Simon Ringrose, better known to many as Sibot, is a Cape Town-based music producer, sound designer and the founder of boutique music and sound studio SayThankYou. Over more than two decades, he has helped shape the sound of South African advertising while working across underground music, live performance and some wonderfully strange experiments. This is the story of how a scratch DJ, accidental ad man and compulsive collaborator built a career that stretches from Max Normal and Gold Loeries to Damon Albarn, Mr Eazi and music made from cracking blocks of ice.

When we started chatting to Simon, we thought we were writing an article about a respected sound designer, music producer and his studio SayThankYou. Two hours later, we’d travelled through underground DJ battles, Gold Loeries, Damon Albarn collaborations, recording music using blocks of ice, and a long list of South African ads that have become part of our industry’s collective memory. Simon’s is a creative career that has consistently sat at the intersection of music, culture, advertising and the occasional wonderfully odd experiment.

Before he was crafting soundtracks for some of South Africa’s most memorable commercials, Simon Ringrose was battling DJs in underground scratch competitions wearing a military veil under his DJ name Sibot. This was the early 2000s, around the same time he was forming Max Normal alongside a then-unknown Ninja (now the lead singer of Die Antwoord), competing in the DMC turntablism championships and teaching himself music production on a computer built by legendary sound engineer Rob Brinkworth. Advertising was nowhere near the plan.

Sibot – Live at African Hip Hop Indaba

Simon back in 2002, the Hip Hop Indaba Scratch Championship. Derrick Watts in the background.

But somewhere between burning homemade CDs, accidentally landing commercial briefs through a junior creative at Hunt Lascaris (the now not-so-junior Peter Khoury), and winning Gold at the Loeries for Sasol’s ‘Milk’ on only his second ad, Simon quickly became one of the country’s most sought-after collaborators in commercial sound.

You’ll know the work, even if you don’t immediately know his name.

The Black Cat Peanut Butter commercial with the classroom carpet pull. Watch it again; that scratch track still holds up. Sasol’s iconic ‘Milk’ spot. Castle Lite’s ‘Zã Banda’ campaign, where Simon and longtime collaborator Lebogang Rasethaba (they’re also godfathers to each other’s kids) made music out of cracking ice. Flying Fish with director Adrian de Sa Garces. Allan Gray’s ‘Everything Comes Around’. KFC’s ‘Beyond the Sea’. Tusker in Kenya. Adidas Originals Global. It’s a body of work that stretches across more than two decades of commercial creativity.

Black Cat ‘Peanut Power’

Tusker ‘Us’ 

 Castle Lite ‘Ziyabanda’

Then there’s SayThankYou, the boutique sound and music production company Simon built with his brother Duncan Ringrose and longtime collaborator Markus Wormstorm. Officially launched in 2004, the company grew out of a scrappy early run of success that saw them winning major work before they had quite figured out what running a business was supposed to look like.

“We pretended we had a business until we did,” Simon laughs.

Flying Fish ‘What The Flying Fish!?!’

Allan Gray ‘Everything Comes Around’

KFC ‘Beyond the Sea’

Today, Simon works from the SayThankYou studio in Cape Town.

That DIY instinct still runs through everything he does. Simon has never approached advertising like a traditional advertising person. His references come from clubs, underground music scenes, live performance, strange experiments and obsessive sound exploration.

“Long before people started talking about authenticity and cultural relevance, I was pulling underground artists into commercial work because that’s where the exciting stuff was happening,” says Simon.

“Years before Mr Eazi became a global name, I tracked him down for a Malta Guinness campaign because I wanted to remake C+C Music Factory through an Afrobeats lens.”

Malta Guinness (Directors Cut)

He brought Moonchild Sanelly into an Adidas Originals Global project before she exploded internationally, collaborated with Khuli Chana, Blxckie and 25K with director Sam Coleman, and later remixed one of those tracks for amapiano star Zee Nxumalo. One of his own tracks, released through Diplo’s label, also landed in Diplo’s Top 100 Songs of the Year.

Adidas Originals ‘Original is Never Finished’

       Sibot released three tracks under the collective name Magnet Jam on the Jeffree’s division of Diplo’s label, Mad Decent.

That ability to recognise talent early still follows him. This year Simon joined the jury of the Young Director Award, the international competition that has championed emerging directors for almost three decades.

“In 2018, I was invited to collaborate with Damon Albarn on the Africa Express project, spending six days making music with artists from around the world. One late-night session resulted in a track with Gruff Rhys and Morena Leraba that has since accumulated millions of streams and landed on Elton John’s playlist,” says Simon. 

At no point does Simon talk about any of this like someone carefully building a legacy. Most of the stories arrive sideways, usually buried beneath another story about a strange creative problem he became obsessed with solving, while we sat there repeatedly interrupting him with, “No ways!”

Like spending days wandering through cold-storage facilities recording ice sounds for Castle Lite. “We pressed the song onto vinyl, made a mould, then created a vinyl record out of ice and played it in a cold room. It actually worked.”

That mindset has shaped many of Simon’s closest creative relationships too. He speaks often about directors as long-term collaborators rather than clients. Early in Paul Ward’s career, Simon offered to help him pitch for jobs simply because he believed in him. The same happened with directors like Sam Coleman and Adrian de Sa Garces, relationships built over years of experimentation, trust and shared process.

“Freedom breeds the greatest work,” says Simon. “You don’t need to be managed, you just need to put the right people in the room together.”

Simon’s sense of experimentation also helped shape South African culture outside advertising. He co-founded the influential Cape Town music venue Assembly, worked extensively within the country’s underground music scene, and produced tracks that became part of Joburg nightlife through collaborations with Boyzn Bucks, Okmalumkoolkat and Stilo Magolide.

IDIDTHAT HOUSE PARTY 2025 Loeries Fringe, L-R Markus Wormstorm and Simon, aka Sibot, reunite for an epic set. IYKYK.

And despite changing business models, shrinking timelines, AI anxiety and endless restructuring, Simon still genuinely loves the process.

“When you get a great brief and you’re nailing it, and everyone’s happy, and you finally get to mix day, it’s such an incredible feeling,” he says. “Then you all meet up again at the Loeries, moan, laugh, celebrate and catch up. I actually think that’s super genuine.”

After more than twenty years in the industry, Simon Ringrose is still chasing the next interesting idea. Fortunately for the rest of us, they usually end up sounding pretty great.