KSMBA is moving the needle. The Ugandan-Australian DJ and producer Bella Kasimba once imagined their life as a classical musician. Moving to London at the age of 18, they studied at the Royal College of Music there as a saxophonist and graduated with a Bachelor of Music Performance with honours. Cut to 2021, and Kasimba was back in Australia feeling the pull of electronic music, DJing and creating the KSMBA project. The music they produce is free and unfiltered, just like them. We sat down with them to talk new music and making waves:

Roxy Lola: Tell us what you’re working on today.

KSMBA: I’ve got three tracks coming out with Gallery Recs, which is an independent Australian dance music label. I’m just finishing up the last two of those, which will be released at the end of March.

Roxy: Nice. Is the sound much like what you have released so far or are you going in a different direction?

KSMBA: It’s quite different. I’ve been sitting with the concept of honesty a lot in music. I think it can be very hard and scary to make stuff that’s more genuine. I’ve realised that sometimes people hide behind certain things in music. This music is a lot more harmonic, melodic and emotion-driven. I’m sure it will continue to evolve – this is only the very beginning of my journey.

Roxy: Was there a shift that made you consciously realise that you wanted to be more honest in your music?

KSMBA: I think my life has been a series of reckonings. I started out as a classical musician from a young age. I pursued that so doggedly, totally fixated, and I loved it. I still love it but classical music never quite sat right in my body. There was always a feeling of constriction or slight unease with it. So I studied overseas and came back to Australia during Covid. I was about to move overseas [again] to do my master’s degree when lockdown happened. I asked myself if this was really the right thing for me. It was also at that point that I came out as gay and then a little after that I came out as non-binary. All this truthfulness in my personal life meant I was able to translate that into my music. About two years ago I switched to electronic music and last winter I had to face up to some things that had happened in my life. I also had a great new psychologist.

Roxy: That’ll do it.

KSMBA: I acknowledge the privilege I have to be able to take up even a small amount of space in the industry. I feel like coming from a community that isn’t often heard or given a seat at the table has made me realise my intention with music is to show up in these opportunities I get as honest. I realised that there was a lot I could be doing to a greater depth. It can be scary to be straightforward.

Roxy: Especially when you have a platform.

KSMBA: Yeah. I think when you’re at an early stage in your career as an artist, you almost feel you need to be quite passive, to just take what you’re given and not say too much. It’s easy to let those voices in and feel like you need to wait until your time comes before you can do what you want. I realised I’m wasting time if I’m waiting for someone to give me permission. I just need to make what I want to make and do what I do. I hope it resonates with people. I guess it also brings up the question of is art only worthwhile if it’s commercially successful or is there value in creating things that are beautiful and truthful? I believe there’s inherent value in doing [the latter].

Roxy: Do you feel the pressure of commercial success?

KSMBA: I think about it a lot, yeah. People say, “Well, this is the way you have to do it.” But they don’t have life experience like mine. I think it’s vastly misunderstood that even if I took the exact same steps and did the exact same thing as, say, my white counterparts, I’m not going to have the same response. It gives me an opportunity because I know that even if I play by the rules, those rules aren’t going to work for me. It gives me a bit more freedom to just decide I’m just going to do what I want to do anyway. I think there can be pressure as a DJ or as an electronic act that you need to be making music that other DJs will play or that’s for partying, but I have to believe for my own sake that the possibilities are broader. That there’s more scope for different kinds of expression. It’s easy to classify people if you stick to one thing.

Roxy: I often think about how it’s easier for people to understand others if they fit them into one box, but I also do so many different things and I don’t want to be boxed in. Playing small makes it easier for other people but I’ve recently been trying not to do that any more.

KSMBA: I feel that so deeply. Especially as femmes or wo-men or anyone that’s not a cis man, we’re so conditioned to just keep the people around us comfortable. Writing this new music, I’ve been thinking about acknowledging satires that deserve to be told and heard. We’re conditioned to minimise ourselves. Even when you’re an artist it can feel like you have to stay in your lane.

Roxy: My experience with men in the music industry has definitely been interesting. It’s still such a boys’ club, especially behind the scenes.

KSMBA: It’s astounding. I don’t want to be pessimistic but in the electronic and dance scene it’s exhausting to try to have those conversations with people behind closed doors and help expand their mindsets a little bit. People will agree [with you] to your face but don’t follow through with their actions. Take the issue of festival line-ups, for example. After the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, people on the surface attempted to be a bit more conscious. But it seems like, now, it’s mostly male acts, my friends and I have noticed. How is this becoming normal again?

Roxy: I interviewed the brilliant New Zealand artist Fazerdaze last year and when I asked her how she’d change the industry, her answer was to see more women on festival line-ups.

KSMBA: Yeah, exactly. These are the people occupying the spaces of power in the industry. You see amazing grassroots collectives coming up doing incredible stuff, especially down here in Naarm, there’s an absolutely thriving QTPOC scene of dance music. There’s no money in that, so if you want to make a career or build a life out of music you have to enter the commercial space.

Roxy: You should start your own festival.

KSMBA: Honestly, I would. First up, I just want to take the KSMBA project as far as I can.

