And now here they are, Nick and Sue on Chatterbox. When the stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue. to the Chatterbox Redux podcast with Sue and Nick and today our special guest is IJ Swannypool aka Stephen Gawkin aka the nuclear lyricist We're Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment. Oh yeah! Chatterbox! And now on Chatterbox UK, we're lucky enough to welcome Jay, aka Stephen Gorkin, the nuclear lyricist. Stephen, welcome. How are you, sir? Good evening,
Jay. Good evening. Thank you for having me. Yeah, we're all good. Thank you. And thank you for coming on Chatterbox. As I said off air, I got to know you through the late Dussie Clayton, through his excellent podcast. I've heard you on there two or three times, and that's why I sent you a friend request and a request to come on to Chatterbox. The production, the stuff you
come out with is first class. So I thought, yeah, it'd be great for the British audience to hear your stuff and to have an interview with you. So there we go. How did it all start? Let's talk about perhaps your... the personal aspects of your life, like the disability, because obviously that's been a major part. So I believe it's Spinal Muscular Astrophy Type 2. Tell us all about that
and was it from birth? How old were you? Give us that and then we'll talk about how it affected you as a kid and how you developed into the music
through it. Yeah, so I was basically... diagnosed at the age of one and spinal muscular atrophy it's very similar to what Stephen Hawking had MND but it's much less progressive so it takes much longer to you know to take effect on your body so yeah so I've been living with it my whole life I'm 33 years old now and yeah so it has taken quite a toll on my body still hopeful and positive and now we keep fighting the good fight. I wouldn't say it was more of a passion than
anyone else as I feel about music. Music has always just been around and on a separate capacity. I always liked playing around with words and writing lyrics and stuff like that, but I never really thought of doing anything with it. And around 2018, around there, I decided maybe I should produce two what you call it, passion, homies together, and let's see what comes of it, you know? And, yeah. So, it's next to a legacy project now, you know, it gives me, gives me
a sense of purpose, and, yeah, yeah. Well, it's some really great stuff as well because We've got a wonderful thing called bubblegum milkshake Featuring Eva Morgan now that is quite quite fantastic. That is so I mean, how did you you meet Eva? How do you meet the people you work with? I mean, is it just social media through does he was it or or how did that all come because you seem to have a You know a group of people you've been working with anyway, it seems. Yeah.
No, you know, we were fortunate to live in a technological area, you know. So, you know, we can connect with people right around the world. So, but yeah, I got in contact with a producer called Bobby Johnson and he's like my co -producer. He has a studio in Bloomfontein Field Study in
South Africa. So we... got in contact and i told him you know i'm gonna do this this is a concept what do you think and he said yeah i know he loves the idea let's see where it goes yeah and that's how it all started so and then yeah every song we produce and write together we then decide okay who are we going to get on as a vocalist let's try someone new let's try you know a different angle and stuff like that, so we're not like limited, like I would say, you know, your ordinary
or typical band or group or artist, you know, we play around the sounds and female, male, you know, depends, you know, so we are not limited in terms of creativity, we just go with the flow and, you know, where the sound takes us and we go with it. Sure in your press release The demographic music sent me a lovely lovely thing from you and it says My life is a portrait and I hold the paintbrush. I got dealt a bad hand, but I play it like a royal flush Oh, that's amazing.
So it says it all Growing up, I mean, how did you find things growing up? Was it a normal school? Were the kids okay? Or were they cruel like kids can be? How did life treat you as you were growing up? Yeah, look, it always comes to the theatre, you know. People always, you know, treat you differently in a certain way. But I wouldn't say more cruel or anything like that. It's just... you will always have that, you know, it comes
with the territory. Like I say, you know, people will always treat you differently until you earn a sense of, how can I say, I don't want to say earn a sense of respect, but you have to put yourself out there in a way. And then when people get to know you, then, you know, it kind of equals the, how can I say, the playing ground, if that makes sense, you know? So you just have to, I mean, The world is religious, you know, and we have to face it as it is, and it's just religious.
