- Kooldrink has been working on his passion for producing electronic music since he was 10 years old.
- He and his team were instrumental in developing Tyla’s Getting Late single and coining the term pop-piano.
- The 25-year-old is set to perform at the 2024 South by Southwest Music Festival in Texas, U.S.
At just shy of 25 years old, he has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the electronic dance music (EDM) scene.
Who could forget the banger Getting Late, Tyla’s 2021 breakout music project that the young producer worked meticulously on?
Munashe Kugarakuripi, more popularly known as Kooldrink, shows no signs of slowing down after bagging major gigs like his Ultra Music Festival performance on Saturday, 2 March, and working with world-renowned artists like Diplo, Masego, Heavy-K and more.
Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, Kooldrink’s love for the craft came around the young age of 10 when he first heard popular musician Skrillex’s music that drew him into the world of EDM.
The genre’s fusion of house, disco, synthpop, techno and trance music is what he tells TRUELOVE “blew my mind” and sparked a passion he would spend the next 15 or so years developing.
Diving into his love for his craft, Kooldrink says, “On the outside it looks like this is the moment where things are starting to bubble over, things are moving. But, from the inside, I’ve been doing this since I was 10 and when I was 15, I was doing the Ultimix At 6 on 5FM with DJ Kent, I was doing that officially. So, all of these things feel like the next step in the journey and I can imagine how it looks so big outside. But these experiences have been priceless, I’d never trade them for anything.”
The birth of pop-piano
Kooldrink describes his sound using the phrase “pop-piano”, a term coined by him and his team when working together with Grammy Award-winning artist Tyla on Getting Late.
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“I think my sound varies, but when it comes to what South Africa knows me for it’s pop-piano. My approach to any sound is how we make this pop, how do we make this digestible. So, my approach to amapiano was, you know, I come from a background of electronic dance music. I come from Skrillex and dubstep so when I approached amapiano I came with that mentality already,” he says.
Music production is more than just coming together as artists on a random day and putting out music, Kooldrink emphasises. When it came to bringing to life a globally-recognised sound with this song particular song – and subsequently Tyla’s signature sound – Kooldrink and his team made sure to do thorough planning of intersecting the market and producing a world-class video, which now sits on almost nine million views on YouTube.
He explains that, “With Tyla, it wasn’t just that song, we did a whole artist development thing – myself and my manager. We found Tyla on Instagram, we asked her to come to the studio. Her parents came and we had to sell this pitch of 'we can make your daughter a star' and it was very hard. The first six months the parents were on our case!
“Fast forward, we ended up – me and my manager, Tyla and a bunch of other people end up renting out this house, which we turned into a music house. So, I lived with Tyla for like two years, we all lived together. Every day it was music. Yeah, so, there was a lot of development behind the scenes.”
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Behind the development of a Grammy Award-winning artist
The pair created a masterful project with many hoping to see them reunite on Tyla’s upcoming debut album. However, Kooldrink acknowledges that they are on different trajectories of their career and wishes her nothing but the best.
“[With] Getting Late, both of our careers sort of exploded but in very different directions. I was a producer and she was like a front-stage artist so in that we drifted off. But I wish her all the best and I’m sure she wishes me all the best. I’m so happy to see her doing what she’s doing. So, with projects going forward, I’m not sure if there’s any. I feel like we’re just doing such different stuff right now. I’m so happy for the girl.
“I think, yes, what me and the team did is definitely part of her success right now and part of who she is, and I think that she’s taken that and she’s run with it so well. There’s nothing else that the team that develops someone could ask for, like this is the best scenario of developing something.”
Hitting the global stage
Through the work of his manager and getting funding from Heineken’s A’Rise community and artist building network, Kooldrink and Cape Town-based producer Kay Faith jet off to perform at the South by South West Music Festival in Texas, U.S., which kicks off on 8 March 2024.
Sharing what he hopes to bring to international audiences, Kooldrink says, “I’m super grateful to be in the position to get to play for an American audience, an international audience. Because I know that it’s not just me going to play music, it’s me going to take culture over there.
“Going to lay and introduce the culture that they might not have been exposed to. So, right now I have a very big job and a very massive responsibility on my shoulders but I feel like I’m the right person to take it there.”
The music producer has given his supporters much to look forward to this year. After the music festival he plans to drop three singles and an EP before 2024 ends.
