This past weekend, NTS and Johnnie Walker hit the North for a three-day tour through some of the many thriving music scenes in Manchester. Much has been made of the yeas of Manchester’s musical pedigree—from post-punk to acid house, rap, jungle, R&B, jazz, garage, indie and more—but you don’t need to rest on nostalgia when it comes to Manchester. If anything, the music bubbling up in Manny is better and more eclectic than ever.

Club music, as it probably always will be, is as popular as ever. On Friday night (March 13), the first of four events hit beloved Northern Quarter spot Soup where DJ EZ joined NTS resident Anz and local heroes Finn, KD22LR and tyronwithnoe. Those of us lucky enough to make it past the queue, which snaked halfway through Manchester, were rewarded with a solid-gold night of house, garage and low-end fun, peaking with a soundsystem workout from EZ that spanned 2-step, garage, house and grime classics.

Day two brought an ambient and chilled electronics session from Annabel Fraser, Kim Lana and Rick Donohue in the afternoon, followed by a deep voyage from Amapiano rollers and Afrofusion courtesy of Charisse C, Kusasa and Captain Lulaz, through to cosmic, freeform jazz from Venna and his band, before wrapping up with a rousing but still very heady power session from KOKOROKO.

For the final day, Nubya Garcia took that jazzy thread and ran with it, heading up the ‘Sunday Slow Down’ at Impiety Hour, a space run by the team behind The White Hotel. The performances here were more stripped back and intimate with support coming from one half of legendary local duo Space Afrika and multi-genre selector Oriki.

The three-night weekender was all part of NTS and Johnnie Walker’s Keep Walking initiative, an idea built on community and DIY, grassroots movements. Charisse C, one of the most active drivers behind Amapiano in the UK, is as keenly aware of the value of laying the right foundations for a thriving music scene. TRENCH spoke to her ahead of her set at The New Century Hall in Manchester, where she shared the stage with jazz cosmonaut Venna and the expansive KOKOROKO ensemble.

TRENCH: You used to be a journalist, didn’t you? Was that writing about music?

Charisse C: I was writing about everything: culture, music, social issues. There was a lot more bits around like fashion and stuff, but Certified UK was focused on UK music specifically. And then, after that, it just became the intersection of music and culture and, like, the social issues that I was observing within that. I think my favourite thing to write is features. I used to do a lot of music reviews as well, going to shows and writing about shows.

How long were you doing it?

I was 15 when I started, and then I went to uni to study journalism, and then I took a bit of a hiatus. I’ve come back to it now, actually, in the last year, but I took a hiatus from it just before lockdown. I kind of stopped writing for a while, and then I started really focusing on DJing and doing my radio show and storytelling and documenting in that way. But now I’ve kind of come back to the whole thing being full circle, which I’m excited about.

So a lot of what you’re doing is an extension of that documenting, right?

Yeah, it really is. I think, at the time, I was kind of feeling a little bit of frustration, because I’d come in studying journalism, wanting that to be the main career path. But I felt like the type of things that I wanted to write, I was struggling to find the space to be able to write them, and it just kind of became a little bit more frustrating. And then DJing came in really organically. That just gave me the freedom to share the music that I wanted to share in the way that I wanted to. I told myself that when I come back to writing, I’d like to come back to it at a point where I can just focus on writing things that I want to write. But the storytelling aspect was always there. I was also doing research for a while for different brands. Then I was working in a marketing agency, and then I worked for the council at one point, doing music consultancy for them. So it was always there—it was just more behind the scenes. I guess my journey has been quite unconventional.

When did the production side come into play?

The production side came properly in 2022 when I released “Wrecking Bassline”. That was the first track that came out with PYY Log Drum King. I’ve been DJing for a long time and working with Koek Sister as well. When we were doing The Ascension, that was when I really spent a lot of time in the studio and really worked on building an identity musically. My first dream, actually ever, was to sing. That was the first thing I ever wanted to do. So I’ve kind of come back to that in a way as well. But production started in 2022; I was in South Africa for a lot of the time, and that’s how me and PYY had connected. We were working on stuff, but I had a lot to learn. In lockdown, there were loads of people offering courses, and there was this women’s platform that was teaching Ableton and so I did that. So, I was playing around with production in lockdown, but 2022 was when it became more official.

Was that when you set up Abantu as well? Because it’s not just a label, is it? It started as a radio show on No Signal first.

