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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Hey, babies. And welcome back to another. Another episode of From Studio to Stage. I am so stoked for today's interview, I cannot tell you. I'm fangirling a little bit, so I'm not gonna lie.
And he's laughing at me now. But I have got the MD from Gresham Music South Africa with me, Mr. Andrew Mitchley. Hey, Andy, how are you?
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Thank you. It's nice to have you here.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: It's so cool to be in the studios. Like, I am in awe of this room. Yeah. So we're going to be chatting through a little bit about the music industry, Andrew's role in it and your history of it. So to kick things off straight away, you progressed to MD of Gresham now, but you started, as some people might not know, you started as a DJ yourself.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: So can you talk me through your life as a DJ and your. Your journey in the musical career?
[00:01:25] Speaker A: So I started DJing when I was 15.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Wow. Okay.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So I started a little DJ company with some mates at school.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: And we got it sorted up because we had a guy that worked in a CD store so we'd get the music.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: We had a guy that. Whose parents owned a club. So we had the equipment.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: And you had me, who was a salesman. So I get the gigs, had the equipment and we had the music.
So. So we. We put this little company together and we built up a little bit of a reputation for ourselves in. In the school scene.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: We were playing matric dances and we were playing house parties. And then from there I. I fell in love with. With vinyl.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: And I used to.
I used to bunk clocks. So I went to school at King Edward and I would catch a taxi from school down to House Africa. It's going by records.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: You know, so that's where my. My love for vinyl came. And I mean, the first 12 inch that I bought was Foreign angel by Porfen Dike.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Wow. Okay.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: And then you kind of get ingratiated into. Into the scene. Right. So then it was.
You start playing. I started to get gigs. I mean, there was actually a battle of the DJs at a club called Bump.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: And I got into that and I did quite well in that competition. They invited me back. Now I'm 17. I'm not even old enough to be getting into these clubs and I start getting these bookings and, and, and I'd finished my trick. And it just so happened that at the time, 5 FM, Mark Gilman had this segment on his show called the Vinyl Frontier.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: And I managed to. To get onto one of the Friday episodes, and so my mix gets played out live. But it's also. It so happens that Jamiroquai is playing in South Africa at the time.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: It turns out the way Mark Gilman said it was that. Here's Andrew Mitchley and his mix, but the way he said it came across that I'm DJing for Jamiroquad.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: So I'm, like, fresh out of high school, and I now become that guy that was. And I did not DJ for Jamiroquai. But it just so happened that people now thought that I was playing for Jamiroquad. So I start getting all these bookings, like people phoning me up, oh, we need that guy. We need that guy. So I started getting more bookings, more residencies. I started getting flown all over the country. I mean, at the end of the day, it was luck that kind of went in my favor, but wasn't necessarily the truth.
So anyway, I start playing these shows, and, I mean, that was fun. I got residencies all over town. My Fun. My. My favorite gig to play was the truth.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: So I used to play in the. I don't even know if they still have it, but there's like an upstairs lounge.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Area. And that was where they would really play, like, the dark progressive music.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: So I was playing commercial clubs and then playing 3:00, set a troupe on a Sunday morning, and, you know, completely opposite worlds. But, I mean, that's really where my. My love for. For underground music was expressed.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: In this time, I was also working at look and Listen, and I used to handle the. The dance department at look and Listen in four ways. And my love at the time was the Global Underground series, you know, the Ring, you know, the darker side of dance music, and people like Dave Seaman, Anthony Papa, and, you know, all of those truly global underground DJs were my inspiration at the time.
And it just so happened that I've made friends with people at David Gresham Records, and they were so incredibly kind to me. In fact, my. My mentor at the time, and he took me under his wing as a DJ as well, was Manual Little. Now, Manual Little, okay, was the only African. South African DJ to ever produce a compilation for Perfecto.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: You know, and I was working as an intern at the company while he was putting that together, and that was great inspiration for me. And, I mean, he went on to do amazing things with the Hardy Boys and, you know, introduced me to. To a lot of the local DJs, and I mean, a mutual friend of ours, lady Lia, I got to work on all of her Catch Me if youf Cans, the Eddie Smalls albums that we did with yfm.
