Mainstream is dead - Q&A with Christian Tiger School

Christian Tiger School, can you enlighten us as to how you got your name?

Luc: When we first started out and were planning that we were going to actually go out and do this, we were throwing around some names, the most random shit possible. We took a few randoms and threw them together and we came up with Christian Tiger School. We were like: "Hey, it's pretty stupid but kinda funny."
Seb: It doesn't have any secret meaning or anything.

What have been your biggest musical influences?

Seb: I'd have to say Teebs, Gold Panda and Bath.
Luc: For me it is definitely guys like J-Dilla, DJ Premier and Flying Lotus who were completely different to anything we had heard before. I was into harder stuff before, but when I came back from America, Seb had this stuff and I'm only beginning to appreciate it now, I'm more into the hip hop and electronic side. I forgot the question! (laughs)
Seb: It was just basically matching the two together; it's almost like a battle that, in the end, always works out. Like Luc will try to make it his sound then I'll try to make it mine and we cut that in the middle. It is what it is.
Luc: I sit on my ass and am on the Internet a lot, so I'm constantly finding new artists and there's a lot of really, really talented guys doing stuff overseas, even here. Sometimes we both just sit back and get influenced by those sounds. We don't steal from other artists, we will just take influences and incorporate that into our own way because we're still trying to build our own sound.

How long has Christian Tiger been in existence and how did you guys meet?

Luc: (points to Seb) He's been making beats for a long time. I met him two years ago through friends. We're both from town.
Seb: When we met we just started making chilled stuff, there was no real goal in sight then. We just enjoyed doing it. When people started hearing it they were like "you should do something with it".
Luc: And here we are now. The rest happened very, very suddenly.

Any awkward things ever happen to you during a gig?

Seb: Nothing immediate comes to mind, but once we were in Stellenbosch and the sound guy there was changing mixes. Everything was going fine, the place was quite busy but then halfway through our set we got cut. Silence. Not knowing what to do I just started singing Marvin Gaye!
Luc: We will always be random, when we play it cannot be defined what we do exactly. We do some really dumb shit sometimes! (both laugh) When we opened for PH Fat at Assembly, at the end of our set we were just messing around and dropped a "I'm a Hustler" by Cassidy sample. Then we both started going out of sync and we both just looked at each other and thought "why aren't you doing anything?" and then a couple of people in front of the crowd began booing! We saved it though, just had so much fun that night. It's something we hope people will get used to, just us messing around but having a good time while dropping phat beats.

Your favourite local artists?

Seb: From a producing side, I'd say Oxblood, Whiteknight and then other musical aspects, for example Bateleur, crazy. And then Shadowclub, I enjoy their sound a lot, like a Southern rock kind of sound.
Luc: I've always admired Sibot, also Remy Gold, Richard the Third, Whiteknight, pretty much the same as Seb. Oh and dank, he's mad.
Seb: Yeah, him and Jacob Snake who's also cool.

Is hip hop dead?

Seb: No. You just have to look harder. When you have love for the music it will also have a way of finding you.
Luc: Mainstream is dead.

What does the future hold for Christian Tiger School?

Seb: I can't say where we'll be, but I can tell you where we would like to be. A big goal for me, and I'm sure for Luc too, will be to get signed by a nice label.
Luc: If we could do something like Spoek Mathambo, I mean he's just growing on everyone and he didn't change his sound in order to be liked. As the years progress, hopefully we will be able to do more live stuff, get a collective group of people and jam. We would love to branch out overseas as well.

Christian Tiger School are on Facebook and SoundCloud. Get in there!

Article previously published on www.citylifer.co.za