Name: Bheki Mabhena aka Nitefreak
Nationality: Zimbabwean
Occupation: Producer, composer
Current release: "Gorah," featuring vocals by Emmanuel Jal, is out via Higher Ground.
Recommendations: Antonio Lyons - My Africa (Nitefreak Afrobuzz Remix)

If you enjoyed this Nitefreak interview and would like to keep up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Soundcloud, and Facebook.  



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Most of the time my eyes are open. Only in rare instances will I close my eyes, if only to focus on some elements of a song. Music evokes emotions so I might react differently to tempo and genre.

You’ll get the usual head bop when I like a song, and some facial expressions.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

I daydream a lot. I make scenarios in my head when listening to other people‘s work. Mostly positive thoughts, why music works as an escape for me sometimes.

Creating is different as sometimes I’m inspired by what I hear, or simply I get hit by an idea as I go about my day.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

I come from a musical family. I’ve been around music instruments since I was young, since my Dad is a music teacher. I don't know music theory though, all I know is what sounds right and what doesn’t from listening and having been introduced to a music software by a friend and the background I had.

I still have a lot to learn to better my craft. Not taking away from any of my prior creations, but with better equipment I find my work to be more solid now.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

13 to 16 I was just listening and playing around with instruments at home.

I really didn't think it would be a career for me. I thought I was going to be a soccer player, that’s what I was really passionate about at the time.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

When I started producing, I was using a friend’s desktop, I had no instruments then, so I drew everything on the piano roll and that's how I work, up until today.

So my best friend is a laptop and headphones. That's really all I need, nothing fancy. To me, all that matters is an original idea. Not so much the equipment.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics, etc, play?

It’s in rare instances that I let external things like relationships and politics affect what I create.

How I feel will have a hand sometimes, and inspiration from other artists and their own struggles.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

No, I don't think my personality has any impact on my music. Simply inspiration, how I feel at any given time and just having an idea or a melody in my head is all I need to create music.

As for my personality, what you see is how I am.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

Music is a language with no barriers and it will impact people differently. It all comes to what message the creator is trying to put across.

I feel like with house music it’s always a happy positive message we try and give to people.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how you still surprise with different approaches, tools, and musical forms you may be very familiar with?  

I watch a lot of tutorials and I often work with different producers.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? And how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I live in the city, so the only animals I hear are dogs barking from a distance, nothing inspiring about that.

If you hear any non-human elements in my music, I probably bumped into that whilst creating and I use it to give an atmosphere or a vibe, and fill out gaps in the song.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

This is news to me. First time I heard about it was right here, now.

I think the moment we start trying to capture music using data and algorithms, we might as well let AI do all the work and we sit back and relax. I still believe in the old fashioned way of creating and how we connect with music.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Music surely changed my life, and has given me the opportunity to travel the world, learn about new cultures, get inspired, and make the lives of people around me a bit better.

Lyrics are the best, they tell stories and even give life lessons here and there.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

70% of the time I have earphones on, unless I’m around people.

Music can really give you a good start to the day or motivate you to do something you’ve been procrastinating on. I could be in complete silence when meditating maybe, but in general I prefer to have something to hear at all times, even if it's just playing in the background.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I have yet to see someone cry from drinking a cup of coffee, but I’ve seen people get emotional from listening to a great record. The power of music hits different.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

For people to actually benefit from their craft, but that’s only getting worse.

Unfortunately, the future doesn't look bright for musicians or artists in general. I hope we can still change that.