From humble beginnings in a Cape Town basement to becoming one of Africa’s most respected music and audio studios, Pressure Cooker Studios has built a global reputation for excellence in sound design, music production, and audio storytelling. Founded by CEO James Matthes and his co-founder over 15 years ago, the studio was born out of a shared belief in collaboration, creativity, and craft.
Today, with a 20-person team of world-class composers and sound engineers, Pressure Cooker Studios operates from two purpose-built facilities in Cape Town’s CBD, producing music and sound for global brands, films, and video games. In this interview, James Matthes shares how the company grew organically, the challenges of scaling internationally, and how they are pioneering a new sound out of Africa, authentic, cinematic, and deeply rooted in culture.
How was your company born and where are you based?
Pressure Cooker Studios was born 15 years ago in the basement of my house in Cape Town, South Africa. My co-founder and I knew we could do better work together, balancing each other's weaknesses and building on each other's strengths. From day one, the goal was to build something rooted in respect, collaboration, and the pursuit of creative excellence. We started with no roadmap, just a clear vision and an unwavering commitment to craft.
Now we are based across two 365sqm purpose-built studio floors in the heart of Cape Town’s CBD, equipped to service the globe with world-class Music and Audio by our in-house team of 20 composers and sound engineers.
What was the biggest challenge to the growth of your company?
The biggest challenge has been building awareness and trust in the global economy. We’ve always grown organically, bootstrapping the business from the start. That meant assembling a world-class team, building world-class facilities, and putting the right systems in place, without investor backing. Translating our strong local reputation into a consistent international pipeline has taken grit and perseverance.
Which was the first huge success that you can remember?
Winning our first feature film project. At the time, everyone asked if we’d done a film before and the answer was “not yet.” But the director chose us because we were hungry and he knew he’d get more out of us. That same director brought us onto a $10M film with Paul Walker two years later. That early belief in our potential changed everything.
What’s the biggest opportunity for you and your company in the next year?
We’re spearheading a new sound out of Africa that we feel is the future of cinematic sound. Projects like Legends of Orisha, a Nigerian game title backed by Xbox, and the documentary film Whispering Giants are current projects that we are applying this new authentic approach to. We’re also really excited about the growth and opportunity to bring cinematic quality music to the gaming industry. Events like XDS and Devcom are creating space for us to bring this to the world.
As our campaigns expand into live showcases stateside, especially around trade shows and brand activations in Las Vegas, we rely on dedicated AV event staffing in the city proven AV labor for load‑in/load‑out, FOH engineering, LED and projection, and real-time troubleshooting so our composers and sound team can focus on creative while on-site crews keep the show running flawlessly.
Can you explain your team’s creative process? What makes it unique?
Our ‘Made by Many’ approach is at the heart of how we work. We pair the right talent with every stage of a project, drawing from our in-house team of 20+ creatives who each bring their own voice. It’s deeply collaborative. We also get involved early, as early as pre-production, to help shape the creative vision from concept stage.
How does your team remain inspired and motivated?
We’re a people-first studio. We embed our values in everything we do, celebrate wins weekly, and foster open, non-hierarchical communication. Monthly ‘Inspiration Evenings’ take us outside the studio to explore the arts together. We also run internal one-day challenges to keep creative muscles sharp and release pressure. And we regularly run engagement surveys and ‘chinwags’ to keep a pulse on how our team is really doing and connected to the direction of the studio.
How has COVID-19 affected your company?
It brought us closer. Our focus was getting through it together, and we did, stronger than before. It was also a turning point: we realised we weren’t just a local studio anymore, we were a global one. Due to restraints during the pandemic, Triggerfish Animation trusted us to handle both the Music & Audio on their film, Seal Team, the first time they did all of this with a South African studio. That shift gave us the confidence to lean further into international work. The pandemic also opened doors for us into the gaming industry (like working on Manor Lords) and proved we could deliver authentic world-class results from Cape Town to the world.
What is one tip that you would give to other agencies looking to grow?
Build your business around a clear purpose and a set of genuine values. It’s the one thing that will keep you going when things get tough, and it always gets tough.
How do you go about finding new clients/business?
Our growth has largely been organic, driven by referrals and people seeing or hearing our work and wanting to work with us. We pitch regularly and sing for our supper on almost every project. This keeps us sharp, agile, and always striving to push our creative edge.
