Don\u2019t be fooled by their name, Internet Girl really is, in fact, a boy\u2019s band made of lead vocalist Ntsika (aka TK) Bungane, and producers Matty (aka Neese) Burgess and James (aka Griggs) Smith. The 2024 edition of the Transmusciales in Rennes gave us the opportunity to sit with the three nice young men on the quiet afternoon which preceded their performance the same night on the stage of Hall 4 at the Parc des Expositions. Polite and demure, they don\u2019t exactly embody the archetypes of classic punk rockers, nor do they reflect the current sounds coming from South Africa. In fact, the entire interview felt like a series of contradictions. Yet, in addition to their coke-induced charisma (see their song \u201ccokehead”), Internet Girl\u2019s contradictions lie at the heart of their allure. Their version of punk is anything but predictable, and their identity is shaped around this tension between authenticity and image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bad influence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Contrary to what one might expect from a punk band, Internet Girl is not overtly political. \u201cWe don’t like preaching, we don’t like telling people what to do<\/em>\u201d, says TK, who happens to be the one writing most of their lyrics. Rather than a collective call for revolution, their music embraces personal empowerment: \u201cWe advocate for people to just get up and do something, maybe not for the world or society, but for your life,\u201d <\/em>TK continues. \u201cSo, I guess, it’s a call to action<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, it\u2019s hard to deny they\u2019re not fundamentally anti-establishment. \u201cWe\u2019ve been fighting our local space because we were always separated from the people in our local scene,\u201d <\/em>Neese explains. \u201cWe didn’t feel connected to other South African artists and South African listeners. There is the whole fuck-the-system thing in South Africa<\/em>\u201d. The band readily admits choosing to remain hermits, preferring to spend time in their own company, avoiding clubs, playing FIFA and enjoying themselves at the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI’m on\u205fmy\u205fphone,\u205funtil the party\u205fends. It’s way more\u205ffun<\/em>,\u201d they sing in \u201cpopstar\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a country, where amapiano, afrobeats and hip hop dominate, while gqom and kwaito shape the alternative scene, there is little space left for what the trio is doing. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to get venues, but things are developing in Cape Town. I think it\u2019s buzzing. We\u2019ve got a small community hosting shows, and they\u2019re happening more frequently,<\/em>\u201d TK says. Still, they have found their crowds in festivals, such as Rocking the Daisies in Cape Town or House of Vans in Johannesburg, and venues like Smoking Kills (in Johannesburg) and the Factory (in Cape Town) which Neese describes as \u201cintimate and sweaty\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n