The enigma that is Alex biaya
Ahead of his new single, releasing on the 23rd of August, we sat down with Alex Biaya to explore his music, his brand, and his universe.
Alex Biaya might not yet be a household name, but you should know of him. If you don’t, you will. Model, singer, and podcast host, I first met Alex in 2016 during my brief stint at UCT when he was just one of the boys. After seeing the growth of the Posties Podcast and getting to know his music, I ran into him one First Thursday evening and figured it was time for a young catch-up.
The conversation flowed its own way, and I don’t think either he or I thought it would go the route that it did. We found ourselves remarking on not just his music, but his growth, his presence in the culture, the nature of the culture itself, and the cusp of the African Renaissance which the industry and the world is discovering and where we place ourselves amidst all this.
Alex shot by @chebernxrdo
Who is Alex Biaya, and what is his brand?
“An enigma. People say they're confused, but that's just because they are not yet able to see the view from the high level yet. They haven't gotten the full picture.”
“There’s the fashion. Fashion has always been a part of me, my mom used to make clothes, so that's a part of me as well. There’s the Posties Podcast, the part where I'm speaking to people now. I get that from my dad who was a pastor, and that's where my ability to understand and vibe with people comes from.”
“Being surrounded by all these people who were cooking, all just doing their thing, just brought it out of me and made me realise that not only do I wanna play, I wanna create. And not only do I wanna create, but this creation is a part of something else that's bigger.”
There are so many parts that I can't even think of them all. It's a balancing aspect at the end of the day, and I'm trying to balance all these aspects, but I’m always trying to be real, and to be real for myself, and not for others.”
How did you go from a UCT Finance grad to a musician?
“In a sense it's always been in me, just not that overt.”
“My life from grade school until varsity, I've always found myself in spaces surrounded by music, but it was never overt. I had the potential to dabble, but never the depth because I was academically focused. From there to here, a lot of self-discoveries and asking myself what it is that I want, led me to the point where I had to fully jump into my potential career in finance.”
“When it came down to it though, I was like ‘Bro, really?’. The answer was no, I didn't wanna do it at all.”
“When it came to the point of where I found myself the happiest, it was in the music and the arts and modelling since varsity teased that. Going from modelling to music was a change however, because that was easy. All I had to do was show up and get the bag.”
“Music is different though. Having to record, put it together, have it boxed, and then having to stand on business a few months later, I ended up putting a lot more into it, but it's more of me in the art, and in the work, and that’s where I’m happiest.”
Does your foray into the corporate world help how you move as an artist, in a business sense?
“100%, and it goes even beyond the business aspect.”
“One thing I've been taught is how to think. Having to do something, repeat it, and get good at it, that made me realise that there's a pattern to getting good at something. Getting good at something looks one way, and that's consistency, dedication, asking yourself questions, and going back to the drawing board.”
“There's a lot that I pull out from that world to be honest, from the jargon, the ability to speak to people, and also just the way I interact with people, I learnt from not only being a person, but being a person in certain spaces. Going on that journey was very self-educational, you either figure out how to sink or how to swim, and when you swim, it's pervasive.”
“Even now with the music, I’m still figuring out how to swim, but I think I’m doing good. I think I’m hitting the strokes (pause).”
The cover of Alex's 2022 EP, Office hours
How would you describe your music to the people who don’t know?
“Another universe. At this stage it’s like opening a flower, and each petal that opens up is a new layer.”
“I started this journey, and obviously because I could sing, I fell into RnB. Automatically, because I'm African, I also wanted to dabble in some Afro beats, some Amapiano, and some of those elements. And I know I'm not done yet; I know there are still more elements for me to play around with.”
“If I had to disclose a little bit, there's a Rock song that's being cooked, there's a Drill song that's being cooked, and I don't feel unnatural in those spaces. It doesn't feel like I'm trying too hard, and I can't wait to share these items with everybody, but that will come with time.”
“As much as I’ve been in this space for a while, the space sees me as new, so I'm spoon feeding y’all. You’re seeing the outer petals that have been touched by the sun, that have been outside, and at this point looks kinda like everything else.”
“There's still another layer in the middle that hasn't even seen the light yet, and that's what I’m seeing.”
Tell us about the new project - what are you planning?
“I’m holding back on a project to be honest. I really wanna give Cape Town time to digest, and I would like to tackle it a bit differently. I wanna try a different business strategy.”
“I could drop a whole banger book, even if it's a fire project, and you’ll listen to it today, listen to it tomorrow, and then by the next week you’d be asking me for more.”
“I want you guys to enjoy the work, and I want to really grow my people. I’m gonna drop this single and I want you guys to enjoy it, and then I'll drop the next one, and the next one.”
“Maybe I'll put them all together at some point, maybe it’ll be fresh bangers, at which point it’ll be a new thing. Right now all I’m trying do is drop something, and interact with my people, and interact with the music.”
What goes into making your music, creatively?
“The process depends on who I'm working with.”
