Interview Die Antwoord - ORIGIN Magazine

Meet Die Antwoord. Renegades. Mavericks. Lunatics. Art Purists. Perhaps the strangest, most original new group you’ve never heard of. With surreal, adrenalized performances, these masters of grotesque pastiche fuse the futuristic with outlandish bits of low culture. Die Antwoord’s frenetic YouTube videos have sent them hurtling into American consciousness. Pleasant offers some insight into this group’s twisted sensibility, suggesting that Die Antwoord could be just the “powder” that manufactured, over-commercialized American music needs.

Maranda Pleasant: Hi, Yo-Landi and Ninja, how are you?

Yo-Landi: Yo.

MP: You’re in South Africa right now?

Yo-Landi: Yep, yep.

MP: I’m a huge fan of yours. We’re based in Austin. You ever been here?

Ninja: Yeah. We went to Austin once. We played there on Halloween. Jack Black came to our show. He was dressed as, like, Popeye.

Yo-Landi: And we went on the Daffy Tour, the quack quack tour where you…yeah. We got quackers and sh*t.

Ninja: Have you been on that tour? They drive into the f*cking lake.

Yo-Landi: Into the lake.

MP: {laughter} Yeah I’ve seen that. I really wish I knew you guys were here. What motivates you in your work? Your videos are amazing, and you’re really passionate; you’re the most original thing I’ve seen in years. Where do you pull from? What motivates you to create?

Ninja: I think it’s South Africa. I know that sounds kind of corny, or whatever, but, like, it’s South Africa. Definitely. That’s, like, the number one thing. There’s so much f*cking funky sh*t here, but no one ever put it together that good yet. I think we’re the first people to put it together kind of, like, properly.

MP: What are you guys most excited about in your life and your music? What is the thing you’re most passionate about right now?

Yo-Landi: I’m really excited for tomorrow because I spent the whole week collecting rats. I collected forty rats. I collected three ducks, five chickens, and three bunny rabbits for our next video that we’re working on. And we found some Madagascan cockroaches.

Ninja: I found them. I found eight cockroaches. They’re f*cking huge, like, the big Madagascans—the ones that hiss?

MP: You found eight cockroaches?

Ninja: Yeah, but they’re f*cking huge. They’re like f*cking massive things.

Yo-Landi: They make, like, a hissing sound, like: “Sssssss…”

MP: {oh my}

Ninja: F*cking cockroaches.

Yo-Landi: Yeah. And we’re doing a photo shoot tomorrow with some of the animals, so that’s going to be really exciting.

Ninja: We’re staying at our friend’s farm. We’ve been drawing all over his f*cking house…he’s a bit, like, mental, and he just let us do whatever we wanted to. We’ve been staying here for a while just, like, drawing sh*t and making a whole…

Yo-Landi: Like on walls and stuff; and in his toilet…

Ninja: He just let us do whatever we want all over the place.

MP: {ooooh}

Yo-Landi: Tomorrow he’s gonna take some photos of us, so we’re quite excited about how it’s gonna come out.

Ninja: His name’s Roger. Then the video that we’re making—it’s called, “I Fink You Freaky.” It’s, like, this one song on our album; it’s kind of a pop song, but it’s, like, really kind of dark at the same time.

Yo-Landi: Like a dark club song.

Ninja: We’re gonna make, like, the darkest thing, like, the most, like, creepiest thing ever. But also, like, the most pop-est thing in the history of the known universe.

MP: {laughter} In the history of the known universe. Oh my. What is it that you do to keep your mind clear?

Ninja: Uh, Yo-Landi smokes weed. {laughter}

Yo-Landi: No…I never do that.

Ninja: I don’t know. It’s a cool question; I just don’t know.

Yo-Landi: I think what keeps our mind clear, is for us to be clear, and as soon as we’re not clear is, like, when we have to go on a holiday.

Ninja: Jesus.

Yo-Landi: I mean, f*ck us, we hate holiday.

Ninja: Holidays are f*cking the worst.

Yo-Landi: “Just think about nothing, and relax and chill.” That’s like the worst thing to say to him.

Ninja: I’d rather commit suicide.

Yo-Landi: That’s what keeps us here in some weird way.

Ninja: Holidays are, like, f*cking torture.

MP: {laughter}

Yo-Landi: We get to be with our family and our aunts and our cousins.

Ninja: And they’re like {high pitched female voice} “So what have you guys been doing?” And we’re like, “Jesus, what have you been doing?”