Dino Moran, you know, the most incredible DJ from Cape Town. And that's how I really got in. So I started as an intern and 20 odd years later, I'm now the MD of Gresham.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Rachel. That's very cool. Very inspirational, sir. Very, very. Another thing I want to chat to you about is you mentioned that you've worked closely with Armada and Ultra. So can you talk to me about those two highlights of your career and how they shaped it for you?
[00:06:23] Speaker A: So on my first trip to a conference in France called Medem. So Medem was essentially the kind of meeting point at the beginning of every year for record labels and music publishers together in France. And that's really where you'd look to either shop your records or you'd be licensing them in. And at the time, I mean, I was 22, 23, we would still look at Billboard magazine and kind of see which labels were making an impact in the States. And at that time, Ultra kept popping up into like the dance charts.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: And I was like, why does nobody represent Ultra in South Africa? Like, there's this, this company that's clearly doing all these amazing things. Yeah, Wise movie, talking to them. So I met Patrick Moxie in what must have been 2004, 2005. And I said, look, I love what you're doing at that stage. Dance music hadn't blown up in America yet. You know, it was still coming through. And I said, look, can we, can we represent Ultra for South Africa? So Patrick was like, look, we've got a company with a great reputation and you've got an A R manager that is like hungry for our product, so let's give him a chance. So at that point, we became the exclusive representative of Ultra in South Africa. And in fact, we still represent Ultra Publishing to the state.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: You know, Ultra Records was sold onto Sony and we still have a very close relationship with David Watson and the team at Ultra, but that's how our relationship with Ultra came to be. And then, you know, very much the same with Armada. I mean, we represent them on various different layers, you know, from different rights, particularly the neighboring rights and the publishing side.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: And, you know, we've spent a decade together, you know, in terms of the administration of their works, collaborating with them, visiting them in Amsterdam. You know, they always put on great parties. I mean, the Armada officers, they Have.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: A club in the offices.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: They're in our room. That their boardroom is a club.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: That is so cool.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: So Hypertest records, like you have maple perrong like playing the records in the club. Like that's how they do it.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: You have a full on jaw tested properly.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah, they, they have big parties especially around AD and you go up to, to the offices and yeah, it's, it's a. Joel. No one. I mean they live the culture.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Yes. Okay. No, I love that. So something I want to talk to you about from my standpoint, which I find very interesting and I want to get your perspective on it as an MD of one of our leading record labels here in South Africa. But what is your take on AI music generation? How is that impacting music? The music scene as we know it today? How. What is the. The footprint that it is making now and how legal is it?
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Look, I can't speak to, to the legality of it, but it's an essential tool and I think the most important thing for the music industry to accept is that it's here and it's not going away.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: How they, how they do licensing agreements with the people that they obviously learning or training their models on. That conversation needs to be had with the music publishers and the record labels.
And it needs to be formalized in a way that allows the AI to continue, but also allows the originators or the original creators to be compensated. So I think there will probably be a time where if, because at the moment you can't prompt in I want to sound like Elvis Presley or you can't say I want to sound like Beyonce, that time will come. And I think at that point if somebody's saying make me a song like Beyonce, Beyonce must get paid. Yes, it's very clear. So I mean there's a license to be had there. And I suppose it's just a question of when they do it. I just hope the music industry doesn't drop the ball like an abster moment, you know, actually embraces it from the beginning and they figure it out. There's definitely a deal to be had there.
But I think, I mean we're seeing it even from an A and R perspective where we get demos in every single week, you know, from, from well established artists to, to guys looking to just to get their first deal. Yes, we can clearly see in the creation process that AI is being used.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Really.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: We can see it. You can hear it immediately. And it's there.
