GENUINE MOMENTS WITH AN.D

“I just want to be remembered as someone who enjoyed life and pursued their passions” – AN.D

Describe Yourself

We’d love to get to know you better. How would you introduce yourself? What drives you, and how do you see the world?

If I had to introduce myself, I would say, “Hi, my name is Andy, spelled AN.D. I am a DJ, event producer, and founder of Other Village People.” I am driven by people, experiences, music, good vibes, and just the energy of feeling like we are living our lives the way we want to.

How do I see the world? That’s a broad question because my viewpoint changes at different times in my life. Currently, I see the world through engagements—with people, music, food, and good energy. This positive engagement helps me feel good about myself and guides how I navigate the world right now.

Music as a Spiritual Experience

You’ve mentioned viewing music as a healing force. Could you expand on how music touches your soul?

I feel particularly connected to house music, and a bit of neo-soul,because I listen to that as well. House music’s grounded, ancestral sound has a way of earthing me, making me feel connected to the world and everything within it. The repetition of beats, the vocals, and the layering of instrumentals, remind me of a sort of loud meditation.

That’s kind of how emotions kind of happen in the body. You think about something long enough and it starts to raise a certain emotion. You listen to a beat repetition long enough and it starts to just rise you and rise you and rise you. It’s fascinating to hear how a constant, beautiful sonic beat can make the body feel things and tune into its energy.

When I listen to a really good house track, I often close my eyes, frown, and make a “stank face” because the music triggers a deep emotional response. I feel the bass, drums, and chants intensely. That’s generally how I listen to music. I listen through every layer, and play songs over and over again to catch nuances I might have missed initially. Whether through loudspeakers, headphones, in my car, or when prepping a set, I relish experiencing music through various formats and I’ll listen over and over just because sound sounds so different everywhere.

Also, I’m always so eager to play the song that I really like for an audience, to see how it resonates with them. I love to experience how my favourite track holds people as well as it held me.

Origin Story

When and how did you start your DJ career? What was the spark that ignited your passion for DJing?

Oh my God. I think I’ve been DJing for about nine years now. To be fair, what originally sparked my passion for DJing was love for music. I think we all love music. I love music—house music, jazz, neo-soul, R&B, you name

it all started during my college days when I initially picked up DJing. However, studies demanded my full attention, so I had to put my passion on hold. Later on in life, I was back in Durban, and being around my circle of DJ friends rekindled my interest. I used to hang out at a friend’s house who had a complete DJ setup. We’d experiment with vinyls and DJ equipment. Every time I was at my friend’s place, it felt like we were all DJs, constantly exploring sounds, embracing the imperfections in transitioning songs and crafting our music journeys. That’s what really ignited my passion, and from then on, I took DJing seriously.

Staying Inspired

How do you keep your creative juices flowing?

I think there are many ways to stay creative. I listen to other DJs, explore various music genres, and I’m often out experiencing new sounds. I’m not someone who enjoys sitting in silence; I’m constantly surrounded by music and enjoy watching others perform. I have a profound appreciation for house music and creativity, and I’m fortunate to continually explore different sounds, from Pan-African to indigenous. I think its really interesting to want to mesh the two and to consider music as all the things that you hear from the sound of the wind to chanting.

Creativity, to me, is innate. Although creatives may experience blocks, I believe creativity never truly stops. I think it’s the world’s judgment that causes us to doubt ourselves, as we try to meet societal expectations. But if you understand exactly what you want and recognize your growth—acknowledging changes in your preferences and experimenting with new sounds—I see that as true creative growth. As human beings, creatives, and groove curators, we are always evolving, never static in our tastes or our lives.

Genre Preferences

Is EDM your primary focus, or do you dabble in other musical styles? What’s your take on house music?

I’m a fan of Afro house, Afro tech, tribal melodic house. I love house music. I think house music is just such a dance music. It’s like you’re constantly moving a part of yourself because it just takes you there and it’s a bodily music, which I really, really love. I love feeling my body internally, physically, and I think house music just does it. It’s got different genres. It’s different like sub genres of house music. I think we’ll never even hear the end of it because it can be laid in so many ways. You change the arrangement, you change a tempo, you change a pitch, and it just sounds different every single time. You can slow it down, speed it up, put it in the middle. I just think it’s such a versatile genre.

Signature Style

How would you characterize your approach to DJing? What elements do you think make your performances standout?

Wow. I think for me it’s just journey. I think that I try to tell a body of work or tell a story that really makes the experience complete. Just like I’m not up and down. I’m just like, okay, cool. This selection is me either trying to be very, I want us to feel something. I want us to dance and leave it on the floor us. I want us to tell a story of some kind of blackness of rootedness. And I think when it comes to performance, I think that energy is everything. I think my energy when I play music is what makes me me. Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s just me doing my thing and loving the music that I am going to play and wanting people to experience it in the way that I hear it or the way that I move to it is one of my favorite things and things that I think I stand out with.

Proudest Moments

Looking back, what achievements in your career stand out the most to you?

I think I’ve had so many proud moments as a dj. Playing abroad has been great. New York playing at Cornier, which is one of South Africa’s big house events. That’s been great. I just recently played in Venice. That was amazing as well. Yeah, I think playing at Yang and Yanga was also pretty amazing. I think that in life, my proudest moments are just feeling like it all worked out. When you really play an amazing set and people feel it in the way that it was intended. My proudest moments are when people understand that it’s about the music and nothing else. It’s not about playing popular tracks, it’s not about playing commercial sounds, it’s just about moving people. It’s about playing music that will resonate to some parts of who we are as a people. I think for me, that’s the gist of it.

Challenges Faced

Conversely, we want to understand the challenges you’ve faced as well. How has this path tested you?

Conversationally, we want to understand the challenges you faced as well. How has the path tested you? I just think because there are so many creative DJs in the world, really, and in a lot of industries, I think the journey’s been tough because you imagine yourself in a particular way, but then there are spaces where you’re not really invited into. There’s a lot of gatekeeping. And then this sense of feeling like you need to constantly just be proving yourself to whomever can be very, very challenging. And yeah, I can’t speak too hard about difficulty because I also think if you map out your plan properly and just say, okay, this is where you want to be. Everyone’s journey is different. Everyone wants something that’s different with music, with DJing, we all want to play the biggest festivals in the world, but some people just want to play all the clubs in the world. And so I think our journeys are different and we are all tested in many ways depending on where we come from or which part that we want to take. And it’s just on us to just stick to the goal of sharing music in the best way possible, in the best spaces as possible. Yeah, I think sometimes it’s so hard when people want to genre band, you get booked for as a house dj, but you have made it explicit that this is the sound that you play, and then people want you to just play a genre that I honestly believe there’s a lot more DJs that do a better job than me. For example, there I piano DJs understand the sound that they play, they know the music, they engage with the music a lot. So I think sometimes it becomes a bit challenging when there is a specific house genre that is loved right now and is taken over the world and is beautiful within itself. But also there are other genres, sorry, within house music that we also want to ensure that the world is hearing as loudly as possible. So yeah, I’m not sure if that one answers your question, but that is what I have.

Lessons Learned

What’s one piece of wisdom you’ve gained on this journey that’s made a lasting impact?

I would just suggest playing the songs you enjoy. Sometimes, the pressure of the stages we perform on makes us feel like we need to compete, playing unreleased music, the best songs, or songs that the audience loves. While we can’t do all of that, the important lesson here is to remember why you started. It’s all about sharing the music you love.

The songs I love are personal to my ears, my experiences as a Black human being, and to my DNA. They touch me in a very special way. So, just keep playing the music that resonates with you, because it will resonate with others too.

Off the Decks

Reveal a Secret

When you’re not spinning tracks, what else captures your interest?

I mean, I am an event producer, manager, and curator of events and groove. That’s what I do outside of DJing. I curate event experiences, and that definitely captures my interest most of the time.

I enjoy thinking creatively about experiences and figuring out how to make people enjoy them. As such, I spend a lot of my time enjoying different experiences because I genuinely enjoy creating them as well.

Could you share a quirky fact about yourself? What’s something surprising about you that not many people know?

That’s a very tough one. There are many things that people don’t know about me. For instance, I used to play the violin when I was younger. I’m also an early bird. I wake up pretty early with a lot of energy.

What else? I love movies. I watch everything but I specifically enjoy reality TV. Shows like Love Island, Temptation Island, and The Bachelor are my personal favorites.

Personal Freedom

What does freedom mean to you in both your personal and professional life?

This is also a very packed question because freedom means many things. Generally, freedom is the ability to do what you want and to express yourself in your own unique way while you exist in in this life—the only one we’re certain we have.

To me, freedom means living fully in my own skin, embracing my truth, and expressing myself loudly in both my personal and professional life. It is about continually striving to understand my core essence, because the influence of social constructs can alter who we are as people. So, I constantly evaluate whether I’m enjoying the influence and if it aligns with my true self.

What do you want to be remembered for in the grand scheme of things?

In the grand scheme of things, I just want to be remembered as someone who enjoyed life, and pursued their passions, whether they lasted for 10 years, 20 years, or just a moment.

I just want people to be like, “Yo, when AN.D was around, it was a good time. We lived. It felt like that day could have been the last.” That kind of energy.

Your Legacy

Looking Ahead

Can you talk about any upcoming events and collaborations you’re excited about?

Currently, I’m excited about what I’m gonna do in Lagos. I’m looking forward to building relationships with Group Therapy and with Orion from Brooklyn. Boihood has also recently explored relationships with two podcasts in London.

Basically, I’m eager to create more collaborations. One of my events is partnering with Ulayo in Mozambique for the first time. So, I’m just aiming to expand globally through music and events with different countries and people