I mean, I don't play the victim card ever. Like with Dero, who is my PR manager, you know, the first thing I told him is like, you know, we never play the victim card. We don't do that. We just carry on and do what we do and try to inspire other people in doing what we do. Yeah, so that's how we go with it. Yeah, yeah. I'm asking these questions mainly for other people at home that might be needing the... I mean,
you're the great ambassador. You get on and you do your music and you believe in your music and that's really what you are. You're the musician and producer and everything else. I'm asking these questions just for people at home, maybe alone, may not have your outlook in life and just hoping it might help them a little bit. That's where I was going with it. Sue would like to ask you a question. Jay, who inspires you? Yeah, no, it looks great. That's a difficult
question to answer. I can't really explain it. It's like, I guess, you know, I came to the realization that I have this fire inside of me that is ultimately given to me by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, you know, and ultimately that has just kept me going in my own life. I can't explain, like... that like a certain thing keeps me going. I just,
you get up, you go on, and you carry on. But in terms of inspiration for my art, you know, I get inspiration, especially even from TV, film, it doesn't matter, you know, artists can inspire other artists ultimately, and that's what art is, you know, it's a reflection of the human soul. And yeah, at the end of the day, I see myself mostly as a storyteller and I just chose the medium of music to tell my stories at the moment, you know? So yeah, I hope that answers
your question. Perfectly. Now you said you got into this in about 2018, so of course COVID -19
came along effectively we say early 2020. So would you say, I mean it was a very, what should we say, creative time for a lot of people, so would you say, that's just really bad wording saying it came at the right time, would you say that, you know... it got you it was the right it was the right time to get your creative juices flowing because 2018 2019 early 2020 was say uh of course that's when all the lockdowns started coming in around the world so uh what what did
you do during the lockdowns i mean was it creative for you did you did you just escalate for you and that's how you ended up being the person we see today yeah ultimately like even like our business model or creative model you know that no effect on us you know like I said previously you know fortunately we live in a technological age so we could just carry on you know the same it really had no effect on us personally so but you know you see social media and people get
you know they're getting down and frustrated with life and in in that sense it inspired me to try to be a shining light of hope in a dark time, I guess. We just carried on doing what we do. Hopefully, for us, it was not as bad as other artists that use a different business model like they do live performances. tour at the county or whatever you know so it doesn't have effect on us but other artists really really fronted and they still you know they still struggle with
the aftermath of the launch. Well yeah because some people uh some artists of course were reliant 100 % on uh uh on their income from concerts and gigging and things like that so yeah that is the number that's the number one uh business model in South Africa for an artist you know in terms of streams and technological sales I guess you won't make your living you know so you have to do you have to do a gig here and there and do what you do so yeah for us you know
we are fortunate and I'm in a privileged position with family and loved ones you know always supporting me so I can't complain. Yeah. Great. Fantastic. I see obviously we've come out of the lockdown. I see 2023 as the release of a single. Do excuse my pronunciation in case I make a big zero of it. Chesley and Colby in an office... Cubisil featuring Hemel, Bessam, Luffy, Gazelle and Vickers Visser, is it? A powerful hip -hop pop anthem, champions perseverance in the face of doubt,
echoing the ethos. Rather try and fail than fail to try the song embodies and potentially. So
yeah, that was 2023. also in 2023 i see here this is very race and what was an incredible year uh your late sister andrea she she passed i believe from spinal muscular astrophy type one yes the age of just five so we're really sorry to hear about that but thank you for for sharing that so this has been so you did a collaboration with uh edwin cat and kulaks and the single release was Andrea the angelic yeah yeah yeah that's absolutely beautiful yeah yeah she passed away
in uh 1994 oh sorry i see you did the you did the you did the song in that year sorry i've got you yeah it's a story to tell and i should uh do something with it and yeah it takes two to tangle and to to present a radio show so here's Nick and Sue your musical duo this is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment Shadowbox, Shadowbox, Shadowbox, Shadowbox 2024, your musical journey took a profound turn with Demons and Disorders
featuring Nathan Blur and then we've also got, let's have a look, Remember the Dream also again featuring Nathan Blur And then we take us to 2025. We've already mentioned the fantastic Bubblegum Milkshake, which Sue's not had the pleasure of hearing yet, but she will do later. Had we not got stuck in the traffic jam, she would have heard it before. I just love the name. It's an amazing effort, that one. Also in 2025, with Clint Brink, you did a thing called The Way.