So it's here. It's a tool. And again, it's a question of how you use the tool and how do you make that tool benefit.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: That's very interesting. Leah had the same outlook on it. She said we need to adapt and use it as a tool, not as an end goal.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the thing is it's not going to go away. And if you think about how advanced it is right now, and I mean these, you know, the AI is probably improving at 1,000% every three months. You know, imagine where it's going to be in a year's time, in two years time.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: I'm quite nervous myself.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: But look, the way I see it, it's almost like fake luxury goods. Okay, okay, so take Louis Vuitton bands.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Okay. There's billions of these Louis Vuitton bands in the world, you know, and there's people that choose to either take the fake one or they choose to, you know, spend money and buy the original.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Everyone knows the original Louis Vuitton hasn't gone out of business because of all the fake bags.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: And I think that's what's going to happen is essentially you're going to get this amazing level at the top of truly authentic, brilliant live performer, singer songwriters at the top. In fact, I think it'll make them even more valuable.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Okay, okay.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Because they are the real deal. Yes, but it doesn't mean that kind of like the second tier where, where music is made using AI, that it doesn't have a function in the music industry. It will just change because those, those AI artists will never be, they'll never perform, you'll never see them on art. They won't have a Persona, they won't have a, a history behind it. Yeah, but, but why should they, why should the creator of that work be discriminated?
Just because that they, just because they're not brilliant singers or brilliant performers, but the music's good. I mean, think about how many of these one hit wonders come along when you don't know who the artist is, you don't know who the singer is. You know, a lot of it is pseudonym and it has its moment in time and then it kind of fades away into the distance whilst the music industry continues. And I think you're going to have these amazing, unique, innovative AI songs coming along. They'll have their day in the sun and the next one will come along, the next one. Whereas an artist like Bob Dylan, you can't take that away. It's here forever and Bob Dylan will be spoken about forever. Whereas a pseudonym of AR artist will be a flashing pad kind of thing.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Yes. Okay, so speaking of legacy artists like Bob Dylan, who is your biggest inspiration in the music scene? Who do you just. That's my band.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Well, my band, without a question of a doubt, is Smashing pumpkins. Up to 2000 and a little bit after 2000. But like the band, the music is just, you know, it's. Every time I listen to just blows my mind. I mean, just from the sonic elements, the lyric writing. People have said that Billy Corden, they don't like Billy Corbin's voice. Look, I mean, everyone's got different tastes.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: But I love the Smashing Pumpkins, Bob Dylan, unquestionably the Beatles.
But my, my, my favorite artist in the modern era is Bruno Mars.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: I think he's an absolute genius and I, I don't think he gets the credit he deserves.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Fair enough. Yes, he is actually, though, I heard this on the news the other day. He's the first, first artist with a billion streams on Spotify monthly now. So I was blown away by that, but I'm not surprised in the same. Right, because he's, he's smart as well. He partners with the right people, he makes incredible music.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: No, he's an absolute genius. I mean, he's got the two fastest singles to get to a billion views, billion streams on Spotify with Die with a Smile and, and Arbitrage.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: And both are so completely different. But you know, you still got him at the center of creation, you know, And I think from a, from a look, stylistically performance, vocal, lyrical production, everything about it, he can do it. You know, I suppose he's the modern day Prince. Right. But for me, if you're going to be talking Beatles, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Taylor Swift, Madonna, you have to have Bruno Martin at conception.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Yes. In that list of heavy hitters.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Absolutely.
For me, he is the most exciting artist in the world.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, that's good to know. So, speaking of artists, now let's talk a little bit about your, your businessman side. So with artist development, as a seasoned industry professional, what's your approach to artist development and how do you ident talent that has a potential to break through in the market?
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Look, I think the important thing is that you need to identify their strengths right from the onset.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: You know, I've had artists who would come to me with phenomenal voices but couldn't write.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: So instead of saying, okay, well, we just, we're going to turn you into a brilliant writer. We just focus on, okay, when you're a brilliant singer, we'll get you the right Songs, you know, or you're a very good writer, but not necessarily the greatest singer or you can't sing at all, like, then you should be a songwriter. So being able to say, okay, look, what are the person's strong points? I mean, so I've had an artist who was enormously successful and is still a big revenue generator for us, but at the time, he wasn't a songwriter.
We put him in. We did his first album, and we had big success, but he didn't write any music. But through the process, he started learning, okay, look, I have proximity to the. To the industry through the label and through the publisher.
