Human Bean Juice is an electronic music duo from Cape Town, South Africa composed of Ryan McArthur (bass, guitar, synth) and Werner Von Waltsleben (drums, production), two of Cape Town’s busiest session musicians. The project was started during the 2020 COVID pandemic when all music venues, studios and rehearsal spaces were forced to close and Ryan and Werner lost all of their work. Because they live in the same block of flats they were able to meet up and create music, despite strict lockdown regulations, and thus, Human Bean Juice was born.
Having played collectively with the likes of Francois Van Coke, Goodluck, Die Heuwels Fantasties, Jeremy Loops, Arno Carstens, Medicine Boy, Bye Beneco and Hog Hoggidy Hog (to name a few), Werner and Ryan bring years of diverse musical experience together in this exciting new project.
Blending elements of synthwave, chiptune and electronica with the grooves and harmony of soul, funk and jazz; Sundial (their debut release) helped them find their unique “Arcade Funk” sound and aesthetic.
Speaking about this new project Ryan McArthur explains “Werner and I both had a really difficult time dealing with the loss of income and uncertainty of the future of our industry, but lockdown gave us the opportunity to finally start the project that we’d been talking about for ages. Human Bean Juice kind of became a way for us to keep each other motivated when it was often hard to find a reason to continue making music.”
Werner Von Waltsleben comments “Living in the same apartment block as my buddy Ryan during hard lockdown definitely had its perks; we love playing video games, reading comic books, watching movies, having jam sessions and producing music together! Combine all those things and you get ‘Human Bean Juice!’. It’s truly something special when the art you create is honest and real and with Human Bean Juice that’s exactly what it is.”
For the Sundial music video, Human Bean Juice wanted to bring together all of the visual elements that inspire their sound. From the arcade machines they loved playing as kids, to the cyberpunk aesthetic of their favourite sci-fi movies, to the weird, dark and quirky comics they love reading. Ryan concludes “We basically tried to create our own little world where we could perform our groovy soundtrack to the apocalypse.”
Human Bean Juice’s debut single released today.
