The Mix 048: Gina Jeanz

With a prismatic approach to her creative work, Namibian DJ-producer Gina Jeanz has a capacity for learning that is amongst the most notable in southern Africa’s thriving electronic music landscape. Experiencing her musical awakening as a child when mastering the notoriously difficult-to-harness potential of violin strings, Gina became fascinated with composition. Later in life, her introduction to FL Studio became the next frontier, and with that, she released a string of releases that brought a gust of fresh, warm Namibian air to he future beats scene she inhabited in Cape Town at the time, where DJs dabbled in an experimental blend of R&B, jazz and lo-fi hip hop. It was her ambient edit of Aaaliyah’s 'Rock the Boat' released in 2016, titled 'Float', that became a staple across dancefloors in the city, endearing her to audiences who enjoyed a sense of future nostalgia. Upon receiving an invitation to play a set at one of Cape Town’s largest outdoor festivals, Gina realised the gravity of her skill as a producer – and quickly taught herself how to DJ in order to take up this unexpected opportunity. From manning the decks to production, graphic design, photography, modelling and artistic direction, she navigates every creative tool with keen insight; making bold choices with flagrant taste, audible colour and touching sound.

Reared on producers such as Timbaland and Darkchild, Gina looked to prolific artists who knew how to cultivate a signature sound that could be as diverse as it is distinct. 2020’s 'Rhythm Chronicles' and 'Motion' EPs took storied approaches to club sounds emanating from Black communities the world over, echoing an array of sounds including UK funky, R&B, and reggaeton. 2021’s 'Lucid Theory' was an album that stretched Gina further than she’d ever been in her longest play yet, finding that her own capacity for creativity and self-reflective work had expanded too. In the wake of the album’s transformative effect on her approach, 2023’s 'Dichotomy' EP was the precipice from which she dove deeper inward, giving way to 2024’s 'Lifetime in a Dance' EP where she further explores her Namibian heritage, drawing "deeply personal" inspiration from her life and surroundings.

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Returning to Cape Town this past December after two long years away in her new home ground of Zurich, Switzerland, Gina is a composer with a nomadic spirit, consistently building on the sonic foraging that created her career’s path and taking it towards new horizons all over the world. Whether she’s bracing against the sleet and snow of Switzerland, wading through the warm sand of Namibia, or afloat on the rising tide of South Africa, Gina always seems to land, in many ways, in a place that feels like home.

Gina Jeanz sits down with Mixmag to talk about reclaiming power through music, making new homes, and putting the 'Afro' back in Afro house. She also delivers a driving new mix influenced by 3-step and amapiano, check it out below.

Now that you’re back in Namibia after spending the silly season in Cape Town, I feel like travelling as much as you do makes one re-evaluate the idea of home. What’s it like being back again this time around? Where’s your head at?

It’s good to just be home and settled, and not doing anything. Namibia has a very small population, so that impacts a lot of things. I always found it to be very peaceful growing up, and it still is. Namibians are very peaceful, we know how to have a good time and I would say if you really want to get away to the nothingness and just relax into yourself, this is the place to go. I’ve always thought of South Africa and Namibia as cousins, especially because of our shared history of Apartheid, and how a lot of our leaders were in a time of warfare together. So there’s a strong sense of community that we share. Both countries are super diverse, but Namibia’s communities have more Damara Nama people, and I myself am Ovambo from the northern part of Namibia where we also have the Hereros and so forth – so I think it’s also just having that diversification in cultures growing up that gives me a sense of harmony. As small as our population is, there's a lot to embrace here, and there’s a lot more room and space to do that, too. Every time I go out, even though Namibia never made me an official ambassador, when people talk about wanting to go on a trip here I’m like 'Oh you wanna go? Here, let me give you an itinerary!'. I’m very proud to be Namibian.

As a Cape Town babe myself, I feel that the city has changed a lot in the last few years, especially when it comes to the December/January period. Tourism is peaking, and it seems like our music scene is thriving in the rise of that, with a lot more diversity and a lot more Afro house. Do you recognise that?