And you remember the dream we've mentioned now, yeah. What have we got? Now we're in 2026, Jay. What have we got coming out in 2026? What are your plans for this year? What can we expect
to hear from you? and you know it's a threat to creativity but there's also a side to it where we ultimately must embrace it you know i mean it's not going anywhere and at the end of the day true creativity comes from the human soul and that's what the title manna you know it's it's we don't really know where it comes from or what it is but creativity comes from human. So, you know, it will be genetic and all that, but it will never tell a story like a human can
tell a story. So that will, that will situation we find ourselves in and yeah. As you say, embrace it. I mean, AI, there's no points. In my opinion, someone bringing out something that's 100 % AI. singing or, you know, music production. However, it can be useful. It can be helpful. But like I say, as you say, embrace it is a great way of looking at it. However, we did have this thing in the in the 80s when the drum machines come out and everybody thought it was going to be
the end of a drummer. Now there's plenty of groups out there still with drum drummers. So possibly
not. I think people are panicking a bit, but no. it's not going to replace it embrace it as you say technically we didn't use the word embrace the drum machine back in the day but that's what happened and there's plenty of drummers out there as you know yourself so hopefully it's going to be something similar to that hopefully yeah i mean even if you look at autotune when it came out you know it's the same concept if you really think about you know it's a set to real vocalist
but at the end of the day we still have good vocalist where we are here in this day and age so I feel like it will be a place for everyone to do what they love and you know experience themselves and like I said ultimately we as human beings we are artists it comes from our soul and yeah we can just express ourselves and whatever medium we use we might just tell our stories If that makes sense, you know? Absolutely. When can we expect the new song to be out? The new
single to be out? Yeah, I'm aiming for around end of April, May. Then I think everything will be in line and we can run a solid PR campaign. So yeah, we're looking at end of April, beginning of May. Sure, no, absolutely. So I'll be getting all your stuff anyway. He's going to be sending me everything. So we'll be looking for that and playing that. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you. If there's anything up to the standard of your other stuff, it's going to be fantastic
and worthy of some radio play. So there you go. Let me ask you, what's it like having a British audience listening to you on the scale of 230 stations and what's it like people in the UK being interested in you? It's a massive honour and it's a privilege to be on your show and to tell my story. It doesn't matter. who listens to my story, I just want to tell my story and hopefully inspire people to keep fighting the good fight. It doesn't matter what your demographic
or your location is. Have you got anything for Jay? Jay, what sort of music was you listening to when you were growing up? Yeah, so that's the thing. I was always mostly eclectic, but my favorite was hip -hop. So when we started in 2018 -19, you know, our first few singles was very much hip -hop influenced. And, you know, at the end of the day, you have to listen to
your audience and the people around you. So me and Devo got together and we said, maybe we should move into a more of a... pop commercial type of genre to reach more people and get more radio play ultimately so that's why you will see ultimately i guess from remember the dream we made that shift into a more pop So that's the way we're going forward now, you know, not limited, but we want to be as commercial as possible to reach
as many people as possible. So, you know, it's not about, you know, I can be selfish and stubborn and do what I want to do, but ultimately you have to listen to what people say around you. And, you know, you can't just let your creativity
flow. uncontrollably if that makes sense so you have to keep yourself in check and people around you must keep you also in check you know so yeah stay in touch with your audience is basically what I'm trying to say that's cool absolutely you've been great chatting Jim before we let you go let's look at your social media I've got it all up here by the looks of it so it's uh Stephen Gorkin the uh nuclear lyricist and uh you're on facebook literally as nuclear lyricist
uh got x nuclear lyricist uh same as instagram uh tiktok is at the nuclear lyricist uh youtube you got a channel on there Fantastic, so they could be looking at you there. Spotify, you're on. Apple Music, so YouTube we mentioned, and you're on Deezer as well. No doubt you're on a whole bunch of other stuff. Is there websites or any other social media that I've missed there that you'd like to mention? The website is stevengooking
.online. but yeah you can go to all the social media platforms as you mentioned and all the streaming platforms yeah will be uh searched away so please share and search and you know like and subscribe to anyone that's listening we appreciate the support No, it's fantastic and and and you are a great great artist great great producer and Like I say, it wasn't just the interview with does he? He went a bit further
there. I thought that this guy's really great I need to talk to him not only about about the music but also about him as well And I thought yeah the the British audience will love to meet you. So that's what we've done and here you are So thank you so much. It's been a great interview. Yeah No, thank you both for having me Are you on now? Yeah, no, likewise. So Jay, Steve Gawkin, the nuclear lyricist, thank you so much for coming on Chatterbox UK and the Redux podcast, and let's
do it again sometime. So keep in touch and we'll keep an eye on chat about something else you're doing in the future. Anytime, thank you. Thank you very much. Jay, thank you very much. Thanks, Jay. Thank you, thank you. You've been listening to the Chatterbox Redux podcast with Sue and Nick and today our special guest was IJ Swanipool aka Stephen Galkin aka the nuclear lyricist.
If you're interested in becoming a future guest on the Chatterbox Redux podcast or the radio show Chatterbox UK you're welcome to submit songs, books or whatever it is you do and send us a CV, synopsis or press release. However, we receive several thousand such press releases every week and it's impossible to reply to each one. individually. Why not email us or leave a comment because we'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Our email address is nickelbum at myyahoo .com. Alternatively,
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