Let me slowly start working with songwriters. And he went on to become a phenomenal songwriter.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: But it was. If we had said from the beginning, okay, you have to be the singer and you have to be the songwriter right from the beginning, we would have felt miserably because we wouldn't have had the hits and the success if we didn't have those initial songs. So it's ident. Firstly, you got.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: We.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: We try not to identify some type of talent. You know, what is it that makes you special? And then we hone in on that and try and kind of. I call it like pouring petrol on the flame. You know, it's like you create the spark and we'll, We'll. We'll advance it. So. So that's really it. Also looking for something different.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Something unique. You know what?
If you're going to be making kind of mainstream pop music, you do realize you're competing with, like, the top 1% in the world. How are you going to cut through that?
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: You know, and those are the. The realistic conversations that we have with our artists all the time. It's like, what are we going to do different to stand out?
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Okay. And as the MD of Gresham, what are your goals for the company as a whole over the next, let's say, five years?
[00:17:53] Speaker A: That is a great question. So we've identified in Africa that there's probably a billion.
A billion rand a year in Africa for music rights. That is not being collected. Wow.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Okay. So our mission at the moment is to try and help the music industry get in on it.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Because they're major corporations, broadcasters in Africa that simply don't pay for music rights.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Wow. Okay.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: You know, so we've identified that in Africa. This is our mission. So we've opened offices in Nigeria, in Kenya, obviously, we've got our home base in South Africa, and we're slowly starting to actually create that royalty pool for artists. And it's not just. I mean, when we say a billion rand royalty pool, that's not for Grisha. That's for the music industry.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: You know, so we. If we're able to formalize this in a way that everybody can start participating in it, I think it would be a major victory for the music industry, not just for us, but we are leading that in Africa at the moment.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: That's fantastic. So does that tie into your involvement with Sampra?
[00:18:59] Speaker A: It. It. I suppose it does indirectly. So Sampra obviously only have the. The mandate to collect neighboring rights in South Africa.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: So the rights that we're talking about, particularly for the rest of Africa, performing rights, mechanical rights.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: On the composition side.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of different royalties that people aren't aware of.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: Really. Well, the. The thing with Sampra, it's such an important right, you know, and. And we were very fortuitous as the South African music industry that as physical started disappearing, the enforcement of needle time and neighboring rights became more important and more important.
I was actually part of Sampler when we merged the Performance Chamber and the Copyright Chamber into what we call the new Sampra. I mean, they're distributing almost 200 million rand a year now back to the music industry. That was a revenue line that didn't exist 10 years ago, 15 years ago, which is now part of our lives now in every country in Africa. Neighboring rights and evil times still needs to be implemented. You know, so you're probably talking about 2 billion rand with untapped music revenue in Africa.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Okay, that's very interesting. So now, as leader of Gresham Records, what is your leadership style? What is Andrew like?
[00:20:15] Speaker A: I think you should ask the people in the business, Carla.
Look, I mean, the interesting thing about my journey over the last six years is that we've gone from being David Grisham Records, which was an independent record label with 12 employees, to a group of companies now with 70 employees.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: You know, and I think my. My leadership style is that, you know, I've put together an incredible team, okay. Of very good people from the industry. You know, so we've got people that have 20 plus years experience that, you know, worked at, so, you know, worked at other major companies that now sit and drive the ship. For me, you know, from a. From where I sit, a lot of what I do is strategic, you know, acquisition, business development.
But none of any of the work I do matters if the people and the team that I work with aren't able to implement it.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: So, so that's, I suppose there's an enormous amount of trust that I have with, with my team and there's obviously the levels now that are starting to, as you get bigger, you know, you know, the levels get deeper. But at the same time, like, I'm approachable, I'm here as much as I can be if I'm not traveling around the world. But I'm in the house person with an open door policy, which is not always a good thing because, you know, people always in your office. But, but I love it. I mean, I love the fact that, that we, we're, we're creating jobs in South Africa, especially in the music industry.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: You know, in, in an industry that has traditionally over the last 10, 15 years, been cutting, we've been building and, and that's, that's very exciting for me.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Okay. No, that's fantastic. So speaking, I'm going to touch back on what you mentioned about the artist development, how you look for something new. So have you noticed any emerging trends in the industry right now? And what would be your predictions for the musical trends that are coming for 2025?