MP: You two work really well together. What’s that dynamic there? You have a really good balance.

Ninja: I basically, like, know everything and then Yo-Landi doesn’t know f*cking anything, and then, she’s always giving me sh*t and talking to me like I don’t know anything, but I actually do know everything, and then she’s like…

Yo-Landi: Well, but he’s a little bit straight down the line, you know what I mean? A little bit straight-acting kind of guy.

Ninja: ‘Cause I’m, like, indestructible and stuff, so I have to maintain my f*cking sh*t, like…and then Yo-Landi’s like this punk, who likes to f*ck everything up the whole time.

MP: {laughter} That sounds like a good pair. I’m going to try and stop laughing because some of these questions are actually serious, but I don’t see that happening.

Ninja: Be more serious, Jesus Christ…

MP: {laughter}

Ninja: Focus, f*ck.

MP: Ok, I’m gonna focus. What do you guys do with your pain?

Ninja: What?

MP: What do you do with your pain Ninja?

Ninja: What? F*ck pain!

MP: How do you transform your pain?

Ninja: Listen, girl. Have you got a pen? Pain is weakness leaving the body.

{silence}

Ninja: Yeah, write that down.

MP: {laughter} I’m tattooing that on myself right now.

Ninja: Yeah, good.

Yo-Landi: I usually take a Grandpa or a Mirasane or a Mabrador, you know, pass the pain away.

Ninja: {laughter}

Yo-Landi: {laughter}

MP: {laughter} I don’t even know what those drugs are, but I can only imagine.

Yo-Landi: Grandpa, you should really try some of that—it’s powder.

Ninja: South Africans, yeah, they’ve got this line that goes “It works, because it’s powder”. You’re like, what the f*ck does that mean? That’s their f*cking line. It’s, like, this headache stuff, and it’s, like, this powdery stuff. It looks like f*cking cocaine or some sh*t. And it says, “It works because it’s powder.” {laughter}

Yo-Landi: And it’s f*cking funny cause it’s like ten cents.

Ninja: It’s like ten cents! And we’re like, “It works because it’s powder…What the f*ck does that mean?” And you take it if you have a headache, and then it’s gone in, like, three seconds. It really does work because it’s powder. But apparently it’s like f*cking bad for you and takes like seven years to leave your body and sh*t. But Yo-Landi doesn’t worry about that sort of sh*t.

MP: Oh my god {laughter}. Do you guys meditate at all?

Ninja: Yeah on the toilet, every day.

MP: {laughter} You’re gonna change people’s lives with these answers. I get that our normal questions aren’t really gonna work here so… So how do you use your pain, do you channel it into your music?

Ninja: Why are you going on about this pain? Are you going through something that you want to talk about?

Yo-Landi: Are you going through a divorce or…

Ninja: You can tell us, we’re good listeners.

MP: {laughter} I’m gonna have to switch gears here. Do you guys do any Yoga?

Yo-Landi: No we do Kung-Fu.

Ninja: Ah, yeah, we’re more, like, Kung-Fu orientated.

MP: {laughter}

Ninja: Seriously. Shaolin.

Yo-Landi: It’s really hard.

Ninja: When we went on a holiday—we were forced to go on a holiday—and then my sifu was like, “Welcome back” and that’s, like, the most scariest two words you can ever hear when he says that.

Yo-Landi: When we haven’t seen him in a while he’s like, “Welcome back”.

Ninja: “Welcome back.” We’re like, “Oh f*ck…”

MP: {laughter} Do you use your music to bring awareness to social issues, or is it mainly for fun?

Ninja: Check this out check this out, are you ready for this?

MP: Yeah.

Ninja: Ok, you know those machines in the hospital when someone’s like comatose? And they put those shocking machines on you? Our style is like that. But you know when someone’s a little too far gone? Then you’re like oh sh*t sorry this doesn’t work, sometimes that happens. Or sometimes it works real good. F*ckin’…Yeah, that’s like our style. What do they call that? Decampelators or something. Decopulators. What are those things called? Just Google it…

MP: Are you guys involved in any causes in South Africa? Any organizations, causes, or charities or anything like that?