“If I'm working from a distance, I'll go through the pack that the producer sends me, and I'll go through it and wait for the sound to connect with me. Once it connects, I'll just run melodies, and by the time I'm done with the melodies, the song has already taken form. I know what the song is about, and I can feel it. The melodies really just inform the song, and I know then what angle I'm approaching it from.”
“When I'm actually in a session with the producer, then it's a matter of how we feel. I check in with the homie, and check how he's doing. I ask myself; do I feel the same way? Do I vibe with that? If I do, then we roll with it.”
“I try to always write the truth. And not just my truth, but other truths that I’ve experienced, other points of view, so much so that it ends up being a collage of truths.”
“I also try to write from a point where it's pure within me. Music is personal. I sit and I write it. Why must I not write something that I can relate to? At the end of the day, if I'm writing about you, I want you to know that you’ve inspired something.”
“I'm always writing throughout my daily life. I walk around with my notepad. I’d hate to keep my writing to one space, to have to push it out in the studio in the space of an hour or two, so I write it as I'm living it.”
“I think writing is by virtue of living.”
What is it like juggling an ‘adult’ corporate job with everything else?
“It's very necessary. I see it from the perspective of being African. We come from a place where we have to juggle a lot of things. We come from a place where there are people behind us, and there are people ahead of us, and they’re always looking for something that we’re going to produce, something that they can see and be inspired by.”
“It's not easy, it's expensive in the sense of energy, and time, but it serves. The homies in corporate know what I'm doing, and I’ve been able to have them support me as well. Everyone is rooting for the final win, and that inspires me.”
“The way I'm doing it, it's difficult, and it's expensive via the energy, but it's necessary. I don't believe in the idea of being a starving artist. As Africans we don't have time to waste, to be sitting around doing nothing, and we don’t have the luxury of just chilling. That's just not how we were brought up.”
“At the end of the day, if I can put myself out there, and make something happen with my other skills and talents, then why shouldn't I? So I'll do the 9-5, I'll do the modeling, I'll do the music, and I'll do whatever else I find capacity for. I won't force it, but I've found that the more I've tried, the more I've found capacity for.”
Let's talk about Posties. How did it come into being?
“To be honest, myself and Themba just wanted to spend time together.”
“We realised that as we get older, and get more responsibilities, we can't slack, and always be chilling, and as we get busier, we just don’t see each other as much. But, when you have to sit down and have a conversation with each other once a week, you have to make the time for each other.”
“That’s really what it's about, it's about us.”
“We go out and cause havoc as a twosome, and at the end of the night we’re back at home and random people are at our place. We looked around and realised, ‘Oh, this is a thing, it happens, so why not do this productively, why not use it to platform the people that are here, because they’re all dope.’ The chats were always fire, and after saying ‘I wish we had a camera here for this’ so many times, eventually there was a camera, a microphone, and a platform.”
And how is the podcast doing?
“It's been progressing really well. We’re at the point now where the people who want to come on as guests are high profile, and we appreciate that, but we’re also trying to stay true to the grassroots nature of where it started.”
“So, it's a balance of always catching the boys, as well as trying to catch the people who want to come on and do their work.”
“That's what the platform is about. It's about finding out about people that we don't know, while at the same time, finding the people that we know that nobody knows, because talent lives in both places, and the amalgamation of both has been beautiful.”
“The Posties platform is very special to me, because it's something that I feel like something that was necessary for the culture. We needed a platform where homies could come on and it could be serious chat, or it could just be hella banter. As long as people can come on and just put their spirit out there. That's what we try to capture, the essence of who they are.”
“On First Thursdays when Themba and I step out, almost every location we step into, someone greets us by saying ‘P-p-p-posties!’. It's still weird for us to get that. It's wild for us to experience, but that's what it's all about.”
“Let the kids see what's going on, let the kids feel like they’re a part of it, because they are, and without them there wouldn't be a culture. We would just be performing to walls, singing to empty chairs. We want to fill the walls up, we want them to be full of collages and pictures of things that we’ve built over time. We’re trying to build an archive, that's what Posties is.”
Having mentioned the kids, what is it like for you reminiscing back to the time when you were one of those kids stepping out into these spaces, what is it like seeing the fresh faces now and telling yourself “We need to do this for you”?
“It's exciting, because I remember that time.”
“Do you remember the time back in first year? When we were stepping outside, all doe-eyed, going out to Night Show at the Waiting Room, deep in the mosh pit while the floor was literally bouncing under us, and we didn't care, we just wanted to live our life there?”
“Retrospectively that was dangerous AF, but it was very necessary, because we saw that there was culture, and that there were people who wanted to enjoy the culture. Even Night Show, the way it started, it was just a Hip-Hop show with 5 people vibing in an empty room, and it grew to the point that there were too many people there.”
“We were super naive, but I feel like that was the beginning of our culture, because when we talk to the guys and they come to Posties, they all reference that time. It makes me realise ‘oh, things were happening simultaneously, and different things were going on’. I didn’t see everything at that stage, but now I can appreciate it.”
