Nguzunguzu | Interview

[Asma + Daniel aka Nguzunguzu - photo by EdG]

Last April, Rader and I, sam.i.am, had the opportunity to conduct a post-gig chat with the dance-floor heating duo, Asma and Daniel, better known as Nguzunguzu . These guys are busier then ever these days, jumping from working with New York’s Fade to Mind and UK’s Night Slugs imprint, to designer behemoth’s Kenzo and SSENSE , and of course the Red Bull Music Academy . Needless to say, its a pleasure to have had the opportunity to discuss their music, brand, and developing history outside of Montreal’s Blue Dog Motel . We blew the dust off of this one for your educational pleasure -

LL: Alright, let’s start with your beginnings. Daniel, I read that your Puerto Rican father used to sing lullabies to you, or was it folk songs, whatever. And your mother, Asma, was a DJ at a candy shop. Can you guys elaborate on those respective introductions?

Daniel : My dad’s actually from the Dominican though.

LL: Dominican? I read wrong .

Daniel : Yeah, my mom’s Puerto Rican. He lived in Puerto Rico for a while but yeah, he sings. They sang. They’d get drunk and sing.

Asma : Um, I dunno. My parents just love music, they always played it. I mean, they used to play a lot of Hindu songs and I hated it when I was young. Me and my brothers and sisters hated it but, um, now I really appreciate it. Opened my mind and shit.

LL: Hell yeah.

LL: And how can we hear those influences now- like, the Puerto Rican, the Hindi, in your songs. Is it there? Or am I looking too hard.

Daniel : I mean…

Asma : Indirectly. I don’t think that, like, we’re so like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna sample Bollywood,’ or something that’s so, like, trite, like, I guess.

Daniel : There’s some kinda rhythms that are like that but..

Asma : Yeah..

Daniel : I dunno if that’s at the forefront, but some rhythms are there, definitely.

[WILDNESS - Asma Maroof, Wu Tsang, Daniel Pineda, and Ashland Mines (Total Freedom)]

LL: I understand that the majority of your connections came from the WILDNESS parties at the Silver Platter- there’s a long list of names. But was that “world club,” quote on quote, that “tropical disco shit”- was that a prominent genre at those parties? Or were you unique to that and is that why those connections came about?

Asma : I feel like people just didn’t know what to call it so they just said “tropical,” which I still don’t technically understand. I was like ‘Oh, does that mean like brown people making music is tropical or something?’ or some shit like that. I dunno how I feel.

Daniel : Yeah it was a Latin club- we played all kinds of music.

LL: How did you guys get into the project with Kenzo that you just released a couple weeks ago?

Daniel : Yeah, that was like… we had a lot of people from Opening Ceremony that would come, like Humberto and Carol, that design Kenzo now and I guess they used to come to our party and then people that worked there used to come and then, I mean, just out of the blue they hit us up like, ‘Oh, in two weeks we’re doing this fashion show. Can you make a 15-minute original mix?’

LL: Are you looking forward to doing any more fashion in the future?

Asma : Hell yeah, man.

LL: What can we anticipate in 2012? In terms of collaboration from you guys, or any other creative venture?

Asma : Well, we have an EP coming out soon. It’s called Warm Pulse - look for it out on Hippos and Tanks .

Daniel : We’re gonna do another EP on Fade To Mind and hopefully a bunch of other stuff, we don’t really know what.

Asma : We’re also touring with The Claw . That’s us, Nguzunguzu, with Kingdom , and Total Freedom , so look out for that.

LL: When does that start?

Asma : We’re going to Europe in April.

LL: Cool. Festival Circuit?

Asma : We’re doing some festivals.

LL: Which ones are you doing?

Asma : We’re going to Amsterdam – I don’t remember the names of anything but we’re playing this art festival in Italy. Then a boat in Serbia and some other cool shit. That should be fun. We’re excited.

LL: Final question: do you guys feel the spirit of Nguzunguzu guiding you on this adventure of yours- or is it just a cool fucking name?

Asma : [Laughter] I love that. That was cute. Oh my god, I didn’t even think about that. Like, that’s what’s guiding us. That’s so cute.

LL: From your turntable canoe.

Asma : That’s so beautiful. I’ll just say yes to that question. All of that.

Daniel : You know, man, we’ve confronted some obstacles.

LL: Some border control.

Daniel : But somehow we make it through so something has helped guide us.

LL: Thanks for your time.

sam.i.am, rader, alh