Cape Town is my second home, and yes, a lot has changed! But let's take it back to how it was for me before I left. When I left, my style was more on the eclectic side. I was playing future beats, but it was more experimental. Now, even the scene and the people in the scene have changed – you can see it in the faces of the audience. You're like wow, this is a completely different crowd! I was expecting to come back to The Waiting Room, but whatever it was has changed.

You know that they’ve turned it into a KFC now, right?

It’s crazy! The rise of social media, drop in cultural hubs, and expectations on how to perform has changed. I miss the vibe of places like Cold Turkey. So I felt a little bit of a disconnect, maybe also because I haven't played in Cape Town for the last two years. Nowadays, everyone wants to hear that kind of drop if you're playing specifically Afro house – everyone's standing there waiting for their favourite songs, so it feels like they're not as receptive. Then you have to warm them up like, 'okay, I've got your track. Here you go, here’s your moment'. In Cape Town, the culture of how we consume music and the different crowd is changing a lot. Before, those spots that just had that thing, you just went to groove! There were no expectations of anything. Whereas now, there's a sort of pressure to perform just to get those moments on social media. On the positive side, though, I'm playing bigger shows and bigger festivals. So I'm sure people who have been on the scene have seen the progression go more smoothly. Whereas for me, I left playing smaller shows, and I've come back playing bigger shows and I'm like, what's going on? You feel it now more than ever, how the music is growing and the different ways it affects the culture.

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Have you felt a growth, change or difference between Namibia-based Gina, South Africa-based Gina and Switzerland-based Gina? How does your home make its way into your music?

I’m always inspired by my environment and where I’m at. When I left Cape Town and moved to Switzerland, I had already taken on 12 years of South Africa’s sounds as part of my style of music. However, I found it difficult to be Namibian while pushing that forward. Ultimately when you think of Afro house, you think of it as South African – the likes of Black Coffee,Da Capo, all these amazing artists that have been pushing the sound forward and opened up doors for us to be in these spaces. Now I’m relearning what my style of music is because it has changed since my 2021 album release. I’ll reiterate this: I’m a producer, so I’ve always loved the idea of experimenting and touching on different genres. If you listen to my catalogue, it's a mix of different styles of music with electronic undertones, and I've always stayed in that realm. If we go from 'Dichotomy to For Dreamers' to 'Lifetime in a Dance' since I've been in Europe, you can see that progression of Afro house influences, and then there's these weird little grooves which I love. I'm always challenging my arrangements, challenging my sound, and trying to identify with being a Namibian electronic artist.

What does it mean to be a Namibian electronic artist?

Like I said, we have a smaller population that impacts a lot of things in the country in terms of music spaces, where we hang out, or what we hear. I didn't have anyone growing up who I could emulate, who influenced my electronic sound here at home except international artists. It’s tricky when you don’t have that, and you’re still trying to create authentically. In Cape Town, I played a lot of future beats and was much more eclectic. Often people assume I’m South African, and I try to explain that no, I’m Namibian, and tell people our history. That’s what the last two years have been like. 'Lifetime in a Dance', for me, has elements of my influence from South Africa, influence from the last two years in Europe, and then sounds for my Namibian self. 'Emoko' is a Namibian electronic song, I would say, because I've also put in Oshiwambo chants in here, and I'm working on defining this space for myself and other electronic Namibian artists.

Would it be accurate to say you’re bringing the ‘Afro’ back to Afro house, then? I don’t know if you saw that instagram moment of Dances talking about Afro house’s gentrification, but you’ve clearly leaned into various Afro-centric sounds with a bit of 3-step here and a little amapiano there throughout your releases, but so have others who don’t really seem to connect with the continent. What can be said for that? How are you feeling about the state of Afro house and African electronic music right now, at a time when you’re reworking your flavour, and Afro house is garnering so much attention globally?

