When asked if he loves Bulela Podcast, he had this to say, “I am indeed a Bulela Podcast follower(listener), I first discovered your page on twitter after you retweeted a post by one of my producer friends then later at some point you re-shared my stuff, I stalked your pages and the content was so good that I followed you on all platforms. My favourite interview was the Deja one, it was interesting from the beginning to the end. I probably enjoyed it more because I felt a bit more connected than usual lol. maybe because they make music too.”
When asked to share with us who he is and what he loves re his work, Purple Gremlin, had the following to say, “I’m James Manda better known as Purple Gremlin, 100 percent Zambian and I make Electronic dance music mainly stuff like future house, deep house and bass house (lol edm has crazy genres) music in the lines of artists like Martin Garrix, Meduza, Habstrakt… I make this type of music because I’m that weird kid, I just want to be different and bring diversity to Zambia, as well as make music that is complicated but simple at the same time, on a deeper sense though I fell in love with melodies and the storyline behind each chord and each sound, It makes me happy as a producer/artist knowing that I can change someone’s mood just with a catchy rhythm and beat, plus its so much fun.”
“I’m based in Lusaka, Zambia, I don’t think my roots really influence my music but I will say that my roots aid in a sense that I want to be successful at being the best version of me and being proud to wave the Zambian flag at any major festival or in any country I might travel to.”
About when Purple Gremlin started working in the music industry, “...you’ll never know you’re in the music industry until you’re in the music industry lol, but I’ve always seen music as a hobby, it still is. I have been making music in the shadows for a long time, I was not ready at the time to put myself out there, and because our industry is not super diverse there really wasn’t someone to look up to so I tried to compete with the outside market to learn skills and techniques on how to get better at making music But I would say I entered the industry roughly a year ago, so 2021. I’m still that underground type artist, eventually I will acquire a bigger and more active fanbase.”
On inspiration for working in the music industry, “Well, what drives me is wanting to show people that there is more to Zambian music, that Zambian music can sound like “this” or that it can be as diverse but I was first introduced to making music by my older brother AB, who is one half of ABxETA I think that was way back in 2010 if I’m not mistaken, but at the time I wasn’t even making music it was just something interesting, Fast forward to 2014, I met this guy Martin who introduced me to Electronic dance music (EDM), and it has been a pretty crazy ride ever since then. I initially thought I was the only one making edm but martin played me a track by Sebastian Dutch called deep inside ft Kiki, that was a long time ago probably in 2017 or 18 lol, months later that same year Martin and I discovered El Mukuka ,then later discovered Rafa3l who is one of the kindest guys you will ever meet in this industry, anyway at the time I was still in the early stages of learning how to make music so listening and having those guys as local pillars gave me the push I needed to keep on trying to stand out and to keep on working on my sound. I have come a long way and I have had the privilege of actually meeting and conversing with everyone I have just mentioned. It's a humbling kind of situation because I went from listening to these guys to now being listened to by these guys.”
Purple Gremlin is busy making music, and you don’t to miss out. “My most recent project is a track I helped tie together, it’s a song by Tauya and Christine called” Thank you”, and it is available on all streaming platforms. I have so much more coming and I’m excited for this year. I’m that underground producer that artists are experimenting with so I have a number of remixes that I produced coming but as far as making an album, I have not yet produced a full album but there is this single I released last year, it is called control and it is my favourite release till date because Its so melodic and I used weird techniques and experimented a lot, I basically felt like I levelled up after that release because it is really that good.”
Here is a glance into Purple Gremlin’s creative process. “For my release Thank You , it was a bit complicated but usually, on a good day I’d have a melody in my head if I’m really far from my pc I open voice recorder on my phone and try to humm the melody as clear as possible then later try to draw the melody on my pc using Fl studio in the piano roll (#fl studio gang), Sometimes I start with a basic chord progression and then I draw the melody, when I have a melody that I’m satisfied with, I move on to sound selection which simply means “what instrument or synth should play the melody” when I’m happy with that its when the creative juices start to flow like what I did in Thank you or, if you listen to my track Illest and a remix I made Chilli chill you will sorta grasp the whole creative flow with sound selection. I like my tracks technical cause I want the listeners to go like “what was that '', so SOUND SELECTION and SMALL TECHNICAL SWITCH UPS are a big part of my creative process.”
On the chance to collaborate local and international music talent, Purple Gremlin says, “Locally I would love to collaborate with Sampa The Great her energy is out of this world and she sounds super cool and her music is just so good, I think her and I can make a solid banger, also a mega collab with Rafa3l, Limbi, Martin, Yxung Bxss. I think it would be an insane record. Internationally I want to collab with Dua Lipa because she is Dua Lipa as well as Martin Garrix not because he did a song with Dua Lipa be just because he has this way of telling stories through sound.”
On future projects we can look out for and support him on, “I’m looking to celebrating a new release soon, this year I’m also hoping to play my first gig and most importantly I want to start weekly tutorial videos on how to make the type of music I make, I’m so excited for that. All I need from everyone right now is support and feedback, just that alone does so much for creatives.”
On life lessons he’d pass on to his younger self, Purple Gremlin, says, these four stand out:
Practice does not make perfect so keep pushing and working extra hard
Music theory is not rocket science so learn it
It is okay to lose as long as you learn from it
Be Humble and know your worth
Support Purple Gremlin and his work via his social media:
Instagram: @musicbypg.
Twitter: @musicbypg.
YouTube: @Purple Gremlin
Find more Bulela Podcast content HERE.
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