The Almost Perfect Podcast

Audiomarc is a DJ and producer who has been with Ivyson since day 1. The "Trap Addict" producer shares how he and Nasty C became friends and how much they've grown since. We hear how his parents instilled a deep love of music in him and how it took a bit of time for him to find his confidence. Now that he's found it, there's no stopping him.  Support the podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreo...

I recently found myself in Joburg again so decided to once again record a couple of my catch up sessions with ex-guests of the podcast. This week you're in for a treat as Mojak Lehoko and Colleen Balchin fill us in on how life has been since we last spoke.  Mojak Lehoko is a comedian who has used the pandemic to expand his skillset. He talks about his desire to work more behind the scenes tha...

Jumping Back Slash is a musician, producer, and mix engineer. You probably know and love Jaybles already as he's been rather influential behind the scenes of South Africa's underground electronic music scene. JBS has mixed many of your left-of-center favs and given plenty of helpful advice to younger producers. We don't talk about any of that though. If you want to get to know JBS's life story, go...

Jabu Newman is an artist and filmmaker who uses her work to explore and promote intersectional feminism. The multi-award-winning director and photographer has had an incredibly impressive career in the relatively short time she's been on the scene. It all kicked off by creating a web series with friends that focused on a fictional group of activists during the Fees Must Fall protests called Foxy F...

ByLwansta is a musician, designer, and label owner. You already knew that though as this is the third time the independent rapper is joining us on the podcast. Things have changed a ton since we last spoke. Moving to Joburg has had its effects both professionally and personally, and has lead to a ton of growth.  In this episode of the podcast, we dive deep into relationships, sensuality, and...

This week you're in for a treat. It's a 3-for-1 special as I made the most of my recent Jozi trip and convinced a few ex-guests to let me record our "Ah, we should totally catch up," conversations. I met up with Eric Jansen, Rofhiwa Maneta, and Leah Jazz, and had 3 vastly different conversations.   Eric Jansen was originally on episode 51 which, at this point, feels like a lifetime ago. Thing...

Samora Chapman is a photographer, writer, and journalist. Samora will be exhibiting at the Durban Art Gallery with Cedric Nunn in an exhibition called 'Revelations' from 23 Sep - 10 Nov. Quite an achievement for a street photographer who first started exploring the streets as a graffiti artist. Samora has come a long way since his rebellious youth although he still regularly nurtures the surfer/gr...

PJ Black is a professional wrestler. He's wrestled in 65 countries over his storied career and it all began under his father's tutelage here in South Africa. PJ has held titles in countless wrestling promotions including the WWE as Justin Gabriel, but these days it seems like he's mostly just focused on having a good time both inside the ring and out. When he's not doing 450 Splashes off the top r...

Sipho The Gift is a musician. He started out his journey as a kid with a guitar but soon found himself drawn to ALL the instruments. It's this deep love of all the mechanics of music that gives him a unique edge. While Sipho is best known as a rapper, I think his production might actually be his biggest strength. I've watched his career steadily grow over the years so it was a treat to get to chat...

Atalya Chana is a writer, actor, and director. You might have seen her on your screens in The Haunting of Maria Sm it, On Isibindi Street , or the critically acclaimed feature film Necktie Youth . If you haven't yet, well, you'll get to see her in the upcoming feature film Thokoza , or in Sweet Wild Things which is set to air on BET Africa. Atalya keeps busy, and not just in front of the camera. T...

Fortune Shumba is a musician and brand strategist. The soulful singer has had an incredible journey fraught with highs and lows that's lead her to a space where she's found peace with herself and empathy for others. While she used to dream of achieving fame and fortune through music, it became a tool for self-discovery and expression instead. In this podcast, Fortune shares the importance of letti...

Stiff Pap is an electronic music duo made up of Ayema Problem and Jakinda. The post-kwaito musicians recently released their second album TUFF TIME$ and it's taking the internet by storm. It's the only place they can take by storm at the moment, with lockdowns now a regular part of life in South Africa. TUFF TIME$ is a direct result of being locked in a room for months with only your anger and fru...

Rofhiwa Maneta is a writer and arts and culture journalist. He's been incredibly influential in documenting SA's cultural scene over the years. You've no doubt read his work in the likes of New Frame, City Press, the Mail & Guardian, the Sunday Times, Vice and The Fader. Rofhiwa has also self-published multiple books, with his latest, Your Father, The Hip-Hop Head, drawing praise from his cont...

