internet girl

Rejecting South Africa's sonic comfort zones, this band crafts bold, hyper-digital sounds that connect more abroad than at home

- PHILA TYEKANA

Internet Girl – Ntsika ‘TK’ Bungane (lead vocalist), Matthew ‘Neese’ Burgess (drummer/producer) and James ‘Griggs’ Smith (guitarist/producer) – is not a band you can box in. Formed in Cape Town in 2019, the trio began as a “bedroom band” experimenting with trap and SoundCloud rap before veering into a mix of pop-punk, hyperpop, indie and garage-punk.

The result is a noisy, neon collage of contradictions that’s earned them global attention while keeping them slightly alienated at home. Speaking to GQ, the band described their sound simply as “a blend of our different influences – electronic, punk, rap – coming together in a way people haven’t heard before.”

THE ART OF BEING OUT OF STEP

From the very start, Internet Girl’s story has been one of misalignment, not quite fitting into SA’s amapiano-dominated soundscape, yet still refusing to abandon their vision.

“We were always separated from the people in our local scene,” Neese told Pan African Music mag. “There is the whole ‘F-the-system’ thing in South Africa.”

Their refusal to conform has made them outsiders, but also innovators. While they have played homegrown festivals like Rocking the Daisies and House of Vans, their biggest fanbase lives thousands of kilometres away.

As they told GQ, “The US holds the large majority of our listenership... that alternative mix of genres we put in our music is just more accepted there.”