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Look, I think, I think lyrical hip hop is, is going to be making a comeback. You know, I think people are really seeking out meaning in lyrics and I think that, you know, hip hop is obviously the word of the street.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: And I've got a deep appreciation for hip hop.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: You know, probably even before my appreciation for pop music or dance music, I loved hip hop.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: I grew up on Tupac and Snoop Dogg, you know, So I, I think if, if that can come back where, where hip hop makes an impact back in terms of what music means to people, I think it'd be very exciting. And I think the, the most interesting thing is just seeing the evolution of. On the piano as it's just evolving and evolving and evolving into, into a global trend. I think that's very exciting. I'm also, I keep an acute eye, you know, on, on what's happening in South America. Just like purely from a rhythmic point of view and melodic point of view.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: I really love what they're doing as well, you know, especially when it comes to music out of Brazil, the music out of that region of the world. It's, it's very interesting. And also you just look at the streaming numbers like they, they shooting way above, you know, a lot of the English strength speaking markets.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Latino music is massive, huge. And I always find it so interesting. People ask, you know, where did Shakira go Where did these people go? They still there.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: You know, the thing is like Shakira will probably have another hit and another hit, another global hit. She's having enormous hits in her home market. It's just the rest of the world doesn't know about.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Yes, no, exactly. Okay, so now as. Let's leave the whole Grisham thing behind for a second. Talk to me about being an entrepreneur because you do have an entrepreneurial spirit. So what would be a word of advice that you would give to young budding entrepreneurs out there?
[00:24:19] Speaker A: I think the most important thing is if you have an idea, back yourself and expect, you know, put knee pads on because you're going to be failing forward. You know, that's the. Nothing happens overnight. You know, there's no straight line success in anything. You know, and the most important thing is if budget allows and you're smart enough to keep the business afloat for a long time, then you've done incredibly well. I mean, I was very fortunate in that David Gresham has taught me everything I know. If you think about him, he's the ultimate entrepreneur. 55 years ago he wrote one song and now 55 years later, you know, his business is part of a much bigger business. But he still comes into work every day. And trust me, the, the amount of lessons that I've learned just by having coffee with him every day, you know, him telling me about the victories and the losses and things, you know, you, you learn to grow thick skin.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: In, in business in general, not just music. I think in music you probably need to have an ultra thick skin. Get. Because it's a difficult thing.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: You know, it's a very personal thing as well. For artists.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Well, it's a personal thing for artists, but it's a personal thing for the people who work with the product too.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: You know, because I think in our case, we're not like Sony or Universal where you walk in on a Monday morning and there's the new Drake and Justin Bieber album. And it's like we'll go and promote it. We actually work with artists one on one in our studio, you know, so their success and failure, we're part of that journey with them all the way. You know, there's nothing worse than having an artist getting nominated for a song award and not winning or get, you know, making a new song in the studio. And we're all. The A and R team is all in love with them. We take it to radio and radio says no. You know, it's like dealing with that part of the process for the artist, which is. Which is difficult. But then at the same time, I mean, I still get enormous satisfaction on hearing a song that we produce in our studio on the radio, just like I did when I was an intern. Just like when I used to go into 5 FM on a Monday morning and present those records for artists. I don't do that anymore. But when I hear those music on the radio, I feel like we win.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: So, yeah, I mean, you get obsessed with things like the radio charts and the streaming numbers and all that. All the data that comes at you all day long.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: But again, at the end of the day, it's.
I suppose really what you want to. Want to do is leave stuff behind that generations of people can appreciate. It's just a matter of how do you. How do you stay top of mind when there's. When there's such an abundance of work being put into the world every single day? I mean, there's 200,000 new releases a day uploaded to Spotify. You know, so the fact that we even have artists that we could say, well, yes, a prime circle whose albums were made 20 years ago is still doing incredibly well. You know, that's when you know, okay, well, I've done something amazing.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Okay, so a legacy.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: That's fantastic. And now this has been the most incredible interview, But I know you're a busy man, so I've only got one more question for you, and that would be what would be your ultimate festival lineup and why?
