Yolandi Visser

Leaving Interscope was not a personal thing. These record companies are a certain kind of machine, and we weren't able to function in it.

It doesn't matter if you've been working hard on something for six months. If you realize a track is wack, you have to throw it away. A lot of people can't do that.

How do you open up? I didn't know how to.

Zef is, you're poor, but you're fancy. You're poor, but you're sexy; you've got style.

I am Afrikaans. It wasn't ever something that I thought about.

I've always had that maternal thing: that connection with street kids and people who are misfits.

For me, with music, there is no half-stepping. This is my calling.

Ninja is super-ambitious - more than I am.

Music, for me, is just about where you're at, and that's always changing.

Our music's got flavor; it's got skill. And we present it really well.

I used to be into Bjork and PJ Harvey, and they used to blow my mind. But there hasn't been a pop star blowing anybody's mind.

My hair was long with a fringe, and people would make jokes, calling me Britney and Lady Gaga.

You can't try and make something you think someone else will like. You can only make what you like. How can you make a song that Yo-Landi Visser likes? You don't know me. You'll never understand me.

I work with Ninja, Ninja works with me.

It's weird how people were always asking us, 'Are you real? Are you joking?' That seems like something Americans care about a lot. You can't answer the question 'Are you real?' If we're anything, we're documentary fiction.

People are flying you places in business class. Everyone wants to take pictures of you and find out information about you. It's a freak-out. But the more you push boundaries, the more you get ahead.

Attention, it just comes and goes. Since we don't have a major label, it's like, what are we gonna do next? You have to make your own decisions.

It was hard to write or compose... we just had to go back and finish making songs. If we make 20 songs, we'll throw away 10.

I always make a decision, even if it's the wrong one. I hate being confused.

I wanted to be a cool mom. It was hectic. I felt very isolated for a long time, but in the end, it was cool because it helped me and Ninja stick together. If we hadn't, we would have maybe drifted.

I got irritated with people asking us the same questions. Like, 'Are you a real band?' Journalists wanted to slay us, tried to cut us down, and I just started caring less and less about doing interviews. With Facebook and Instagram, you kind of don't need to anyway. But now and again, we'll do something when there's new information to share.

You can't get emotional about your work.

People thought we were a joke because we got noticed so fast.

I roll with bodyguards when I go back home to South Africa.

You always gotta do what you like. If it connects, it's a miracle, but it happened with Die Antwoord.