That's a great question! I know a lot of people feel strongly about this. I mean, Charisse C also spoke about this at length. I'm going to break this down in parts. Let's look at the diaspora and all of our African brothers and sisters who have grown up in European countries, who feel very connected to what is happening in Southern Africa or East Africa, West Africa, etc. You have the diaspora who do want to touch back in terms of finding their roots, and their Afro house and amapiano sounds are very different to the Afro house and amapiano sounds from South Africa. Who is to say, and I really just mean this from our community and Africans in general, which is right and which is wrong? Because that's just someone's interpretation of a genre of music, that's been happening for time! However, we should also speak on the fact that there has been this thing of people borrowing from the culture without paying respects to the people who have grown these genres of music. I remember when I went to Europe, and I was listening to the amapiano that was coming out of the Netherlands. I was like, 'this is very… electronic'. I felt a type of way about it! I felt like it was missing that spiritual essence! I had to take a step back and ask myself why. Many producers have taken bits and bobs from different genres and created their own thing, that's why I say, if you guys are having Afro house parties, amapiano parties, 3-step parties, whatever it is, the line-ups need to reflect that. I do believe in that, because there are so many artists who never get to see their art on big stages, other than through other artists playing their sound. Imagine what that might feel like – you've just made this banger of a track, but you've never left the country and you're not really making money from it. You see your art everywhere, but don't get to be in that spotlight. When I think of our European counterparts making Afro house, and I have said this previously, there is a disconnect. They don't understand the spiritual essence of the sound and what it reflects in music. So it's important for us to touch base with each other. This is what community is, it's not individualistic. When people are calling you out, I think it's an opportunity to reflect and to be like, 'maybe I should work with that African artist, take them with me and pay them their worth'.

Do you think we’re still trying to cater to a European audience to achieve a sense of success, even here at home?

Yeah, it’s interesting. Because tourists are coming to Africa to experience Africa, right? So they come looking for these amazing guys they hear coming through, but they somehow come expecting to hear the European style of Afro house they’ve been exposed to over there. Why would you come all the way here to have the Tulum experience? Why would you come here looking for an experience you’ve had in Greece? We have a totally different way of doing things here in Southern Africa. I do feel like line-ups are catered toward that now, and that affects ticket prices, but are people getting paid properly? I think that does compromise the music. How are we actually creating the music community for the next generation to come? I'm actually worried for artists that are coming up now, because it's just this fight for attention and numbers, and people are so ready to just say, 'let's just throw away culture'.

So what do you think we need to do with this new energy, what are we doing wrong? How do we as Africans make sure that when people come for an experience, we show that we can offer up something that no one else can give?

We have to just do our own thing and cut through the noise. Because for me, it sounds like everyone's using the same sample pack and the same vocal samples. And look, I'm not going to say I'm not guilty of it too… Splice is readily available to everyone. It's just easier than ever to put out music at such a fast rate, and so if that is how we approach production from a throwaway, put-out-whatever culture, we're not respecting the time it takes to actually sit and paint that canvas. I do feel like a lot of people are getting into the game for the wrong reasons, and you can hear it in the music. Now, if we can't control our own narratives, i.e. with record labels, seeing our numbers, to just be pushing out content for the algorithm, then ultimately, we are contributing to this saturation of the sound. Of course, AI has come into play too, which influences how people produce. Everyone wants that hit, that social media moment that will get them that big stage or big show. So the question I have now is, how do we get back to our roots? Do we support our artists in a way that actually makes sense? Where are the spaces for us to thrive?

In my experience this past December, I played Sound of Summer and Amis Day Club here in Namibia, then played We Love Summer in Cape Town, and then a show with Kaytranada for the Milk and Cookies Festival afterparty in Johannesburg. We are now competing with ticket sales from big events. We are competing with big global acts and numbers, but even in this reality, people are taking their power back. DESIREE has her own party now, which I think is an inspiration to be like, it doesn't matter how big your community is, if you do have the reach, just start something. I've seen it back home in Namibia as well. When I came back, I was like, 'oh my God, they're playing Afro house hard and heavy!'. Even Sound of Summer is a great example of that revival and resurgence of us taking our power back, our narrative back. Ultimately, we shouldn't wait for anybody to see us, to acknowledge us. I've always had this idea and sense of how I operate in my career. You can't wait for people to acknowledge you, you just got to do the thing, build your own. If the world is looking to Afro house and painting it in this picture, then we really just have to flip it on its head, you know.

It can be a powerful place to create from, when you start something unique and your own, especially when you’re doing it with people who really understand you. Tell me about the Sow and Sow creative partnership with your partner, and what it’s like to have complete creative control?

