I speak to Peach van Pletzen on the same day he's releasing the music video for his group Van Pletzen's song Dis nie so diep nie (It's not that deep) and he's buzzing.
It's a maximalist electronic dance music anthem in which Van Pletzen encourage listeners to live life to the fullest because none of us will be here in 80 years. It's bursting with the kind of irreverent lyrics that have become Peach's signature across five albums with the most recent, Benaaihilism, being released in April this year.
Even the album title gestures towards the irreverent worldview of the duo consisting of Peach van Pletzen (Born Pierre-Henri van Pletzen) and Nik Nax (Matthieu Auriacombe).
"Benaaihilism" is a portmanteau of the Afrikaans slang word benaai, which doesn't really have an English equivalent but kind of means having a blast, living large or full of reckless fun and "nihilism", the philosophical belief that life has no inherent meaning or purpose. Peach has described the concept as "when existential dread meets the dance floor".
"We've always been an act that's driven by balancing between the absurd and the realities of life, balancing between humour and seriousness," he says of the album title during our chat.
"As human beings, we do the same thing. We wake up one day and life feels fantastic and everything just feels great. Then a day or two later you wake up and you're feeling a bit nihilistic with everything going on in the world.
"It's just how you are always in a push and pull between those two states and so is the world. And that's just the reality of being human.
"So, "Benaaihilism" is the feeling of this balancing act between two very different states. And we were trying to create music that would fit into that world. Something that feels like a party but is also introspective and philosophical."
At just 12 tracks spanning 35 minutes, the album is a tight jaunt of party music with standouts like the cheekily-titled Gqeberha shake dat ass, on which Peach pronounces the title phrase to sound intentionally close to "You better shake that ass".
"Yeah, I took a bit of artistic licence with the pronunciation there," Peach says between laughs. "But I think the whole feeling of the album is a love letter to electronic dance music and the different ages of the genre.
"It goes from very '90s sort of Eurovision-sounding songs to a bit more modern. I guess I've always had a love for dance music as well as for absurdism and maximalism. And I just felt like we should go as bold as we could possibly go with this."
Peach has been making bold choices with his music for nearly 20 years, starting with his run as the frontman of indie rock band Yesterday's Pupil, which was followed by his years as a founding member of the Afrikaans rap group Bittereinder.
His collaboration with Nik Nax is just the latest chapter of a musical journey that has ranged across so many different genres and styles. As a producer he's created the sonic backdrops for everyone from Stogie T and Samthing Soweto to Jack Parow and The Kiffness.
I ask him if the style of music affects how he approaches working on a song, especially when it's in service of a different artist.
"My philosophy in the studio is more holistic rather than too clinical and technical," he tells me. "I believe you should do three takes, maximum. We start the song and try to finish it, especially if I'm working with other artists. We'll book time, then we'll talk about the song and then we'll start it and finish it on the same day. I think when you go in with intention, you make the best decisions and your gut instinct is the strongest in that phase.
"When you work on something and pop it back on the shelf and come back to it later, you almost lose that initial creative burst of what it wants to be. So I'm a fan of going in, working hard and trying to get the song to at least 90% completion by the end of the day, so that the last changes are just finishing touches as opposed to massive creative decisions."
The same sensibilities have also helped him excel as a composer for film and television, shaping the sounds for projects like Netflix crime thriller Ludik and Showmax youth drama Wyfie.
"When it comes to film scoring, every film or television show is different," he explains. "And sometimes I can lean into more darker sounds, which I also really love. The ironic thing is that Van Pletzen might make satirical and humorous music but I actually really love sad and dark music as well. I get to live that out in some of the film and television scoring I do.
"With Ludik, the score was quite dark and bass heavy and then Wyfie was more sensual and intense feminine energy. That's what I love about the music industry—even though you're working within the same field, you get to do so many different things. And I feel very lucky to be able to do that."
When I prod the musical omnivore about what music he's had on repeat lately, Peach rattles off a characteristically eclectic list, including the self-titled debut album from Nine Inch Noize, the collaborative project between legendary industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails and German-Iraqi electronic music producer Boys Noize.
It makes perfect sense that Van Pletzen would appreciate this kind of unexpected yet complementary fusion of sounds.
He also mentions Drake's Iceman, Labrinth's Cosmic Opera: Act 1, Slayyyter's Worst Girl in America, Lykke Li's The Afterparty and even the soundtrack for Apple TV comedy thriller Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed before extolling the virtues of British rock band Muse's 10th studio album The Wow! Signal.
"Believe it or not, I think this is their best work in the past decade," he says. "For any sort of older or ex-Muse fans, I can highly recommend this album. It's everything I think you love about Muse."
When I ask him about which artists in the country he thinks are underrated, Peach shouts out Hanna, a Zimbabwean-Ethiopian rapper and singer in SA as well as Emma B, a Johannesburg alternative pop singer-songwriter.
The debate about AI in music production is contentious and runs the gamut from people who think it will revolutionise the craft for the better on the one end and those who believe it will be the destruction of human creativity on the other.
I ask Peach where he falls on the spectrum.
"Look, I think two opposite things can be true," he says. "It is inevitable and a lot of people will use it. And you already see it with posters and marketing as well, billboards and restaurant menus and it's like it's all AI-generated photos. And then you can hear it with music as well.
"For me, personally, I think the rise of AI will also spawn the antithesis of AI, just like grunge music came out of the shadows of the '80s synth era, so people will also go back to real and raw approaches to making music. There'll be a group of people whose appreciation for authentic, real human emotion and art will be on the rise as well. And that's exciting.
"I have no real use for AI creatively because the creative process is sacred.
"And I don't want to involve anything that takes that away from me, speeds that up or puts another spin on it that doesn't come from myself. I think when AI involves itself in the creative side, it just kind of robs you of the joy of that creative process."
That joy of the creative process extends to live performing as well and Peach isn't slowing down on that front anytime soon.
On 25 July, Van Pletzen will be in Joburg as part of the line-up of the Jägermeister Haus of Kühl Party at Victoria Yards before going to Cape Town for a show at Woodstock Brewery on July 31 and then on to Stellenbosch for a gig at Daisy Jones Bar on August 1.
From indie rock with Yesterday's Pupil to conscious Afrikaans rap with Bittereinder, from the absurdist-meets-existential EDM of Van Pletzen to scoring film and television and lending sauce to other South African artists as a producer — Peach van Pletzen has done it all.
He's proved himself as a sonic renaissance man with an infinite well of ideas to draw from, with no AI required, and I'm excited to hear what he does next.