“So, when I see the kids now, I see hope, and I see potential. I wouldn't say that I see myself, I'm from a different time, they're from a different time, but I'm not done yet, I'm still pushing, I'm not even an OG yet.”
“When I chat to the kids, just hearing their ideas, it's crazy. We used to be in those spaces, curating shoots, and modelling for Abo. Back in the day we were promoting res parties and promoting events, but now the kids are running their own events, registering companies, they’ve stepped it up, and it's crazy to see that the culture is actually growing.”
The culture is beyond us, I’m just happy to be a part of it, to contribute to it for the next 20, 30, even 40 years if I can be. I want to be a part that shows hope, that shows that you can do it, you can be someone that was academic, someone that studied finance with accounting, but still tap into that part of yourself.”
How would you describe your journey of becoming a creative in Cape Town? You’ve gone from UCT Finance, to modeling, to working in corporate, to podcasting, to making music. You might be new in the space, but you form a part of the culture in Cape Town, and you are an active creative in the City. For those who don’t engage with the culture in the same way that you do, how would you describe it?
"I hear what you’re asking, and people think ‘Cape Town Creatives’ are a different species altogether. But at the end of the day, I think everyone is just scared to go to the next person and say “Yo wassup my name is Alex”.
“I feel like that's the real heart of the Cape Town creative culture, the people who want to connect, and the people who make things happen. At this stage, because it's so young, we’re just scared of each other, and we don't have to be.”
“Come up to me, ask me questions, ask me how I did that or how I did this, and most of the time people answer. And most of the time, if people don’t answer, it's because you didn't ask, you just looked at them from afar.”
“If I had to describe the space, it's a lot of people who call themselves Cape Town Creatives, and people who haven’t yet asked the questions. One thing I've realised is that everyone is a creative, everyone is a participant in the market, whether they like it or not. Your dancing’s fire, your drawing that you aren't telling anyone about is fire, your graphics that you aren't telling anyone about is fire, and I know with your coding ass you're doing something wild; you’re all bringing a little bit of yourself to what you do.”
“It’s not Cape Town Creatives on one side and us on the other, you’re all Cape town Creatives, you just don't want to wear that Broke hat, you just want to keep your own swag, and that's okay, as long as you're styling it. And that’s when you realise that there are others out there that like your swag too.”
“You’re enjoying your coffee at Babbi too, you're at Yours Truly too, you’re at Klubhouse too, you're also a Cape Town Creative, you just don't know it yet. We just need more questions to be asked.”
“Sometimes asking the questions is more revealing than the answer that you're waiting for.”
From the shoot for Midnight Serenade, his new single dropping on the 23rd of August
What’s next for you?
“Bro, we haven't even started yet. Next year is gonna be crazy.”
“It's gonna be a lot of curb stomping, a lot of kicking people in the face, because unfortunately I don't believe in the soft approach. I don't believe in begging people. At this stage, if I have to force feed you, you’re gonna eat. You’re gonna see me every week.”
“I’m finally getting to a point where I'm having family members join my team, people who really believe in me doing my thing. So, for next year, locomotion. We are dropping and dropping and dropping, we’re performing and performing. Breathe now, rest while you can, because after this there won't be a second anymore. By this time next year, the culture will look different. I don't think there’s a throne in Cape Town yet, but if there is one, I’m watching it, I’m going for it. And not just Cape Town, but Africa.”
“I respect the homies like Rema, like Uncle Waffles, like Tyla, like Musa Keys, and I respect them because all their businesses look different, and I give them different respect. But I look at them and I see myself, I see myself as a young African who is just dope, and at the end of the day I'm gonna make some dope shit!”
Lastly, if you could be a fly on the wall at your own funeral, what would you want people to be saying about you?
“I want to see thousands of people, I want to see the masses, I want to see the community, I want to see them crying in joy because “he gave us us”. I want us to find our community, I want us to find unity, in Cape Town, in South Africa, and in the continent.”
“A house divided cannot stand, and we have to be intentional in uniting this house. It’s not going to happen by mistake, you have to be intentional. We have to be intentional with community building, and at the end of the day I feel like that’s my main thing, building a community of people who have seen that through my life, it's possible. I want people to find themselves, and other people in that community.”
“I want to see people changing their lives, changing the lives of their families, and of the world. And maybe I'm not the only person that they saw, maybe they saw other homies doing their thing, but I want that, I want that most of all.”
“There is a ‘chosen’ vibe in Africa right now, and at the end of the day you decide if you are chosen. I choose myself most of all, and God chooses me. I am on this path, this journey, and it's not just something I decided, but I feel like I was supposed to be on, and it gives me peace. I just want other people to find their peace, to find what gives them that thing.”
“Eish, you guys took me deep there. But I really want that. And I'll die trying.”
Are you chosen? Are you building your community? Are you asking yourself these questions?
I don't even think we at Verve were before, but after this chat we definitely are now. And we relish the opportunity to be able to capture these moments, to be able to document these ascensions, and to be able to give a platform to the myriad of voices that we find amongst us in this beautiful city.
Listen to them. They’re everywhere. And they have something to say