Being home with my label, and being home within myself is how I make the music and the progress that I do. It’s how I’m able to show up as my authentic self and sustain myself. I always ask myself how this feels for me first before I go outward. I love that I get to take my time, and that the narrative is coming directly from me. I have so much to say! There isn’t a pressure to release with anybody, and I’m taking my time defining my sound and style in my own way, having control of my own narrative. Now that I’ve settled from the move and transitioned into touring, I feel like this year, the story is slowly unfolding. For me as a Namibian navigating this journey “alone” in terms of not having people from home that are on this journey with me necessarily, I've really had to create my own home and create that space where I can really make things. It's through working with my partner, it's through working with my friends, it's keeping the connections I have back home in Cape Town alive, which has just been the best space for me to really thrive.

My hope is to keep putting out bodies of work. AWEN spoke about this recently: people say no one listens to albums anymore, just put out a single, another single, another single. But I’m going to keep putting out bodies of work – I want you to listen to my catalogue and see the progression! My hope is that we’ll keep building the spaces that promote Afro house, amapiano and 3-step in its truest form, and welcome those who are genuinely interested in learning and growing with us. People are seeing our worth, so it’s time to take our power back.

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What do you think about power from the individualistic standpoint, where your taste, progress, and narrative doesn’t represent the greater culture you stem from? As Africans, it sometimes can feel like we’re typecast with all sorts of aesthetics or behaviours, even amongst ourselves, and even in how we express ourselves. In the age of Thebe Magugu and Trevor Stuurman, why do so many feel a resistance to trying something different?

Yes! Even the artwork for 'Lifetime in A Dance', I thought about using imagery that portrayed my culture, and that didn’t feel right. Muzi does this so well, and his heritage is prevalent throughout everything he does, in his production, style, everything in his own way. It feels authentic because it’s done right. You see, the community side of Africaness will never leave you – it’s embedded in us no matter where we go, so shining as an individual is a way of respecting yourself and carrying those values with you. There’s only something wrong with that when it’s driven by greed, greed in the sense where you forget the people who have helped you. Every period of my life there have been people who have contributed to where I am today and I’ll never forget them, and I honour them by stepping forward. Two things can be true at the same time, having this individual path but still thinking of community. You will leave your home one day, and that requires you to be aware of yourself, accept and understand your individual self. I’m really trying to identify what it is to be a Namibian electronic artist, and I don’t know what that will be like in the years to come, but it starts with the music. I have an Oshiwambo dictionary that I’m learning from to strengthen it, and there are a lot of little things I’ve added like using some rocks I brought from home that I was hitting on to make sounds. There’s a lot of ways to explore! I may not have that traditional Ovambo aesthetic, but I want to understand the history enough to respect it and find a way to grow into it. I want to take my time, go back, take what I need, and make it Gina Jeanz.

Phew! And lastly, let’s get into the mix. What’s on the menu?

My mix is a look into the two worlds I operate in as a producer and as a DJ. There are influences from 3-step and Afro house, and other electronic elements of course. As a producer I wanted to include songs from my latest EP, 'Lifetime in a Dance' in there as well, so we have 'Emoko' and 'Eternal Now' coming in. It's great, because you’re gonna hear the transitions from a more high, heavy sound to energetic, and then more soulful stuff with the sounds of Hagan and Karen Nyame KG towards the end – and I just wanted to highlight the different influences there. It’s not the kind of set that’s meant to be played out at a festival, but this is a great way to look into my mind and how I DJ for myself.

Shiba Melissa Mazaza is a freelance writer, follow her on Instagram

Tracklist:
Blackwhole - 1000 Seconds (Atmos Blaq Remix)
Chronicle Deep - Ike
Demayä - You Are
Deep Narratives - Ebaba
Afro Exotiq - La Lucci
Tal Fussmann - Parallel Reality
Gina Jeanz - Emoko
Lokua Kanza, Gerald Toto, Richard Bona - Youwile (Hagan Remix)
Joeski - Para Elegua
Kasango x Hyenah - Electrolog
Tony Touch - Apaga La Luz (Pablo Fierro Raw Mix)
Gin Jeanz - Eternal Now
GEOTHEORY - Arrival
Kelela - Contact (Karen Nyame KG Remix)