"Krone" interview

Kiffness: animal whisperer with a political conscience

One of the stars of the moment: South African musician The Kiffness loves animals and his fellow human beings.

(Bild: Tyler Walker)

Whether it's cats, dogs or Donald Trump - when David Scott aka The Kiffness sends a new song into the digital orbit, the world turns upside down. The 36-year-old South African became a viral top star during the pandemic and is performing tonight in the completely sold-out Vienna Arena. He talks to the Krone about his jazz training, why he is politically active and how fatherhood changed his life.

And it's happened again - The Kiffness has gone viral. With his "Eating The Cats ft. Donald Trump (The Debate Remix)", the South African musician generated almost ten million clicks on YouTube in around two weeks. The background: US presidential candidate Trump got carried away in his TV debate with challenger Kamala Harris by saying that migrants eat cats and dogs. A perfect opportunity for David Scott, as The Kiffness is known by his real name, to cause a sensation with his parodic and entertaining musical interpretation. The 36-year-old is used to going viral. At the end of 2020, in the midst of the still fresh coronavirus pandemic, the remix of the traditional song "levan polkka", which Scott put together with the Turk Bilal Göregen, took off on YouTube. Then the ball really started rolling.

Unbroken popularity
Fans and interested parties increasingly sent Scott videos and songs and asked him to remix them. At some point, someone tagged him in a cat video on Instagram and the artist put a beat over it - and a previously non-existent career was born. Over the years, The Kiffness has blended barking, meowing, neighing, mooing and cooing with beats, giving animals a humorous and respectful broad appeal. "Above all, it shows the power of the internet," says Scott in an interview with Die Krone, "these videos have exploded during the pandemic. Many of my friends have been touring for years and are struggling to build a fanbase everywhere. I was lucky that I went viral and more and more people followed me." The Kiffness played his first European tour around a year ago. He gave his Austrian premiere in a packed Flex in Vienna - tonight the arena is already sold out to the last seat - and has been for weeks.

Scott is not just an internet phenomenon, however, but above all a trained musician. He tried his hand as a trumpet player in jazz bands for years, played drums in church and rock bands and later focused on DJing, which paved the way for his current career. "There's a band here in South Africa called Goldfish. They have a jazz background and mix the saxophone with dance beats and thick bass. Party with ambition, that always fascinated me." Scott even studied medicine for six months, but then realized that this was not the right path for him. "My father was an ear, nose and throat specialist. He always told me from a young age that his greatest achievement was to help people lead a better life. I took that to heart and that was always my goal, but I chose the path of music to achieve it."

Publicly branded
What not all fans of The Kiffness know is that before he mutated into a global digital star with humorous animal videos, he was highly political in his music. "I've always stood up for the little people and criticized many of the government's decisions. That caused a stir in my home country. Ministers branded me publicly and I was met with a torrent of hatred and contempt on social media platforms. It was bad when I made a song for the left-wing politician Julius Malema, who stands up for the oppressed. At times I thought I had crosshairs on my back, because the government publicly expressed its dislike for me and I was being dissected on X (formerly Twitter - author's note) . As beautiful as South Africa is, sometimes it's like the Wild West there."

While many of his friends have already emigrated to other countries, Scott remains loyal to his homeland, not least because of his family situation. "South Africa is a very violent country with a corrupt government, but it's also my home. The people here have built up a high level of resilience, because otherwise you can't survive." Scott is now the father of his son Sam, which has also changed his life significantly. "I'm a very public person and obviously can't showcase my family to the same extent. People love it when they get a few private glimpses, but you can't overdo it and you have to draw clear boundaries. In the end, I'm also glad that I only became known when I was in my early 30s and my personality was already developed."

Proceeds to charity
The Kiffness has repeatedly stood up for the LGBTQ community, raised money with songs for Ukraine in the war against Russia and is currently also donating the streaming proceeds from the "Eating The Cats" song to the Clark County SPCA animal shelter in Springfield, USA. However, he no longer wants to be as overtly political as he was before his big breakthrough. "As a father, I see the world from a different perspective today. I don't regret anything I've produced, but I'm definitely much more aware of what I'm working on and what I then publish. Everyone changes and develops over the course of their lives. As a family man, I certainly wouldn't risk the whole politics of my country going against me anymore."

Live at the Vienna Arena
The Kiffness will be performing at the Vienna Arena tonight, September 29. The concert has been completely sold out for weeks.