Roxy: How did you learn to produce?

KSMBA: I just downloaded Ableton. In the beginning, honestly, it was hours and hours of sitting at my computer. I’d say I’m still only just learning how to use it.

Roxy: Do you think classical music has helped you to produce and DJ? I also studied classical when I was younger and always felt that’s how I could understand production and DJing.

KSMBA: One hundred per cent. I’m so thankful for my previous life in music. The technical skills of learning to produce and write dance music is obviously different to how classical music is structured. The emotions and storytelling are different, but in terms of building a sense of musicality and even a musical identity, it has helped. I feel very lucky that I’m coming from a place where I have very clear ideas. The only growing pains are in the sense of trying to understand the software and translate what I want into a keyboard. It’s immensely satisfying.

Roxy: It’s very cool that you went to the Royal College of Music in London. I know you call it a past life but what was that experience like? What have you taken from it?

KSMBA: I look back and I actually don’t know how I did it. I was 18 when I got a scholarship to go study there and travelled across the world. I was the biggest nerd you can possibly imagine. I love that I just went and lived in this huge city on my own with no life skills. My degree was four years and it was amazing. There’s a lot of pressure there to keep performing and achieving. It was extremely difficult and I don’t know how I got through it, but it was unbelievably rewarding. I was extremely driven back then and I’m very emotionally greedy. I like to pursue things intensely and see how far my brain can take it. I’ve taken that with me. I’m still extremely close with my saxophone professor.

Roxy: Do you play saxophone on your tracks?

KSMBA: No, not at all. I did it so intensely. The practice regime to maintain that level was six hours a day so I can’t engage with it casually. Maybe one day. Stay tuned.

Roxy: When did you find DJing?

KSMBA: When I was a kid I went to WOMAdelaide, the music festival. My parents used to take me and I saw Bonobo there. That’s the first time I remember thinking, I want to do that. This is niche but we had the video game DJ Hero. I loved that.

Roxy: What’s your approach to crafting a set?

KSMBA: I spend a lot of time digging. I’d say it’s a combination of knowing where the set’s going to be, what time of day it is and what’s the energy of the night or party or festival. And how I’m feeling. I do plan my sets and prepare quite a lot but I allow space for freedom and what can happen.

Roxy: What’s a track you always play?

KSMBA: Stronger by the Brazilian producer Kaio Barssalos. It’s the most euphoric song – it has a Noughties house vocal over the top. It’s almost Detroit techno-ish. It’s such a good track. I don’t play a lot of vocal tracks, so once I bring this one in it’s very satisfying.

Roxy: Best night out ever?

KSMBA: Everyone always assumes as a DJ and producer I go out all night. To be honest, I’m quite a granny. But when I’m in show mode I party more. Best night of my life? That’s hard. I would say my favourite night was when I went to this party series run by DJ Mon Franco called Open Scene. It’s a QTPOC club night at Miscellania [in Melbourne]. It was so fun because my favourite way to party and let go is when I’m surrounded by people I feel safe with. When you can look around the dance floor and everyone’s smiling and connecting… It was one of those nights.

Roxy: Which DJs do you love?

KSMBA: Floating Points. The original [Detroit] techno guys like The Belleville Three. My friend Tinika, who is the most fire DJ and producer. And then there’s this [English] jazz musician, Shabaka Hutchings, who I’d do almost anything to work with.

Roxy: Do you ever listen to mainstream pop music? I’m guessing probably not.

KSMBA: What’s mainstream? I’ve listened to Billie Eilish!

Roxy: I was literally about to say Billie Eilish.

KSMBA: Her new album [2024’s Hit Me Hard and Soft] is amazing. But I listen to a lot of jazz, soul and electronic music. I also recently watched the Avicii documentary [Avicii – I’m Tim]. I know a lot of techno producers are against pop or mainstream music, but writing a track that’s three minutes long that has an emotional punch, and being able to condense your ideas into that concentrated medium, is so incredible. I think Avicii was a phenomenal songwriter. You can’t deny it, even if it’s not to your taste.

Roxy: Yeah, to break through on that level, there’s obviously something he had or did that resonated with people’s humanity.

KSMBA: Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m thinking with my music. The world is such a messed-up place that my way of dealing is allowing myself to experience joy and softness and sadness and grief over the state of it. But also curiosity about what we can do to change things. I think I’m interested in creating music that can hopefully transmit some level of emotion and connection and bring people together, not further apart.

Taken from Issue 25 of 10 Magazine Australia - MUSIC, TALENT, CREATIVE - on newsstands now.

KSMBA wears CHANEL SS25 throughout.

Photographer ROB TENNENT
Fashion Editor ABBY BENNETT
Talent KSMBA
Text ROXY LOLA
Hair SELINA at SM COSMETICS HAIR and ROSALINE KANNEH
Make-up JASMINE ABDALLAOUI using CHANEL BEAUTY
Photographer’s assistants FERGUS LOCKE and AIDAN OUMA-MACHIO
Fashion assistant KUSHLA EVERITT-KINGSTON
Production R D PRODUCTIONS and DEBORAH AN
Shot at CROSSTALK RECORDS, SYDNEY

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