Ninja: Um…yeah we have this like guy from Malawi that stays with us. He’s such a sweetheart, his name’s Hannok. He’s like an angel. He’s just so sweet and then he’s so nice. And then we were just like, “Do you wanna come stay here at our house?” And then we just let him live. Yo-Landi made this crib. She got a crib outside that she lives in and she just said you can stay here. She painted the whole thing black. And Hannok, this activist, he came to work with us but he can stay here forever. He’s like this weird, like, black angel. He’s like the best. We give him money the whole time. I think he’s like manipulative. We just give him money the whole time. If he came to me and asked me for like a thousand bucks I’d be like, “Yeah sure, just here take it.” I ran to the ATM now. He asked me for a hundred bucks, and I ran in the rain to the ATM and just gave him money. I actually just realized that now. I think he might be evil but…he makes me feel nice.

MP: {laughter}

Ninja: Yo-Landi she bought her one friend Kim a house. And then we put her kid through school for a whole lot. We have to think of more things. There’s probably more things you can try out so we can feel better about ourselves…

MP: So Yo-Landi why did you paint your house black? Why did you paint all the walls black?

Yo-Landi: I painted it black with the school board black paint, so you could draw over it like a chalkboard. So even the ceilings and the doors are black. And my kid and everyone likes to scribble in there all day long. So it’s like black and white, not just black.

Ninja: And the biggest television in the history of, like, TVs. When you close the curtains, it’s like a TV in outer space. It’s so big, it’s like an interdimensional porthole. And now Hannok’s living large in the motherf*cker. Hannok’s the best…

MP: {Laughter } OK. Last serious questions: What’s the most emotional part about creating your art about your work?

Ninja: That’s the center of the known universe. Every time we do a song, even before we’ve started, even before we get to the lyrics… Someone else asked us, “How do you make songs?” It’s, like, kind of a weird question. That’s, like, the core of everything. We start off with an emotion we want to, like…you know like magic, like spells and stuff?

MP: Yeah.

Ninja: Yeah we start off with an idea, like a mood, like an emotion—that’s how we start off every single song. We’re like, we wanna make a song that makes us feel like this. Sometimes it’s like a phrase that makes you feel something, but it always starts with the emotion, and then we, like, expand it and try to make it a reality—crystallized, lucid—so you can actually make, like, a hyper-experience. We’re, like, “What’s the most exaggerated emotion we can conjure?” We’re artists, you know, so you can make something out of nothing. Our music is kind of like…it’s part documentary. We kind of document South Africa, it’s like watching a documentary but then it’s also part fiction. The fiction is like the art, in making stuff out of nothing, in creating a hyper-reality to have an experience. If it’s strong enough, and your spell is strong enough, then you become, like, ultra-magnetic and then everything comes to you.

MP: {Silence} Wow.

Yo-Landi: I thought you hung up.

Ninja: Yeah, I thought you hung up. I thought you were like, “Boring…”

MP: {laughter}That was amazing!

Ninja: I thought you were like, “These guys are f*cking boring, I can just hang up.”

MP: That was great, I was actually writing it down.

Ninja: Yeah you should.

MP: I’m actually going to use it as my editor’s letter.

Ninja: Good one. Good one.

MP: I’m just gonna take it and put my name on it. {laughter}

Ninja: Yeah, just bite it, just bite it hard. Just do that and then be, like, “P.S. F*ck you.”

MP: {Laughter} I’m totally gonna do that.

Ninja: That’s F…U…C…

MP: {Laughter} Yeah, I’m writing it down. Thank you. So you guys are still kind of like this fringe thing that’s growing across the United States. What are the things that you would want somebody who hasn’t heard about you yet to know about you?

Ninja: I don’t know. What do you mean?

MP: You have space to say whatever you want.

Ninja: Oh! I’ve got a good one, I’ve got a good one. Ok so, like, if we’re talking about like pop music. Everyone’s into reality TV and sh*t right? Americans are like way into reality TV, yeah? And, like, sh*t pop music, like in the mainstream? We just keep on hearing that the mainstream of America is, like, reality TV and pop music.

MP: It’s kind of scary, I don’t really even have a television, but I guess it’s a little…the quality is…

Ninja: Yeah yeah, that’s cool. We don’t have one either. TV is, like, f*cking hectic.

Yo-Landi: We have a TV but we only watch…

Ninja: We just watch DVD’s, not like actual TV, cause it’s f*cking brain rot. So anyway, imagine, like, an alien comes to earth for the first time, and then you show this alien, like, a little kid playing basketball: you pick up the ball and you throw it through the hoop and then you bounce it around; and when you throw it through the hoop then you get a point. And it’s, like, really fun, and the alien’s like “Oh…f*ck!” He, like, loves that sh*t. Then he goes back to the home planet, and, like, all the aliens get way into this game.

