Hailing from the forests surrounding Durban Stone City – with a heart raised by the coldest crate diggers from New York – S’Bastian is a Hip-Hop minded songwriter/producer with a defining lineage of prog rock bands tying him to guitars and distortion. The name “S’Bastian” being styled after soul legend D’Angelo should tell you everything else you need to know.

Currently based between Durban and Cape Town, he is involved in a number of musical projects. Recently you may have seen him playing bass for Slump, or on stage with Blue Light Underground. S’Bastian grew up in the Durban band scene, gigging at the revered Winston Pub.

His most notable band of the time was Feast of Famine, a Prog Metal band he played drums for alongside Cam Lofstrand (Black Math) and Mathew Swanepoel (Sunken State). He used to Rap on a couple of their songs, which later transformed into him becoming a beatmaker and producing some rap music in his bedroom.

Today the sampling and chopping DNA still runs strong, but his influences have expanded from Boom-Bap into the golden age of Neo-Soul and R&B. Today S’Bastian writes and produces with his Toronto-based partner Julian, mostly over Zoom. His live shows are an experiment in bringing this music to the stage using a mix of samplers, instruments and a mic.