Getting to Know: Michael Lesar

This year marks 15 years of being successfully self-employed in music, built across 9 countries, multiple active residencies, a live band, and your own festival. That is a rare thing to sustain in this industry. What has actually kept it working, and what do you know at 15 years that you couldn’t have told yourself at the start?

I would say my biggest motivation is not waking up to an alarm clock every morning for work. That has really kept me going, lol! The main shift was when I quit my day job and didn’t have a salary anymore. That was when I started treating my brand as an actual business, and it was really the best thing that has ever happened to me (besides the birth of my daughter, of course). Once I reached around four or five years of being self-employed, I knew I would never go back to working a normal job again, so it just always kept me motivated. I’ve been involved in the industry for about 22 years and 15 years full time. I never ever knew at the time that I could actually sustain myself and live a normal life being a DJ and doing events, lol. I still have to pinch myself.

You spent the best part of a decade co-founding and building DeepHeet Parteez into one of Cape Town’s premium house events, and house was clearly your foundation. Yet the identity that took hold in Johannesburg was a different one: Jozi’s King of Swing. How did that shift happen, and where did the swing and vintage world fit into a career so rooted in house?

The shift happened when I became self-employed and had to come up with ideas to have enough gigs to sustain myself. That’s when I decided to branch out into different genres to generate more gigs. Electro swing was an easy one because I fell in love with it immediately when I first heard it at the Balkanology events in Cape Town. I’ve also always been fascinated with the world and sounds of the 20th century: the music, fashion, cars, movies, etc., so it kind of all just came together perfectly. I still play regular house music gigs and a few other styles, so it’s just that now I specialise in a few different sounds instead of just one, and to be honest I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being versatile has opened many doors for me over the years.

Your palette as a DJ spans house, tech house, electro swing, original vintage from the 1930s and 50s, jazz across Brazilian, bossa nova, and Latin traditions, afrobeat, disco, and funk, and your sets are known for going long. When you’re holding all of that in the same night, what are you actually listening for in a room? Is there something underneath all of those genres that connects them for you?

There’s usually an event brief or music theme for the night, and the promoter will always let me know what style they are booking me for. So when I’m playing at an event I’ll just be focused on the one sound. Often I play a few different style events in one night or weekend, but it’s hardly ever a mash-up of all the different genres.

You founded Full Swing Band and you’re on stage as the beats and backing element alongside live vocals, trumpet, and double bass. You were already deep in electro swing as a DJ. What made you want to build a live band around the genre and put yourself inside it on stage, rather than just represent it from the decks?

I saw a gap in the market. People were enjoying the sound so much, especially at festivals, and I thought: why not try and create a live band and sell it as something separate to the DJing, which would also be another way to generate an extra income. I was also getting booked for many corporate events where the client would request a swing set and ask if I could add a live musician, so it was a combination of these two things. Of course I already loved the sound, so it was an easy one. I also enjoyed doing something new and exciting outside of my comfort zone.

Vintage Festival SA has grown into a 14-hour, two-stage event with live bands, vinyl DJs, curated vintage stalls, a classic car show, and a beer garden. You perform at festivals and you’ve built and produce one of your own. What has the founding and producing side given you that the performance side of your career hasn’t, and for anyone who hasn’t been before, what can they expect from the 9 May event at the Irish Club in Linden?

Vintage Fest was really a passion project: another example of me being creative and trying to create more income streams and avenues to sustain myself in the music industry. The world of vintage was of course already very close to my heart, so it was a full circle type of scenario, bringing together all my inspiration, contacts, and connections that I’ve built up in the industry over the years and producing a festival.

I love everything involved in the music industry and have produced many successful events over the years, but mostly club events, so it was really just a natural progression to eventually start doing festivals. I’ve recently taken on a partner for Vintage Fest, my brother André Kriel of the Black Cat Bones. We’ve been working together very well and I’m excited for what’s to come. Big things in the pipeline! Vintage Fest in a nutshell: live band, vinyl DJs, classic cars and bikes, curated retro stalls, two stages, beer garden, 80s tribute after party. Fourteen hours, doors open at 10am through to midnight at the Irish Club in Linden.

Responses may have minor edits for clarity.

Lesar has performed in nine countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East; Vintage Festival SA is produced in partnership with André Kriel of the Black Cat Bones.

Fifteen years of self-employment in music is not an accident. For Michael Lesar it has been the product of curiosity, discipline, and an instinct for building things that did not exist before he built them. Vintage Festival SA on 9 May at the Irish Club in Linden is the next chapter in that story, and by the sound of it, not the last.