That’s kind of like pop music today, it’s kind of like that. It’s, like, reality TV and pop music are kind of like—the aliens have just been introduced to this kiddie-style basketball sh*t. They’ve been used to this style, and then one day, a special tape gets smuggled around the alien planet. It’s, like, an NBA tape of like Michael Jordan, you know, flying through the air. And the aliens are like, “What the f*ck! That’s impossible.”

That’s kind of like our style. We’re like that tape that’s being smuggled at the moment.

MP: {laughter} Do you ever feel pulled to change your style for commercial success?

Ninja: We got signed to Interscope Records and they wanted us to change our style for commercial success, and we were like, “You know what?” When we presented our second album, they wanted us to like reach out more, you know? Reach out more. And we were like, “Ok. Why don’t you just, like, reach out, and, like, suck my d*ck, and, like, never speak to me again.”

We left the label and we’re independent now. We signed to a Japanese toy company and we’re, like, independent now, and we feel so much better about ourselves.

MP: Wow. Mad, mad props to you for remaining independent like that. Musicians are having to kind of dumb themselves down and water themselves down so we don’t get much pure art anymore. Companies are telling the artists what they need to do.

Ninja: We’re like “What the f*ck’s wrong with people. Ay?”

MP: I didn’t know you weren’t with a major label anymore.

Ninja: Yeah we dumped the motherf*ckers. We were like, “See ya!”

MP: {laughter}

Ninja: We dropped them.

MP: Well millions of people around the world follow you after “Zef” went viral. And that’s the irony: people try to change the thing that made you famous, when it’s what makes you superstars. Is there anything big that you’re passionate about coming up this year that you want us to know about?

Ninja: The Tension album is pretty good, and the new live show is, like, better than the old live show. Tomorrow is, like, the best thing ever. We’re shooting our new video. I’m not really thinking beyond that. We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff coming. Have you seen my “Evil Boy” tattoo? The “Evil Boy” tattoo on my arm, have you seen it?

MP: Yes I think we saw it.

Ninja: Yeah, I’ve got this tattoo called “Evil Boy” on my arm, and when we signed with this Japanese toy company, the first thing they’re doing is they’re making Evil Boy Toys. They’re on our website. Have you seen the new website? Have you seen the one with the album cover on it?

MP: No, I haven’t seen it!

Ninja: What the hell’s wrong with you?

MP: You know, there are so many things wrong with me.

Yo-Landi: The Evil Boy toys are all over it.

Ninja: The Evil Boy toy is all over that thing. They’re like the cutest things ever made. Blue ones and pink ones; they’re like the coolest things ever.

MP: Hey Yo-Landi, are you holding a human heart with blood dripping off your mouth on your new website?

Yo-Landi: Yep.

MP: Oh my god! {laughter} That’s a long way from bunny suits. Wow. So, what inspired that?

Yo-Landi: Well a friend of ours made a picture of us—it was like a fan art thing. Just made this drawing exactly like what you see, but it was a drawing. Then one day we saw it and we thought to ourselves, how are we gonna turn that drawing into a photo? We don’t know why it was so cool—it’s just so f*cking cool. He just drew it out of his head and wrote on the drawing, “How can an angel break my heart?”

Ninja: I got a tattoo on my chest that says, “How can an angel break my heart?”

Yo-Landi: Then he drew me with the angel wings eating a heart. We just decided, “That’s it.” It’s kind of mystical.

Ninja: We got this thing coming out soon, like, any second now it’ll probably be out. We turned the album cover—just a thing we did for fun—we turned the album cover into a thirty-second film.

Our f*cking internet—this is so f*cking South Africa—we keep trying to load it up, and it keeps f*cking up. When we get off the phone, we’ll try and load it up. We’ve made a little movie. We’ve been trying to make a bunch of f*cking YouTubes the whole time. It’s coming out any second—as soon as we can actually upload it, ‘cause South Africa, it’s like the little asshole of the whole world—it’s, like, the bottom. It’s, like, in the dark depths of the hallway. You won’t be waiting for long, just give us a little time.

MP: Did you just say, “South Africa is the asshole of the world?”

Ninja: Yeah yeah yeah. We’re in the middle of nowhere.

MP: What a great note to wrap up on! Love your work.

Yo-Landi: We really appreciate the interview, thank you so much.

Ninja: Yeah you’ve got a good vibration.