Artist Spotlight: Liquideep (South Africa)

Left- Ziyon, Right- Ryzor

The Liquideep duo is made up of a Ziyon [singer/songwriter/producer] and Ryzor [DJ/producer], the two met as friends first in 2006 before their mutual love for hook-laden, melodically rich deep house music inspired the birth of Liquideep in 2007.
Ziyon who was originally in the States before he moved back officially to South Africa in 2004 started singing professionally when he was 19. He found himself in music circles and realized that he could take his passion to the next level. He started producing in 2001 for a lady called Swazi Dhlamini. He did tracks for Gloria Bosman, Loyiso Bala and other artistes.
Ryzor on the other hand was born in Alex, but grew up in Limpopo then moved back to Alex when he was older.
Just two years after their formation they caught the attention of the entire nation with the anthem ‘Fairytale’, which got play-listed on every major station in SA and received a SAMA 2010 nomination for Song of the Year.

Following their ‘Oscillations’ mix contribution to House Afrika Sessions Vol. 1, their debut artist album, ‘Fabrics Of The Heart’, was released with much fan fare in May 2010 selling in excess of 5000 copies in the first 5 days on the shelf. It turned out to have even more club-bangers with tracks like BBM, Angel, Settle for Less, Feel It and Still.

 

Zyon: BBM, I wrote it maybe 3 to four months after I bought my BlackBerry and you know with BB it shows on BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) which song the person you are chatting to is playing. So it just came basically from that. I’d be chatting to uhhm lol, certain people and I noticed that they were playing some of our tracks, most of the time Fairytale. And that used to tickle me, I’d be like wow I’m chatting to them and they’re listening to our track, so yeah, that’s where the track came from
Liquideep had this to say for their favorite music videos- "It’s hard to say. But right now, we’re both really digging Still & Feel It. Two totally different “feels”, but both well done. We feel honored to be able to work with the people we have."

It was CRAZY FUN! We invited a lot of our friends out and just hung out! Ryzor got to show his crazy basketball skills. It gave me a great excuse to jump on a trampoline for an hour! Epic!

The originality and appeal of the duo could be put down to the culture clash between the African beat and their awareness of what works on the globe’s dance floors, but it’s also down to their ability to craft sweet and memorable songs: the result of their combined 20 year’s worth of creative activity in club land.

They have already attracted remixes from big underground international names like Suges, Lars Behrenroth (Deeper Shades Of House), Jonny Montana (Camio Recordings) and House Device with a long list of up and coming , and they’ve been commissioned to remix seminal acts like Stephanie Cooke.
The duo’s popularity and area of influence continues to grow with several successful production and collaboration work already receiving rave reviews i.e. Hennessy Artistry, Theo Kgosinkwe, Kabelo Mabalane, Mandoza, Jae to name but a few.
The first house music act in South Africa to perform with a full live band, having performed at some flagship events such as The Durban July, Joburg Day, Fifa 2010 events, SAMA awards, Channel O Awards etc.
Their second album went gold in October 2010, won 3 awards, two Metros and one Channel O award.

Not only is Liquideep passionate about music, but also the business side of things and giving other artists opportunities with their label Mental Wave which has Karabo and Soletek. Ziyon met Karabo in 2007 through a mutual friend. In 2008 they recorded his first project I depend on You and released it independently. "He’s a brilliant singer, writer and musician" says Ziyon. Ryzor & Ziyon met Soletek also around 2007. Ziyon had this for Soletek- "At an early age, this young producer is a heavy weight, licensing tracks to platinum selling compilations such as House Afrika Session Vol 1. We plan to release both of their projects in April."
A busy duo, no doubt, tour schedule includes Winter Music Conference in Miami which was held in March and then proceed to Portugal. May we’ll see them visiting Leeds, Birmingham, Paris (the famous Djoon).

We wish them the very best!

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