A New Sensation: Genre-bending SA ‘punk hyperpop’ band Internet Girl takes on the world
Internet Girl’s Ntsika ‘TK’ Bungane personifies the band’s confident attitude.
They are a ‘bedroom band’ that seemingly came out of nowhere. Or at least not nowhere, but literally a bedroom in their res in Cape Town. Ntsika ‘TK’ Bungane, Matty ‘Neese’ Burgess, and James ‘Griggs’ Smith, a.k.a. Internet Girl burst onto the local music scene in 2019 with their single ‘The Other Guy’, a chilled, rhythmic track about infidelity or post-teen dating angst (both, we think) that has had 35k listens on Soundcloud and that one online fan describes as ‘fucking beautiful’.
Words and Q&A by bluntEd. Photos by @raii.ko courtesy Pack Records.
Although Ntsika and Neese, who met at school, initially made Trap music, their jamming soon led to the formation of Internet Girl with the addition of production maestro James. Fast forward through 2020 and a bunch of great tunes, an eclectic library of music that is promoted by the band’s PR as a ‘punk electronic hyperpunk’ but that really defies being pigeonholed into any particular genre, while it always sounds rich, fresh and original.
“Internet Girl is a product of the Internet. We represent a new generation of South African kids. We exist to be the cornerstone of Africa’s alternative music scene. Individually we’re just some guys.”
A combination of prolific hard work, and a raw attitude – personified by charismatic frontman Ntsika – has earned the band a massive following both locally and internationally, and led to millions of listens on Spotify, and Internet Girl being signed by New York-based Pack Records, and collaborations with international artists such as internet rock artist Ezekiel, on their recent single ‘Cokehead’.
Indeed, this year sees a spate of new releases and collabs by Internet Girl, including their latest banger ‘Every Man For Himself’ ft. re6ce, check it out on YouTube:
Internet Girl is on the rise, no doubt. bluntmag caught up with them recently to find out more about this band of freaks, who everyone who seems to know about these things reckons is set up to blow up internationally, as if they aren’t already.
Who is Internet Girl and why do you exist? Both as three individuals and as a band?
Internet Girl is a product of the Internet. We represent a new generation of South African kids. We exist to be the cornerstone of Africa’s alternative music scene. Individually we’re just some guys.
You met at school and then what happened? What is the most remarkable thing about how the band was formed?
Matt (producer) and TK (vocalist) met in Grade 5. Our friendship was totally built around music. We weren’t making music together at the time but just enjoying it. Internet Girl started in 2018. We met James (producer) through the Internet. He was a fan of the band while it was just a duo. The most remarkable thing is probably the fact that we all stayed in Matt’s little university res bedroom for a month. TK and James both slept on the floor on a blowup mattress and we had to avoid the staff that worked at the res. This was the first time we ever met.
Who are the band members and what do you bring to the magical mix of personalities and musical skills that is Internet Girl?
Ntsika, our lead vocalist, is the personality of the band. The stories we tell are his stories. From a production perspective, James brings a lot of live instrumentation to our music. He tends to build the foundations and often starts the process of making a song. Matt has an electronic music background and brings modern, electronic freshness. He brings the sheen to the music.
“In the past, we’ve gone with the flow and made whatever we felt like. Our influences are all very different so it’s difficult to stick to one thing. We still believe there’s a consistent thread between all our songs, especially in the attitude.”
Your songs are all quite different, is this intentional or do you just go with the flow when coming up with new material? Describe your creative process?
In the past, we’ve gone with the flow and made whatever we felt like. Our influences are all very different so it’s difficult to stick to one thing. We still believe there’s a consistent thread between all our songs, especially in the attitude. We made a conscious effort to make sure our upcoming EP ‘Role Model’ has a cohesive feeling and sound. Our creative process is different every time because all three of us start songs and the process of finishing the song changes.
Can you describe your music to someone who has never heard it without ascribing it to any musical genre?
It’s a new sensation!
What kind of band don’t you want to be and why?
We wanna be cool, we wanna big. We DON’T wanna be uncool, we don’t wanna be small.
Why should people even listen to your music? What do you want them to get from the experience?
Nobody ‘should’ listen to our music. If you like the sounds we make then cool. It’s just a song.
Internet Girl Rocking the Daisies 2023.
What are your ambitions as a band? Is it all about the clout, clicks and views or does it go deeper than that for you?
It obviously goes deeper than that. It’s also about money.
“We played a show in Pretoria and after the show, a kid came up to us and told us that his mom drove him four hours to come watch our 30-minute set. He left right after our set. That was pretty cool.”
How does being South African add to your style and make you stand out in the US market? How is it going over there?
People are always surprised to hear we’re from South Africa given the music we make. We’re trying to tell the story of the new generation of South African Internet kids in a way that hasn’t been told before and grabs people’s attention from all over the world. It gives us a little bit of edge. A lot of the sonic influences come from growing up on the Internet but the story is a South African one. 80% of our fanbase is from the US and we’re trying to make a US tour happen this year.
TK, Rocking the Daisies 2023.
How did your involvement with Pack Records come about?
We’ve been speaking with them for a while. One of our favourite artists, aldn, was signed to them which got us pretty excited. When we came out of our first deal, it was a no-brainer to go with Pack. It’s been cool working with them.
What has been your most wild live music experience to date?
We played a show in Pretoria and after the show, a kid came up to us and told us that his mom drove him four hours to come watch our 30-minute set. He left right after our set. That was pretty cool.
We also played Rocking The Daisies last year and everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. James’ guitar broke five minutes before the show. He had to grab a guitar from a friend of ours who was playing after us and the guitar kept going out of tune during the set. A guitar tech was soldering James’ guitar during the set and ran on stage to bring it to us halfway through a song. The guitar worked for a while and then broke again a few minutes later, only for the guitar tech to fix it again and then run on stage again to bring it to us. The Gods did not favour us at that moment. We learnt some valuable lessons that day.
When can South African fans see you in the flesh?
We played a show in Stellenbosch last weekend which was great. Nothing new lined up yet. You can see us around Cape Town, though.
Check out Internet Girl on the, er, Internet:
Latest Single ‘Every Man for Himself’
Check out their recent single, Cokehead ft Ezekiel on YouTube: