Major Lazer And Major League Djz On ‘Piano Republik,’ The Biggest Hurdles They Have Faced…

Major Lazer is one of the most renowned trios within dance music. The group—comprised of Diplo, Walshy Fire and Ape Drums—is known for creating top hits such as “Lean On,” “Cold Water” and “Get Free.” Major Lazer has teamed up with amapiano star Major League Djz (comprised of Banele Mbere and Bandile Mbere) to create Piano Republik.

The nine-track body of work is Major Lazer’s first new release in three years. The LP takes listeners on a journey through both sultry and enchanting vocals, the stunning sounds of amapiano, shimmering synths, bubbling beats and more. Indeed, Piano Republik proves to be a masterfully produced body of work.

Amapiano, which is a hybrid of deep house, jazz and lounge music that was founded in South Africa, began having a resurgence in 2019, and artists such as Vindata continue to incorporate it into their work today. Piano Republik is one of the most high-profile projects yet for amapiano. Major League Djz’s game-changing and record-setting party series and live stream Balcony Mix has been at the forefront of amapiano’s global takeover.

Walshy Fire, formally known as Leighton Paul Walsh, conducted this interview from an oxygen chamber in Diplo’s Malibu home while Banele Mbere Zoomed into the call from Los Angeles. Here, the two artists share the inspiration behind Piano Republik, Ty Dolla $ign kicking Diplo out of his own home studio, the biggest hurdles they have had to overcome in life and more.

Kocay: Can you describe your sound in three words?

Leighton Paul Walsh and Banele Mbere: “Exciting, culture and educational.”

Kocay: What was the inspiration behind Piano Republik?

Mbere: “I think the inspiration is to bring African dance music to the world, to change the look of dance music…to give it a different feel and to give it more culture. I think dance music hasn’t had culture the way amapiano has given it now. I think it’s a new-looking feel to dance music and a new energy, basically.”

Kocay: Can you share some stories on how some of the tracks were created?

Walsh: “Ty Dolla $ign was there at one of our shows, and he does two tracks on the album. It was really dope to see a genius at work because I think every now and then, we always hear about these genius stories and we’re always like, ‘Yo, this person was a musical genius.’ Ty Dolla $ign is a musical genius. I was able to see that firsthand as he completed two songs in no time. An interesting thing is that he kicks everybody out of the studio when he is completing the song. He kicks everyone out and we’re in the studio at Diplo’s house, so Diplo [had to] get out his own studio.”

Kocay: That’s so funny that he even kicked him out.

Walsh: “When you get back in there, though, it’s perfection. He gets into a zone and that’s it.”

Kocay: How did you pick the name? What does Piano Republik mean to you?

Mbere: “The land of amapiano, where it’s represented from here. It all resides from [South Africa].”

Kocay: Do you remember the first electronic music song you heard that made you fall in love with the genre?

Walsh: “For me, it would be a gentleman by the name of Samthing Soweto. He was the first person I ever heard with the energy of amapiano. I fell in love with his voice. I fell in love with the energy, the rhythm. It was soulful.

“I went to Ghana, and when I went to Ghana, all of the South Africans that were there kept demanding that the deejay play amapiano, and this is in 2018. I didn’t know what amapiano was. These [girls] were forcing the deejays to play amapiano. They were really aggressive.

“The only other time I see girls very aggressively telling the deejay what to play is in reggaeton. I wanted to see what was happening. Finally, one of them gave some of the deejays some amapiano music, and they started to go crazy. No one knew what it was, but one thing was for sure: it connected. It didn’t matter where you were from in the world, it just felt good. It made sense. It felt amazing.

“I’d say 2019 [is when I] started to really connect with some of my South African friends on amapiano. Then I would say pandemic time, there wasn’t a lot moving, but then when everything started to move back again, I think that’s when I met DJ Major League. We all connected here in Los Angeles and began to really think about doing a project together. But for me, that’s how my journey of amapiano was: hearing this song and then seeing girls aggressively attack the deejay, telling him he needs to play amapiano.”

Kocay: Where would you be if you didn’t go into making music?

Walsh: “I’d be an architect.”

Mbere: “I’d probably be in business. A serious businessman.”

Kocay: What’s been the biggest hurdle you’ve had to overcome in life and how did you conquer it?

