We talked to  DJ and music producer Gafacci

koladapina : Hi Gafacci, how have you been lately?

Gafacci : I’m good, I’ve been working a lot on music and also releasing music in between. I have been doing a lot of DJ mixes since the covid lockdown. I did one for Resident Advisor and Boiler Room. 

koladapina : Does it mean that you plan to drop a new project by the end of the year? 

Gafacci : Yeah, I have projects lined up. Some of them I’ve not confirmed yet, the ones that I probably will release are singles, not EPs.

koladapina : Did your dad influence your music?

Gafacci : I think he influenced my spirit more than the music because I’ve always been adventurous. When he tries to show me something or tries to tell me what to do music wise, like the sound I should craft, I always tell him I want to find my own path and see what I can do. But, yeah of course when I started he gave me piano lessons, tried to teach me how to play guitar and all the stuff. Every little theory I know about the piano, it’s my dad who taught me. But the help that I got the most was driving my spirit and knowing that my dad did this and is very good at it made me want to do it more.

koladapina : What is the biggest learning you have from this decade making music ?

Gafacci : I had great experiences. I think I became a very curious person. It also taught me how to do things myself because starting as an artist you have to figure out a lot of things yourself. Then along the way you get people to come and assist you and take you to the next level. So I learned a lot about relying on my abilities to get me where I want to go and also I’ve learned how to make and promote my music because everytime I’m releasing my music, it’s like a mini presentation where I have to tell people about my music, I have to make them aware. I’ve learned a little bit of marketing, a little bit of pitching. And I’ve learned to wear a lot of hats. I’ve learned pretty interesting stuff since I started doing music.

koladapina : What was your inspiration and creative process while working on your EP Face the Wall ?

Gafacci : With Face the Wall it started in Busua. Busua is located in the western region of Ghana. I visited with a friend and he took his studio along with him. When I was working in Busua I went to use his computer to make music, then I found one song on my laptop which I held on for a long time, called Trotro. So when I found the Trotro project in one of my folders, I was like “Ok, cool this sounds good” and around that time I was also trying to come with my next project and through that it kind of gave me the direction to do the other songs where I featured artists like Bryte, Jakhal, GuiltyBeatz. The process was spontaneous. Everything with me is spontaneous. I found something spontaneously then I just use it as a guide to direct where I want to take music. Pretty much that’s how I get inspired and get things done. It’s not always like a well-thought process for me. Sometimes it is. 

koladapina : How do you feel about the reaction you got from the public? 

Gafacci : The reactions have been great and I really liked it a lot because I saw my music on Bandcamp. 

I always tell people to go to Bandcamp to support me and the reception has been amazing. I did a remix of Trotro which was in Bandcamp’s best electronic music for April. 

koladapina : How would you say is the electronic Ghanaian music scene right now ? 

Gafacci : I wouldn’t say we have a scene. We have a group of collectives and artists who are so talented and doing amazing stuff. To call it a scene I can’t really speak much on it because personally I don’t see one. 

koladapina : You talked about the marginalization of the electronic music artists, how would you explain the marginalization of this type of music in Ghana and do you think it’s only in Ghana or in Africa in general ? 

Gafacci : It’s around the world, it’s everywhere. Even at some point hip hop was marginalized. Up to this day a certain group of people who do hip hop are viewed in a certain way and when you go to places like Angola, kuduro used to be something that’s from the ghetto. When you go to South Africa, gong is a sound from the township. So I think marginalization and the creative space is a usual thing that happens. In Ghana, ours is the asokpor music. Asokpor music is basically dance music with a high tempo. Asokpor music can be commonly heard everywhere you go in the city, but at the same time, because the masses are the determining factor when we speak of how relevant a song is, there is a kind of marginalization, not because of the sound, but  associations. 

koladapina : I think for hip hop for example, it has started to change a little bit. The more it started to bring some money and became more and more popular among the youngest, the less marginalized it became.

Gafacci : Exactly, anything that can be commercialized would end up not being marginalized. When people don’t see the benefits of a certain thing they would identified it with the immediate things they see associated with it. As soon as that particular thing which is the music starts to generate money, people will let go of the perceptions they have for stuff like that and just get on the trend. So very often marginalized things can be commercial, then it becomes trendy and after a while it fades away.

koladapina : It’s really cool that is so diverse…

Gafacci : I listen to a lot of different stuff because I enjoy music with a very curious mindset. I want to understand the music and after I become a fan, then I start to listen to it frequently.

koladapina : As you been doing music for a decade now, what advice would you give to emerging artists that would want to follow your path ?

Gafacci : Be nice, also you have to learn to say yes and no. Always be mindful of yourself and take care of yourself and the last thing I’ll add is that there’s no written manual to these thing so always follow your guts, your instinct and stay optimistic.

koladapina : Actually that’s great advice for life, even though you’re not a musician.

Gafacci : Sometimes you’ll think you’ll have the manual but there’s no manual. A lot of young artists and people that are starting stressed themselves unnecessary. And one thing I forgot to add is they should keep on working and do what everyone knows them for. If they do good music, they should keep doing good music and that would bring everything they need.