DJ Kampire: DJ/Producer and core member of Kampala's Nyege Nyege Collective

DJ Kampire is a core member of Kampala's Nyege Nyege Collective, having worked on the very first Nyege Nyege Festival nearly 10 years ago. Kampire has since been promoting the diverse sounds of East Africa via her DJ sets in her global travels, with her latest achievement being a new compilation ‘A Dancefloor in Ndola’ released via Strut records. Elle caught up with Kampire recently at PBS FM when she was here for Rising festival. Read the interview in full below.

DJ Kampire - Photo by Alexis Maryon

DJ KAMPIRE, INTERVIEW By Elle Young

"It took me a while to be comfortable enough to explore other emotions on the dancefloor. So people don’t always have to be go go go. The silences or the lower energy parts add something.”

You’ve done a lot of radio - was it nice to be on the radio here for a moment?

I wish I was more prepared! When they said ‘can you play something’ I should have played something from MC Yallah’s new album, but then I played one of her older songs instead because that’s what I had on my USB.

Elle Young and DJ Kampire at PBS

Do you enjoy radio as a medium?

I think that it allows me to showcase different sides of what I enjoy playing, because usually when I’m DJ’ing live I’m focused on trying to make people dance, and it took me a while to be comfortable enough to explore other emotions on the dancefloor. So people don’t always have to be go go go. The silences or the lower energy parts add something. But when I’m doing radio I can play anything and I can focus on showcasing cool music that young people in East Africa are putting out, and different sides of all of that.

"My friends were like ‘we are going to produce a festival in 6 weeks (Nyege Nyege Festival), do you wanna help us’ and I didn’t have anything going on so I was like, sure why not?”

You are known for being a showcaser and champion of new music from East Africa - did it always start off for you this way in music? Were you always involved in music?

No not at all - I never imagined I would be a DJ. But I was always involved in the arts, like writing and producing events. My friends were like ‘we are going to produce a festival in 6 weeks, do you wanna help us’ and I didn’t have anything going on so I was like, sure why not? I had just started going to a lot of African music festivals like Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar, and then I think I’d been to Lake of Stars which happens in Malawi, and had started meeting people who liked African music and festivals. After the first edition of Nyege Nyege Festival where people like DJ Marifox played and DJ Gafacci played, who aren’t necessarily mainstream household names, but they’ve made a life through their incredible music. The other co founders of Nyege Nyege were really encouraging women to DJ, so he encouraged me to DJ and I just started doing that! When I first started playing I was playing a lot of global bass, and older African music that you wouldn’t hear in mainstream Ugandan clubs. I just knew I wanted to hear them on the dancefloor. But through being involved with Nyege Nyege and the label and the artists coming through there, because I wanted to showcase that music it forced me to broaden the type of music I was playing. It really broadened my pallet to explore more experimental stuff and darker music.

Jazz Cafe London

Back then, did you ever think that the Nyege Nyege Festival and label would be globally recognised like it is today?

Not at all. I was saying yesterday that getting paid to travel and DJ doesn’t seem like a real job. I feel very lucky and privileged that I’ve been able to do this and it’s been 10 years now.

What’s the hardest part of it?

Travelling is really hard, and then balancing the highs and the lows. It’s a party industry and sometimes you don’t really feel like partying! And you don’t feel like being up at 2 in the morning necessarily. Getting older, that has felt like a bit more hard work. Sitting at the airport at 4am in the morning when you’ve had an hour of sleep and on to the next one; those are the toughest parts. The two hours when you are actually DJ'ing doesn’t feel like work though!

You’re going all over the world to showcase this music to new audiences. Why do you think people love it so much?

I think the music is great, the music speaks for itself really. It’s nice to live in a time when the internet exists and people are open to hearing things from elsewhere, and all over the world, from places that are traditionally ignored or aren’t considered in the bigger global conversation. The internet and our connectivity has opened things up for a lot of people and cultures.

Strut compilation - Photography: Martin Kharumwa, Styling: Bobby Kolade, Make-Up: Desire

"I think it was a different approach for Strut to use someone like me (for A Dancefloor In Ndola Compilation). It was an intentional thing for them, because a lot of these compilations of older African music were done by people from the West. White men who had more resources and could afford to travel to a country and dig up tapes.”

How did you approach curating the compilation ‘A Dancefloor In Ndola’ released on Strut Records?

It was great to be put in touch with Strut who have this long history with putting out these kinds of compilations, because I think there is lots of incredible older African music. One of my friends Blinky Bill who’s an artist from Kenya, loves sampling but being able to get the rights to some of that stuff is really hard. So doing it with Strut made all the difference because they have the experience and the connection and know-how to do that kind of thing. And people keep asking me ‘how did you go about this’ and in fact it was the label who did all of that. I think it’s a different approach for Strut to use someone like me. It was an intentional thing for them, because a lot of these compilations of older African music were done by people from the West. White men who had more resources and could afford to travel to a country and dig up tapes.

I really feel like what you’ve done is place a lot of those older more traditional African songs in context for the listener. You’ve told a story through the compilation, rather than saying ‘here’s these old songs we’ve found’.

Exactly and it’s not about ‘oh I think I’m cool because I’ve discovered this music’. I didn’t really focus on this idea of discovering things. For me it was more these are the sounds that I grew up listening to. And maybe a bit more of a focus on women in Soukous music because I feel like they’re under-represented. So it was a different way of looking at doing these compilations. It took about 4-5 years of work, but it’s very gratifying to have it out there and to have people responding to it.

What is next for Nyege Nyege and what are they looking to for the future?

It’s the 10 year anniversary which is incredible, and there were definitely times where we didn’t think we’d make it. From the beginning I’ve been like - we can stop at any time. It doesn’t have to be this long standing institution. One of the other founders was more focused on the label for example. Derek who is one of the founders always put sweat, blood and tears into the festival - keeping it going. And I think the festival is the reason why people like myself and Yalla have gotten a platform. So I think we would love for it to continue to be a platform. I think the festival has always lost money for the founders, it’s not a money maker. But it’s so important that it exists and it draws people's attention. It showcases a different side to what people perceive African music to be. I think it’s the only platform of its kind that people from Africa and the diaspora who like this particular kind of music get to come together and meet each other so I hope it continues for as long as possible.