[00:27:39] Speaker A: For you personally, ultimate festival would be light.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Okay, so let's take how many stages? Because I've done some crazy things when it comes to festivals.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Okay, let's take main stage.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Okay, so main stage. I would have Fred again. Okay, I'd have Fred again playing. I would have the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Because we want to have a good. We want to have an amazing time. So we'd have the Chili Peppers. Chili Peppers would. Would absolutely burn the house down. I mean, I've mentioned Bruno Mars. So we've got to have Bruno Mars in that stage.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Gotta have him in there.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Gotta have Bruno. I think also what we've got to do is we've got to look at South African talent. And I mean, right now I think Tyler is certainly blowing up all over the world and I think she's going to have an enormous career ahead of her and I wish her all the best for that. So I definitely put Tyler on that because I just think she's is the all round package as well. It's so difficult to say because, I mean, there's so many from the past that I have there. There's so many of the currents that I have there and there's obviously the future. I don't know. I mean, there's so many brilliant festivals that you just see the lineups and you're like, that's perfect. But I mean, if, if, if there's any hack that I would pay any amount of money to go and see and, and maybe I'll get lucky, is. Would be somebody like Radiohead.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: You know, but I mean, Radiohead at a festival, I don't know. I'd rather see Radiohead in the club.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: You know, I've always found, like, from a festival point of view, there's obviously different reasons for things to happen. Oh. Something that I would have on my festival if we could reincarnate Maxi Jazz would be Faithless, but that's just not.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Going to happen 100 years with you on that.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: So, I mean, Faithless was probably one of the best shows I've ever seen.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: But you're never gonna get that again. Yeah, you're gonna get Faithless with our Maxi Jazz, which is just not gonna be same thing. It's the same as like Linkin park now with the new singer. I think it'd be interesting, but it's not the same. And luckily I saw, you know, Linker park with Chester Bennington and I mean, there are other amazing people that I've seen that I'd love to see again. But also it would be contradicting my own philosophy, which is if you see an artist that truly blows you away, gives you a performance that, that you walk away going, my goodness, what has happened to me?
Don't see them again.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Okay. Why? Because they might disappoint.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: That's the thing. There's a chance that you will only come back going, oh, well, the first time is better.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: You know, there are very few where I've gone. I mean, they've also been shows that I was underwhelmed and then you see them later and they were amazing.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: You know, so my point is, if they blow your way from an experience, as a fan, just, just say, well, that I've done that.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Cherish that memory.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: Yeah, because you don't want to. You know, I saw. I saw Placebo play a show in, in France. And. And unbeknownst to me, it was actually the warm up set before they filmed their Live in Paris.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: Their dvd. And it was phenomenal. I mean, there were a Hundred people for a stadium show in Anuru was. It was just a crazy experience. And then I booked to see tickets to see them again in London a couple years later, and Brian Mul lost his voice. So they played the whole show, you know, instrumentally. But this is like, come on.
Okay, look, each to their own. I suppose I've been very lucky that I've seen some of the most incredible artists of all time. So your festival, I don't know. You can ask me that again in five minutes and be completely different.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Fair enough. Okay, Fair enough. And if people want to keep up with you or Grisham during the week, where can they find you on socials?
[00:31:21] Speaker A: Just search my name on social media. But I think more importantly than me, just follow the company. So, yeah, I'm on Facebook and Instagram. Obviously, our website is very important.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Okay. And babies, if you want to keep up with me during the week, you can find me at Djabby Danger. That's a B I Danger. And if you want to follow the pod, you can follow us on all major streaming platforms or you can go to Instagram @. From Studio 2 stage. Mr. Mitchley, thank you so much for your time. I've loved having you on.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Thank you. And thank you very much for these kind of podcasts. I think it's important to be able to go and meet people in the South African music industry that you can capture into this format and that, you know, they can exist for years to come. Because for a lot of radio interviews in the past, it was fleeting. It was in the moment, and it was gone. So I think the fact that you have the podcast platform to be able to capture this forever, I think it's wonderful, and I'm really looking forward to hearing who you have on the show in the future.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: Thank you. And, babies, keep well in the week and I will catch you next week. And bye.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: Come on.