Caryn Welby-Solomon is an entertainment journalist and podcaster. Like many of us, Caryn saw her life turned upside down when lockdown hit. After years of grinding away, she'd finally been hired as the entertainment writer for Cosmopolitan magazine- a dream job- only to have her dreams come crashing down when Cosmo closed its doors. After a week of feeling sorry for herself, Caryn got to work. A y...

Holy shit, we fucking did it. 100 canonical episodes of a podcast that nobody asked for but now you can't live without, right? Well, I can't. This is a look back at the last two and a half years of celebrating fuck ups, failures, and falling flat on your face. I've gathered together 14 clips from the past 99 episodes that I think represents the best of what this podcast has to offer. It would have...

Vulane Mthembu is a musician and someone I'm convinced is trying to bring about Skynet. You might know him from his work with BIG FKN GUN and Moonchild Sanelly , but lately, Vulane has been diving deep into the worlds of AI, VR, XR, and a bunch of other initialisations I don't know about yet. Most notably, Vulane guided AI into creating an album he called ' Nguni Machina' . It's all open source fo...

Kai Pretorius is a dancer and teacher. Originally from Ramsgate, Kai now calls Amsterdam home after growing up in Durban. While Durban gave her a solid foundation and regular work at the top of the food chain, moving to Amsterdam saw Kai having to come to terms with being a small fish in a big pond. She had to find different ways to support herself whilst reimagining what the dance dream meant for...

Tell Us More is a podcast hosted by comedian, writer, and TV personality Mojak Lehoko. Mojak and I have interviewed each other on our respective podcasts before so we figured we'd team up to give you the crossover episode that nobody asked for but everybody needs. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the realities of comedy, writing, and podcasting in South Africa. Both Mojak and I share our...

Paul Gioia is a musician, teacher, and recording studio owner. He's the guitarist and singer for ATFN, a punk-influenced prog band that was formed back in 1998, and has been recording bands and artists at Asylum Studios since 2000. He also holds an Honours in Music from Tuks. Paul's had an extensive career but a hand injury at the peak of ATFN's fame nearly ended it too soon. Thankfully, Paul mana...

Loyiso Gola is a comedian. The twice Emmy-nominated host of Late Night News with Loyiso Gola has had a phenomenal career. He's travelled the world telling jokes and earned many milestones that used to seem out of reach for South African comedians. He's performed on Live at the Apollo, was a guest on QI, and recently dropped a one-hour special on Netflix that he's been working on for the last six y...

Sibaphiwe "Sibs" Matiyela is a voice-over artist and newsreader. You'll probably recognise her dulcet tones from 5FM although she's had an impressive career that spans multiple radio stations. Starting out at campus radio, Sibs has worked her way through news desks across the country for over a decade. Voice-over work is a natural extension of her talents and something she's excelling at now, but...

Nax (Matthieu "Makkie" Auriacombe) is a musician and producer. Born in France but raised in Pretoria, Nax was destined to make music due to his dad, his uncle, and his brother (Johan Auriacombe) all being musicians. His mom even bought him and his brother their first instruments. Since then it's been a whirlwind ride that's taken him all over the country in a number of different bands. In this pod...

Werner Olckers is a musician, marketing manager, and sneaker enthusiast. You might remember him as the frontman for the indie-pop band Wrestlerish. Or you might have bought some sneakers from him at his sneaker boutique, Cop Capital. Werner has a wealth of experience under his belt as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of many facets of pop culture, so this is a fascinating and entertaining chat. I...

Hallie Haller is a writer, director, and creative strategist who cares about media, the future and you. She is the writer and director of the utterly charming short film, Belovely, and is currently working on a couple of different documentary based projects. Hallie is also a ForCreativeGirls mentor, a One World Media documentary fellow for 2020, and a representative of Girls in Film's South Africa...

Jonathan Ferreira aka ByJono is a photographer, content creator, and streamer. Jono started his career with a passion for documenting the scene in his hometown of PE. He has gone on to become one of the most recognisable names in SA music photography. In this podcast, we get into the struggles of trying to make things happen in a small town. We hear how he came to work for Red Bull and what it was...