Mbere: “I think the biggest hurdle would be leaving my son when I go and travel the world and letting him know that I need to travel. But now he’s used to it.”

Walsh: “There’s so many, and most of them are internal: believing in yourself, believing in the project, believing in what you’re doing, believing what you’re feeling is the right feeling and not bending and bowing for money and clout—but being focused. Going through years and years and years of deejaying, getting no money and no recognition and nothing, but waking up every day and loving it because it’s your passion. There are endless hurdles—it’s what you do when you get to them.”

Kocay: If you could go back in time to when you first started making music and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Mbere: “Always be original.”

Walsh: “I would probably tell myself to produce from then. I wasn’t producing then. I was just a deejay, so I would probably go back and tell younger deejay Walshy Fire, ‘Hey, you should also start producing right now as well.’”

Kocay: When did you start producing?

Walsh: “Not until I really met [Diplo], so I would say about maybe 12 years now. I’ve been deejaying for almost 30 [years].”

Kocay: How have you seen the scene change since you started deejaying?

Walsh: “There’s something that needs to be said about hurdles. If we want to get back to the earlier question, deejaying now has way less hurdles. I think anything in life that doesn’t have some kind of fire that you have to walk through, a lot of the time it doesn’t have the same quality at the end of it. You don’t feel the same reward. It’s kind of like working out and exercising. If you have a workout goal and you know it’s going to take all of this work to get it and then somebody comes along and says, ‘Yo, you could just cheat that whole thing and just have this surgery or take these pills,’ I don’t think you feel as rewarded.

“Forget what other people think because there are people that’ll be like, ‘Well, you did it smarter, not harder.” I know in your spirit you’ll be like, ‘Yo, if I work out and reach that goal, I will feel better than if I just take some pills or do surgery.’ That’s where deejaying is at for me. Back then, you couldn’t be wack. You couldn’t be kind of wack. You couldn’t be a little wack. The other deejays would refuse to let you deejay with them. The promoters would be like, ‘Yo, get out of here.’ And most importantly, the audience, the crowd, they’d be like, ‘Yo, get this guy or girl off the stage. They suck.’ There was no way to lock in tempos. There was no way to do anything. You had to actually find the records. You had to actually know how to mix. You had to actually know how to talk on the microphone. You had to entertain.

“Now, anybody that wants to be a deejay could literally be a deejay the next day and probably do okay just because there are no hurdles anymore. You can decide to be it, and with little work ethic, you can begin to get gigs. In my opinion, that’s game-changing. The camaraderie of deejaying is definitely not what it used to be because before you’d see a deejay, you’d be like, ‘Yo, I know what you went through.’ Because if you’re a deejaying and I’m deejaying, I know what you went through.

“I think a lot of the times I’ll see a new deejay that’s playing like hip-hop, for example. I’ll see that they don’t understand that. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I should be mentoring these people, but I also think they don’t want to hear from an old person like me. They going to be like, ‘Yo, you need to get out of here. I’m rocking the crowd.’

“The other truth is the crowd doesn’t care anymore so that person is rocking the crowd. You don’t have to be as clever anymore. You don’t have to be as skillful at preparation and entertaining. That’s why when you see a good deejay, you and everyone goes, ‘Wow, that person was good.’ Usually, that’s the right feeling that you’re having….versus back in the day when it was pretty much all the deejays would give you that good feeling because they had to work hard to be a deejay.”

Kocay: What made Major League Djz transition from hip-hop into electronic music?

Mbere: “I think it’s the feeling. The feeling that dance music gave me was something different. I think we hit a plateau where we were like, ‘Hip-hop is dope, but it’s missing something.’ That’s what dance music gave us.”

Walsh: “I find that I’m not so into hip-hop as much as I used to be. Maybe that’s my own personal growth, but I don’t feel as good as I used to. Amapiano, African house and a lot of other genres make me feel really good. I feel healthy. I feel a community that I want to be a part of. I feel spiritual and I love that feeling.”

Kocay: Major League Djz, can you talk about what it is about dance music that makes you feel good and what those feelings represent?

Mbere: “I feel like I’m spiritually connected to the sounds that make the music deeper than just the music’s feeling. It feels like it’s home. It feels like where we belong. I get a sense of belonging when I listen to the music. Not like hip-hop where it’s dope, all the rap and everything. But I feel spiritually inclined when I listen to dance music.”