Pebbles performing at Montecasino on Saturday!
You know that she is one of our favourite musicians… Do yourselves a favour and go and catch her in action… She is unique – a true star in the making. Catch Pebbles on Saturday!
Pebbles will be blessing Cantare at Montecasino in Fourways on Saturday the 21st of August so be sure to be there for a night of gorgeous live music off her stunning debut.
Smart …
Casual is the dress code and R100 gets you in to this sumptuous joint. Doors open at 8pm and for more info call 082 332 9161 and for dinner reservations call 011 511 0505
To know Pebbles is to be sure that she just doesn’t like to do things like everyone else. Like many girls her age (now 29), the big pop/R&B balladeers of our time – Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Karyn White, etc – incited in her a desire to sing in public.
Unlike with most however, that desire became a matter of urgency when Pebbles decided finishing a journalism degree at Rhodes University was just not for her. Nor was an interim job at her parents’ car parts shop in Port Elizabeth. There she initially resisted encouragement from friends and family alike to take on Jozi’s bright lights as a means to fulfil her dream.
‘I was just lazy about it. I couldn’t find it in me to get it together and part of it also had to do with being scared,’ she recalls. ‘But they all just kept hassling me until I gave in one day.’
Giving in coincided with an opening at then brand new Outrageous Records for a female vocalist. One audition won over the label’s CEO Dzino, and fast-tracked her on to the theme song for Black Rage’s TV show Bassiq and then on to the compilation CD Rage in 2001.
The latter spawned Destiny, the song with the haunting melody and uplifting message, acclaimed today as an underground classic, which appears as a remix (featuring Optical Illusion’s Golden Shovel) on the subsequent Maximum Sentence mixtape. It would be the public’s first taste of a brand of R&B/jazz/soul-flavoured music with cheeky inflections Pebbles coined – playful soul.
Pebbles’ debut album, titled as such, amplifies this concept, which carries sometimes melancholy subject matter (on songs like Confused Again and Lonely) with unlikely yet effective nonchalance: ‘I don’t know what it is about me but I am drawn to sad songs,’ she admits laughingly. ‘I think the way I sing them makes them listenable. I’m really not trying to depress anyone!’
Being blessed with a Manhattan Brother for a father, and being able to casually refer to Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbuli as ‘uncle’ and auntie’ means the P.E and London-bred singer/song-writer’s musical foundation is formidable.
Add to this the influences that she is continually exposed to, having worked with label mates Zubz and H20 on their respective albums as well as Expressions and Coca-Cola Collaborations compilations. Only then does Pebbles’ immense potential begin to hit home – potential previously tapped into even by noteworthy musicians outside her label. For one, Tumi and the Volume’s infamous singles ’76 and People of The Light are great tracks made outstanding by her poignant vocals, as most who have seen her perform with the band on stages like 2004’s North Sea Jazz Festival will attest. (A fan of Pebbles himself, Tumi writes and performs The Way of Want, a jazzy number produced by Nyambz on her new set.)
Most significant to Pebbles though, is the exponential growth she has experienced as a songwriter due to such affiliation. ‘I make it a point to write at least 16 bars a day,’ she says of her creative regimen that she says is helpful in instilling discipline in her art. And it ain’t hard to tell with lyrics like ‘I’m an African like H2O/But a hybrid one just so you know/See I grew up on the other side of the sea/And when I sing I embrace reflections of me&’-Dysfunctional
‘I love people like Thandiswa and Simphiwe Dana. I think what they are doing in creating their own niches is amazing,’ gushes the singer and adds, ‘I think Jill Scott is the best songwriter out there. That’s someone who can tell you your heart’s story!’
Playful Soul deals with matters of the heart mostly but not exclusively. She Is, for example, is the story of a woman who remains nameless and faceless by virtue of her being a celebrity’s lover. Yet again on Emandulo, Pebbles confronts the issue of identity but from a different perspective: ‘This is the first time I have ever sang in Xhosa,’ she says of that song written and co-produced by Maxhoba Maponya and Outrageous’ resident producer extraordinaire, Tongo. ‘I had never done it before because I was always conscious of the way I pronounce words in Xhosa. I really didn’t want to sing Xhosa with an English accent. That would just be wack!’
Thankfully, her persistence and Maxhubo’s patient coaching resulted in a triumph in authenticity to say the least of this song, which bemoans the loss of cultural values prescribed by our ancestors.
But for every serious theme, Playful Soul has a lighter antidote. Rise reads like a follow-up to Destiny, transferring affirmation from herself on to the listener. This song also features newcomer Khethi, another compelling singer whose vocals uncannily match those of Pebbles: ‘I just knew we would click when I first heard her. We have a very similar vibe, we are in the same kind of headspace,’ she says of her co-singer.
Producers Tongo, Nyambz and Jerrah made the twelve gorgeous melodies that make up Playful Soul, steeped in the genres of South Africa’s ever-changing modern music landscape. Simply put by the singer herself, ‘there is nothing out there like it.’ And indeed as far as simple, sincere debuts go, this is a sound yet to be experienced in full.
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