Music has always taken shape in various forms, being boxed in different genres and their technicalities. As time progresses music has gotten more fluid and takes a more laissez-faire approach. With lines blurred between various genres, the digital age has really given birth to a bag of all sorts in terms of cross-breathe genres in the music space. The same notion goes for Durban based Neo-Drum producer, singer and songwriter Garde.

Siphesihle Siswana, who makes music under the pseudonym; Garde, is a 23-year-old, Indie artist from the East Coast, who describes himself as “that little skinny kid, with like all these crazy ideas that no one ever really thought they would work”. Garde’s make up has always shied away from the conventional approach. With an unorthodox demeanour, which is probably due to him growing up in a home that is art orientated. “My family is super musical bro, like super musical. My late uncle [Wake Mahlobo] used to play drums for Michael Jackson whenever he was in the country and Yolanda Adams. He played for every single Joyous Celebration. My other uncle Duze Mahlobo, he’s also a world renowned guitarist, my other uncle is also a painter”. With all these musical and artistic influences in his family, Garde dabbled with music growing up, being in ensemble groups, to actually attempting to rap. Though due to a lack of inspiration, Garde quit rapping because he felt it wasn’t for him “I was feeling music but I wasn’t inspired enough to pursue it”. After high school he chose to pursue a degree in Business Law.

While trying to get his degree, Garde talks about picking up his iPad to start making music again, inspired by a romantic relationship he had with his high school best friend, “It was after this really hectic heartbreak, it’s cheesy bro but it’s so true”. At this point, he begins to tell me his thoughts on the concept of love after the break up, “love, no one can really put like a definitive answer to what is love, because it’s very subjective but now we’re living in the twenty first century, where society defines something and everybody goes with it. Not realising that when it doesn’t work out, they start to blame love and not society. Love should be a thing where you define what it is and what it means to you and your partner”. The breakup inspired Garde to rekindle with his musical background, at the same time, it made Durban feel claustrophobic for him, “I needed space, everywhere I went, people were just like you guys need to get back together”.

This saw him facilitate a move to Johannesburg where he lived with his friend Peezy, while still making music on his iPad and producing on Garage Band. “I went to Peezy’s, Peezy lived in Midrand, I think that’s when I met Wichi 1080 and then KLY and Bonafide and thingamajiggy, what’s his name… oh Priddy, Priddy Ugly, that’s where I met them right, remember that I’m still on an iPad and I’m meeting up with Wichi 1080, this nigga whose beats are insane”. This is when Garde would get introduced to producing on Fruity Loops (digital audio workstation), he talks to me about how it all happened, “I picked up Fruity Loops because they were like’yo man you need to use Fruity Loops’ I was just trying it out”. Skeptical of his production at the time and in awe regarding the work that Wichi would produce, he still believed that his own work was futuristic and centered around him using his voice as an instrument. “They never really saw me as an artist, they just saw me as this cool guy that stayed with Peezy“. From there, Garde was inspired by the people around him and that got him to improve on his production.

The move to Johannesburg was evidently the catalyst that made him pursue music full time. Relocating to Durban where he would decide to withdraw from his studies at Varsity College, from there Garde went to Centre Of Performing Arts (COPA) to study music. His time at COPA was cut short due to being restricted to only doing covers, “every week we had to sing covers, I remember asking the dean of that school, why can’t I just write a song, or compose a song for that specific genre or even those progressions that are used and they were like ‘things are not done like that’ and in my head that wasn’t registering ’cause this is a music school”. After dropping out of COPA, Garde decided to get a job to pay off his tuition fees at Varsity College and COPA, he explains doing this as an attempt at a fresh start, “I wanted to start off fresh and I wanted to start off fresh without killing my moms pockets”.

After his fresh start, Garde started working on his first project titled Women Epilogue, struggling to find the right synergy within studios in Durban at the same time conceding his lack of maturity vocally, “I’m very sensitive to everything around me, down to energy, down to literally everything around me”. This was a time where he would speak his mind to sound engineers regarding the elements in their studios. Garde tells me how he has never been afraid to speak his mind when energies aren’t right, “I’m an intense person, Nelson [The Aries] knows me, if I don’t like something I’ll tell you, I’m very straight forward”. With some of the money he had left from the jobs he put in, Garde then decided to jet off to Cape Town, where he ended up at Cosher Studios,“I used up my remaining money to record Women Epilogue [at Cosher Studios]”. Cosher Studios was where the energy was right for Garde, he finished his debut extended play; Women Epilogue. In the interview, he then stops and calls out for his friend, “ey Beyond, imma call you in probably like a few minutes”. Beyond is Garde’s executive producer, he calls him to narrate how they met at Red Bull studios, the two met through a mutual friend, from there they would find creative synergy and start working together, to a point where Garde doesn’t go into the studio without Beyond, “I don’t operate if he’s not there”.

From all the travelling back and forth, he came back to Durban and this is where he made songs like Traveler off his 2017 EP titled Compilation, he started playing songs off his mini speaker and describing them, bumping records like I Don’t Know Why, “I wanted to address the unsaid things”. Beyond, Garde’s producer, was still building and engineering studios all over South Africa, so Garde was still recording and producing without him at the time. This is when he discovered Neo-Drum, “Neo-Drum is like Neo-soul chords, tribal drums, electronic elements, Jazz arrangements and then my flavour. Together that ends up becoming Neo-Drum, with a little bit of cinematic flavour”. Working with Beyond, Garde has made his best music to date, the two have focused on spacey and detailed production.

Together with Beyond, Garde has also managed to collaborate with Cape Town based singer and dancer Yanga YaYa, together they released Garde’s latest single titled Appreciation, even though Garde has never met Yanga, through Beyond they’ve recorded numerous songs together. Garde is working on a brand new project which will be released soon, he played some of it to me before we wrapped up and he said, “by the time this project comes out, these songs will probably sound different”. His urge for perfection means that he constantly reworks his music over and over again until it sounds perfect. He will also be working on Neo-Drum sessions, where he’ll invite different artists into his Neo-Drum space and production. You can link up with Garde on all his social media platforms.

@gardenotgod