Kesivan and the Lights. I'm also releasing the live Closet Snare album which I'm doing the post-production for and I'm releasing a live reality radio double album which I'm also doing post-production for at the moment so that's like four albums basically in the first six months.

I'm also representing SA at the Kennedy Centre in Washington in May and then Grahamstown and France in June and I'm going to India for a tour and I might have some free time in September when I can put my feet in the ocean.

It's a mad year next year for me but what I'm going to focus on is going back to New York in September and doing some studying there. There's an amazing saxophone player called Dave Lieberman - he used to be the saxophone player for the Miles Davis Band back in the 70s and I managed to make good friends with him so hopefully he's gonna teach me a few things when I go there or at least connect me with someone. So it's a heavy year, but I'm looking forward to it. Being busy is much better than doing nothing.