Kearne Dragon on His Latest Release and The Budding Music Scene in Pretoria

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Kearne Dragon is back with his latest release in the form of his EP, “You Don’t Know Me// I Don’t Know Myself”. Released earlier this year, the 10 song project was created in the space of 6 days and runs for 22 minutes long.

Kearne flexes his versatility with this offering and states he is an artist first before anything else,  making it clear that he sees himself as a lot more than just a rapper.

Dragon started his musical career by playing the violin before eventually morphing into the artist he is today. The growth since then has been significant and You Don’t Know Me// I Don’t Know Myself is a testimony to the hard work he has been putting in over the years.

For more on the making of his latest release, his creative process, and the Pretoria music scene have a look at the full interview below.

This interview has been lightly edited for the purpose of context and clarity.

Daniel Young: I saw the genre “hip-hop” and immediately formulated an idea of what you were going to sound like (more of an American trap rapper) and this obviously wasn’t the case. Talk to me about your versatility as an artist. How did this come to be? 

Kearne Dragon: I would say my influences are everything I listen to if I’m being completely honest, we’re in an age where we have Apple Music, and when I was young Limewire, which makes music very accessible. I listened to punk, rock, rap even every sub-genre of rap. I even play the violin which meant I had to study music in High School so I basically find inspiration in so many things. 

Was the decision to do music independently always the plan?

To be honest, I was never offered a label deal or anything like that so it wasn’t even a conscious decision, like I always wanted to make music so I had to do everything myself. It’s not like I sat there and said I wanted to be an independent artist, that was the only option. 

Talk to me about the music scene in Pretoria, what is it like?

It’s literally non-existent, people throw events but it’s always for DJs. Nobody really cares who is performing they just want to go out and have a good time. Having said that there is a lot of talent here just nowhere to show it. 

We spoke about versatility earlier and while listening to your EP, I noticed there were a few tracks that are heavily influenced by the UK drill sound. Did you just decide to add them or what was the process like?

To be honest it wasn’t my idea. My producer had been making drill beats for a while and I listened to drill too but during that time I began to dig a little deeper into more UK music. It was so bad that I had to beg him to stop making drill beats! When I heard the beats it was very easy to hop on and try something different but I also tried to give it my own spin. Also, a lot of South African music is influenced by America and if you think about it England actually colonized us, so making a song on the drill beats was really a fun experience for me as I could actually pronounce certain words just like I say them and didn’t have to sound American.  

Do you think that because you have a musical background it’s easier to make music?

Yeah, well my producer and I went to the same high school together so we’ve been making music together since we were in the school band. I would say it does help, in anything, there are chords, progression, and cadences. Even the way the Migos raps is a type of cadence called triplets in music. Having a background in music does most certainly help, even the way I rap my producer sometimes asks me to rap in key. So to answer your question it would help. 

When you’re in the studio recording do you take advice from others?

The short answer is yes but I don’t listen to everyone. I have the time right, so the people I listen to for advice on my music are my manager, my producer, and another artist by the name of Dillion John. These are all people who know me personally and want the best for me. But if someone else is in the studio and they’re like I don’t know then I don’t give a f*ck.  The majority of the work that I did on my tape actually didn’t go down well with my close circle but I trust myself so much that I just went with it. If I believe in an idea of mine, I’ll follow through with it 100%. 

Your project is 22 minutes long; did you create a short project on purpose with having the listeners in mind, considering nobody likes to listen to long songs anymore?

To be honest we make the songs really quickly, as my producer is making the beat I’ll be rapping to it already before the beats are even done. As soon as I’m done I’ll be ready to make another song, that’s also why I won’t do more than two verses normally. It’s not like I write before and have this massive plan I honestly just feel things out, that’s why the songs and project is so short- I say what I want to say and then I’m done. To me this is an ep so I just went with what I felt. If I was to create an album I would sit down, write lyrics and tell stories about how I feel. Now that I think about it I’m k*k lazy, writing raps takes so much out of a person! You need to rhyme shit all the time, like f*ck it’s exhausting. 

Do you know “finisher” is my favourite song off the project?

Wait, Lubouy?! Lubouy? He told me not to put this song on my ep... Dude are you hearing this? Ah he has headphones on. Sorry what did you want to ask?

The song feels like it ends the ep but obviously you have the outro to round off the project, this song just feels organic. Tell me more about the creation process? 

The funniest thing about that song is the features, they both aren’t rappers. Kick & Push is a photographer and BMFKD is just my friend that lives nearby and I play Fifa with. The vibes in the studio was fun, so as a joke I was like everyone just hop on. That’s why it feels so fun and organic because it was just natural chemistry.

Did you have any doubts about putting the song out then since your manager wasn’t having any of it?

Nah, again I trusted myself completely. To me that was a moment. It wasn’t just a song, everyone was over, we were having a good time drinking and smoking then my friends just started rapping. It was fun and I thought that feeling would be conveyed. It’s really crazy because Kick & Push is a photographer, he doesn’t write and BMFKD is a rugby player, that’s why he says I’m sidestepping the beat looks like craven week. 

I’m looking at the cover art now and it’s really interesting. I feel that cover art helps to tell the story of the project as well. Can you tell me the backstory behind it?

I don’t know if you saw the reels on my Instagram page? But they’re short music videos 30 seconds long and basically tell a story of me getting killed. At the end it reveals that I’m the one who killed me like another version of myself killed me. So in the cover art they are arguing for control, you know the one is tuning the other one- its Kearne versus Dragon. Dragon would be me on songs like ruin and rotation when I’m really rowdy and Kearne would be the intro, outro and finisher when I’m really rapping.

Has your creative process been affected by the pandemic? 

Uhm, dude I can’t even lie to you our lives haven’t changed that much. In Pretoria, we’ve still been enjoying ourselves, I’ve had a few gigs with restrictions, of course, it’s not that nice but it’s something you know? We’re not as isolated as other parts of the country.

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