AS young boys, gathering at their late grandfather’s house, with their cousins, to listen to him play the saxophone, these musician brothers from Bloemendal, just knew that music would forever be their passion.
Just two years after winning a competition, organised by South African music giants, Mi Casa, to remix their hit single, Nana, Waven (24) and Ruwayne Sebia (21), known collectively as Jay Em, have been making waves in the music industry.
Their EP, Coloured In, was released recently and features top artists such as Mi Casa’s lead vocalist, J’ Something, and Cape Town artist, YoungstaCPT, among others.
According to the DJ duo, each song on the EP represents a specific colour. “This body of work has a unique touch to it that takes you on a ‘feel-good’ journey. To the listeners, colours might differ from one person to another; it all depends on how the songs make each individual feel,” they said.
“It has been scientifically proven that colours are triggered in the mind when music hits or keys are being played, so it will be very interesting to know which colours our listeners think of when listening to our songs.”
Growing up in the northern areas of Nelson Mandela Bay, where gangsterism is rife, the brothers, who now reside in Johannesburg, knew from a young age that they wanted a different life for themselves.
“When you live in such an area, you never know what to expect.
“All we could think about was how we could use our gift to escape that reality, but also to go back and show others at home that there is hope out there.
“We want to show others that you can make something of yourselves because we were all born with a purpose,” they added.
“We just kept on believing and pushing forward. We knew that something good would come out of this, even if we were surrounded by gangsterism and hardship in our community.”
The duo ascribes their determination to make a success of their musical career to their late friend and fellow DJ, Neelan Munnick, who was professionally known as Four7.
Munnick died in a car crash in December 2014, at the age of 19.
“Neelan was the one who introduced us to a software programme called FL Studio. We played around with it, made different beats every day until we decided to put one of our tracks out there and got a good response.
“That was the day we decided that music is definitely what we want to pursue.
“We made the decision to continue Neelan’s legacy and everything we do is in loving memory of him. We learned so much from him and we’re just trying to continue his marathon.”
The brothers feel extremely blessed about their progress so far. “When it comes to making music, our goal was always to challenge ourselves creatively, especially with regard to genre. We blend two genres into one.
“We want to inspire others by showing up-and-coming artists that there are no rules to making music. Like us, you don’t have to focus on a specific genre.
“We make music based completely on emotion and how the music makes us feel.”
