Brooklyn-based world-beat DJ Nickodemus is in South Africa to launch NextAid, which melds music parties and finding solutions for African community problems - and to play the Fan Fest alongside Freshlyground.
 Apart from the fact that I owe the man drinks because he figured Spain and I backed Portugal, it's a privilege to be interviewing Brooklyn-based world-beat DJ and crate-digging legend Nickodemus. Unless you follow the musical intersections of electronic dance music and "world music" influences, it's likely that you've not heard of the man, or his excellent Wonderwheel record label and legendary "Turntables On The Hudson" parties since 1998. Within that scene, though, there's been a buzz of expectation since his South African shows were announced, and rightly so. Nickodemus is billed as "a key element in the New York City dance music scene" who "explores the intersection of urban and world music with sounds of funk, folk, jazz, hiphop, house and dub - all with a message of peace, awareness and love for the dance".
But first, the football, and Nickodemus's delight being whisked to the Spain/Portugal game at the Green Point Stadium mere hours after landing in Cape Town. "It was really unexpected," he grins. "I figured that the games would be sold out months in advance, but all the people here were just hustling to try and figure out a way and we got the last two seats left in the park! It was really vibrant: it's one thing to see the games on TV, compared to actually being there - even the distant seats can see really well."
Perhaps surprisingly, the DJ's American roots are no hindrance in the football appreciation stakes - even if they do call it soccer. "New York has such a big European and Latin American population that you see all the club games being watched in bars and cafes and stuff, although I can't speak for the rest of America," he explains, and then adds. "In fact, you can see more games in New York than I could see in the north of Spain. I was touring in San Sebastian and couldn't find a TV showing a game anywhere!"
Nickodemus plays alongside Freshlyground at the Grand Parade Fan Fest, and is also in South Africa as a DJ ambassador for NextAid.org, playing launch events in Cape Town and Johannesburg. NextAid has a mission "to improve the lives of children and youth in Africa by promoting and implementing sustainable solutions" and partners with regional community-based projects and organisations, as well as raising awareness for them. Examples include youth skills training and constructing orphanages in Kenya, international fundraising and the "Peace Tiles" project, and, in South Africa, the "Send A Child To School" and "goGogetters" programmes with loveLife.
"I started working with NextAid three years ago, reaching out to people in a different way, through the dance community," says Nickodemus. "It makes a non-profit organisation seem a little more exciting and hip - different to the usual way people see a non-profit or donate to a non-profit. I was always into that, using music and dance and parties as a way to reach out to people. The older we get, the more we want to contribute in some way and if we can let our dancefloor fun and our party bucks go a little bit towards a non-profit that we all support, then I think everyone's pretty keen on that."
The NextAid events started out with small parties, but grew. "The became cool events that people wanted to be at, for the right reasons," he says. "At first it wasn't that huge, but at last winter's Miami Music Conference, we had some of the biggest DJs in the world - and people from South Africa, like Black Coffee. That was a big link-up for me because, quite honestly, at that time I didn't know much of the music that was going on in South Africa. NextAid is also a way of bridging countries and DJs and sounds."
Regular readers of these interviews might recall the delightfully fresh attitude that Austrian "electro-gypsy" Dunkelbunt brought to his take on Balkan beats - more than just being about creating music that people enjoy dancing to, it was about showcasing a wide range of global sounds, the so-called "world music" component. Unsurprisingly, the collective hosting and playing the Cape Town NextAid and Nickodemus launch includes Toby2Shoes (DJ for Freshlyground and lodestone of the Balkanology parties), Regan Tacon (who plays with Toby2Shoes as "Circuswing" and also hosts and promotes the Earthdance and Origin festivals), Maor Harris (Balkanology founder, now also DJing as Maoriginal) and electronic world-beat grandmaster Fletcher (African Dope).
"A while ago, I made a pact with some friends from Australia to see them at 2010 but, slowly, everyone started dropping off," explains Nickodemus. "Then a friend reached out to me saying there was a DJ, Toby, in South Africa who wanted to bring me out. I mentioned that to Lauren Segal-Avenna (co-founder and director of NextAid) about coordinating an event here. They deal a lot with South Africa and have the projects in neighbouring Swaziland, so let's go to the source, right? She jumped right on it and helped connect the dots, and Regan ran with the rest. It's been great to see the network here, kind of like we have in New York City... hooking up the right DJs and the right community - and being able to get tickets to a game!"
As a DJ, Nickodemus is happily aware of the differences between his NextAid launch and the Fan Fest DJ slots. "Friday night is a really focused event for a lot of people who are in the know about me, or the music I play, or being part of a close-knit community and knowing each other," he says. "On Saturday, at the fan park, it's the element of surprise. Probably, no-one there will know about me and what I'm doing and they probably won't know at the end who I was and what I was doing there. but that's great too. I'm there as an entertainer, to keep the fans happy and as a good follow-up from Freshlyground. I'm really excited, especially since Ghana is playing, and I do have a lot of music from Ghana."
--
More on NextAid.org. Also search "Nu World Session" on Facebook. More on Nickodemus.com.
|
Music journalist, Strategy Director for Stonewall+ and South African music radio DJ extraordinaire.
|