Yeah, that’s how it started. I was curating these two-hour shows bi-weekly, interviewing artists and kind of archiving and documenting what was happening with South African music in this new way that we’d never seen happen before. I really wanted to document that. So that’s how it started. Then when we came out of lockdown, I started putting on the parties. And at the same time the parties were happening—because the first party was in 2022—that’s when the production started and I started thinking about a home for the music. Also, there’s a lot of us here in the diaspora and there’s a lot of music coming from South Africa, and I think it’s really important for us to connect and stay connected to the source of the music.

I’ve been in the UK since I was 3 years old, and I felt like there wasn’t really a home for original music coming from those of us that are here with our actual perspectives. So that was a journey that I was going on for myself, as an artist, but I wanted to create a home for other people within that same ethos and space to do that, and that was happening through the parties. I kept meeting all the DJs and producers and people that were coming to different things, people that I’d met through the radio show, people that were now UK-based producers that were dabbling in South African sounds and interested in what was going on, and having chats with them. I was like, “Okay. This is the global home for this thing.” That was 2023, when the label launched, and I released my first track on the label: “Morning Sun”.

Are you finding that the UK’s take on Amapiano is distinct from what’s going on in South Africa? Does it sound different?

That’s a good question. There are people who put their own spin on it—people like Kwamzy, who has really captured the sound and has put his own stamp on it. Then you have people like Hagan, who has got his Ghanaian influences but has always been really inspired and interested in South African music. And then you have the pioneer, Supa D, and his whole collective, who put their UK funky spin on it. I’d say European305 are in that pocket as well. They’re making Amapiano, then there’s the whole UK funky influence.

For a time, I feel like a lot of DJs were just buying music from kids in SA and then releasing it, and that really wasn’t sitting right with me—for a lot of reasons. One, there’s nothing about this sound that speaks to you; you don’t even know the language. On top of that, there’s also an issue of ethics in terms of the value exchange. There was a big disparity between what the artist was getting out of it and the benefit we get over here with this huge infrastructure we have. Even just for art’s sake, I want to hear music that sounds like you.

What is the long-term vision for Abantu?

Amapiano became this global thing in 2020 and we were all saying, “Amapiano to the world!” But what happens to it when it gets to the world? How do we make sure this thing keeps going? Because now—five years, six years in—the conversation seems to be that it’s dying now. And I’m like, “It’s barely started!” Amapiano opened the doors for all the other genres to be able to have a moment again, like 3-step and Afro-house. At the beginning, I think a lot of people associate everything South African with Amapiano, but there’s a lot of nuance. So the vision for our brand is to always be a place of education and a place that people can come to as a reliable source for what is authentic, what is happening, and what is current, but also a space where artists can grow and explore and collaborate.

We’re kind of building this ecosystem of vocalists and producers and DJs who make this music, play at the parties, and then have the audiences that are also a part of this holistic approach. I’ve tried a lot of different things over the last couple years, and this year I’m excited because I’m in my flow now with the label. We did another camp last year, another one this year, so this is a regular thing now. We’ve also got a whole series of events that are happening soon.

I’ve seen you credited as one of the main people really pushing Amapiano and emphasising the importance of importing it the right way. When you converge those two cultures, how do you do that in the right way without compromising on the original thing, if you see what I mean?

I think the first point of call would be… I wouldn’t even say consulting, because when you say consulting, it sounds so formal and rigid, but just being in contact and in relationship with the culture. I think that should just be a standard thing for anything. If you’re going to participate in something, participate and contribute rather than just taking from it. Culture is something that you give as much as you take in. So when we’re building careers off of the basis of being pioneers of something, or off of the basis of representing a sound, be a part of it. Recognising privilege is key, too—especially for us here in the UK, and that includes me. I might be from SA, but I’ve grown up here, and I have an immense amount of privilege and access that people don’t have. A lot of the time, people won’t do the due diligence. That’s a responsibility that we all have as artists. If I’m going to represent something, I’ve done my due diligence.

A lot of the stuff is really just a question of the ethics of how people participate and practise. If the intentions from the onset are great, everything else will happen the way it’s supposed to. I can’t dictate creatively how things are going to go, because I think that’s down to each person. Take the way it’s mixed within the UK, for example: I really enjoy BXKS, and she did that “Gqom Beyoncé” freestyle. I thought that was incredible! The way that she was able to flow over that was just insane. Amapiano has been on our dancefloors everywhere for the last few years, so naturally that influence is going to be there. And how many Afrobeats songs are now Amapiano-leaning? It’s just a question of ethics. That’s the only thing that I would say that I’m consistently challenging.

For more on the NTS x Johnnie Walker ‘Keep Walking’ initiative, head here.