Sho Mag Afro House Magazine
‘On The SpotLight’ this week we have a ‘one on one’ with a man who has been in the game for some time now. From his chart topping album ‘Lockdown’ which was dropped back in 2015 to collaboration projects with labels such as ‘House Afrika, Soul candi, Deepforest, Define Dub, Dj Syndicate’, ‘Roque’ has both feet firmly planted on the ‘Deep House Music Scene’. This time around we catch up with him and give you the ‘inside scoop’ on what he has been up to. ‘On The SpotLight’, I present to you ‘Roque’.
ShoMag: Big up on taking some time out for this ‘one on one’ and welcome to ‘The SpotLight’. Let’s start by kicking things off on a lighter note, who is ‘Roque’ and where is she from?
Roque: ‘Roque’ is Sibusiso Neville Mtsweni, I was born and raised in Mpumalanga Witban, South Africa and recently moved to Johannesburg.
ShoMag: You have been in the game for a while now and have dropped releases such as ‘Signals’ back in the days. For you where does the love of Music come from especially ‘House Music’ and how did your musical journey start?
Roque: I was just so fascinated by the way producers in the early 90’s just lifted the tempo of jazz songs and the way they sampled them when making house ‘it blew me away’. So I was buying a whole lot of cassettes by legends like ‘Glen Lewis, Vinny Da Vinci, Dj Fresh’ and so on.
ShoMag: Throughout your ‘illustrious music career’, what has been the ‘one challenge’ you had to overcome and what would your advice be to an artist or musician faced with a similar challenge?
Roque: Self-Doubt was a challenge caused by people around me and fellow musicians so I just took a step back and looked at where I was at exactly and remembered what got me there. ‘I just believe in my music’.
ShoMag: ‘Mzansi’ is definitely rich with ‘talented musicians’. Do you share the same sentiments and if so as the ‘Dance Music Loving Nation’, are we on the correct track?
Roque: Yes we are on the right path but ‘we don’t invest in production equipment and software’. Most deep house music producers tend to sound the same because of this and as long as our radio stations are still playing their close friend’s music or people they know personally we will never grow.
