Watch three incredible live performances from Discovr.TV.
Sometimes interviewing artists can get pretty repetitive and boring, but occasionally you'll come across someone rather quirky who just oozes honesty and shuns cliches. Cape Town's Desmond John is one such artist, and his candour during his interview with Discovr.TV is truly a breath of fresh air.
Desmond John aka DJ
Age: 20
Origin: Cape Town, South Africa
Genre: Alternative
First single: Confessions / Don't Judge Me (2017)
First album: Not Angry, Just Disappointed (2018)
He started out making music when he was 16-years-old, disenchanted with the music that had been coming out at the time. Indeed, talking about why he decided to start his own musical venture, he didn't mince his words.
"People have just been releasing a bunch of trash music so I decided to step in and help out a little", he said.
DJ is certainly brimming with confidence about his musical prowess, and for good reason; his new releases are transcendent, with soaring melodies and uplifting rhythms. But despite the poignancy of his sound, he's rather down-to-earth when it comes to describing his inspiration.
"Sad I Know You is about a person who used to mean a lot to me and now they're just a memory contributing to my writing process", he explained. "Patronizing Pat is a song about characters I've created in my head to represent negative people who I don't like very much [and] Up To Something (Draft 1) is an ode to all the people asking me where I've been. Let a poor man hibernate in peace!"
He added: "Cold Like Tuesdays is about a cold Tuesday morning and it was written at my mom's piano at my old family house before they kicked my ass out."
When it comes to his influences during the writing process, he admits that didn't really surround himself with material to inspire him ("[There was] no specific routine, probably just cartoons and David Bowie"). But it's that cool and carefree approach that he hopes rubs off on the people who listen to his music.
"I hope it inspires people to just honestly be relaxed with who they are and have the ability to say f**k it", he told Discovr. And it's this penchant for honesty that Desmond John has been instilling into his music, preferring a raw live sound to over-production.
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