What’s your one big hope for the future of the industry?
That the industry embraces more diverse voices in creative leadership, music, and storytelling. We want to close the gap between Africa and the world. There is so much untapped talent on our continent, and the future of the industry depends on amplifying it.
Can you share a defining moment in your company's journey that shaped its identity or direction?
Working with a creative agency to articulate our purpose and values was transformative. It gave language to what we had always felt, and allowed us to align our team around a shared ‘why’. Since then, every decision, big or small, has flowed from that clarity.
How do you foster a culture of innovation and experimentation within your team?
We create space for it. One-day internal challenges let people experiment without pressure, and just make something unique and see where it can end up. And we treat each project as a chance to flex our creativity. We also nurture curiosity through constant learning, like our monthly lectures with Afromusicologist Lucy Durán or technical training for game integration. We also have a value that embraces failure ‘Get it Wrong’ …and embeds it into our creative process and our culture generally.
What measures do you take to ensure diversity and inclusion are prioritised within your company?
We have an active partnership with Bridges for Music, a non-profit organisation, through which we offer one fully paid internship each year to a participant from their Industry Access Gateway programme. This initiative specifically supports individuals from previously disadvantaged communities and enables us to access a broader, more diverse talent pool than would typically be available through formal music education institutions.
Internally, we are committed to building an inclusive culture where a strong sense of belonging is prioritised for all team members. Over the past year, we conducted a series of four workshops facilitated by external diversity and inclusion specialists. These workshops led to the establishment of several employee-led working groups, including a dedicated Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, led by three team members.
This group plays an essential role in shaping internal policy, fostering inclusive practices, and ensuring safe, supportive environments across the organisation. Additionally, we provide all employees with confidential access to an external HR consultant, creating a secure space where concerns can be raised and support accessed without fear or judgment.
What strategies do you employ to adapt to changes and trends in the industry while staying true to your company's values?
Our company values aren’t trend-based, they’re people-based. That makes them adaptable and timeless. We watch trends closely, especially in gaming, AI, and sonic branding, but apply them in ways that serve our purpose: building a platform for talent to flourish.
Can you share a memorable client success story that exemplifies your company's approach and impact?
One that stands out is our work on Amazon Prime Original The Shakedown. We pitched our music ideas with a 50-page vision treatment based on a single conversation with the director. From that, we built a unique sonic world that guided the entire edit. The score was nearly final by the time they locked picture. The director was so aligned with our process he came back to us for his next project, seeking that same level of creative partnership.
In what ways do you invest in the professional development and growth of your team members?
We invest heavily in learning. From our internship program to sending senior talent abroad for training, like Mix with the Masters with Alan Meyerson or Wwise training for game development and even specialist SEO training for our Digital Marketing Manager. We also have a monthly lecture with Lucy Durán (SOAC) who lectures us on Afro musicology from different territories around the continent. All of this pushes our team to expand their thinking and creativity.
How do you approach sustainability and ethical practices within your company's operations and projects?
While we take small day-to-day steps, such as separating waste at source in our studio and providing dedicated bins for recyclables and general waste, which are collected by a registered recycling company, our most meaningful environmental and social contributions come through long-term partnerships with impact-driven organisations.
In addition to our partnership with Bridges for Music, we are proud to be an official partner of Greenpop, a non-profit organisation rooted in environmental action and music culture. We support their mission by providing pro-bono audio and music services to help amplify their campaigns and message. Greenpop’s strong focus on reforestation, urban greening, and environmental education aligns closely with our own values, making this a natural and mutually empowering partnership.
Additionally, we are actively exploring further partnerships that will allow us to scale our internship programme, with the goal of equipping young creatives with industry-relevant skills and creating meaningful employment pathways—particularly for those from underrepresented communities.
Can you discuss a time when your company had to pivot or innovate in response to unforeseen challenges, and what lessons did you learn from that experience?
A key pivot was becoming a full-service Music & Audio studio. Originally focused on music, we saw that our clients needed us to bring the same level of care and creativity to sound design, dialogue, and Foley. That shift required us to rethink our structure, build new capabilities, and invest in a full creative ecosystem. It taught us that innovation isn’t just about invention, it’s about listening, adapting, and committing fully.
