Bongeziwe Mabandla is more than just a singer…he’s the voice of the new generation
By Lebogang Mgiba He’s more than just a singer but an artist that uses his own voice to stand for what he believes in. For me, when it comes to music, there should be some emotions involved in order for me to get deep into it, otherwise there’s no point. I don’t mind listening to some ‘Ok” songs once in a while but I really appreciate artists that are story tellers and Bongeziwe is one of them. I was left in awe the first time I heard his debut album, UMLILO and wanted to find out more about him as an artist living in South Africa today. 1. You performed with Joss Stone when she was here in S.A, how did that come about? I got a call from a guy in Cape Town who was handling Joss Stone’s S.A tour concert and he told me she would like to do some cool things with South African artists. So I sent my music to him and he told me if she likes it, she will then invite me to do something with her. A week later I got a call saying Joss Stones really likes my music. Zahara and I did a performance at Balcony TV and second day we went to Soweto together which was nice and then she also invited me to Carnival City for her concert and we performed Isizathu together. 2. Interesting. How was the experience though? It was absolutely wonderful; Joss Stone is such a kind, warm and friendly person. I really like people like that. 3. How is your song writing process? I’m actually busy writing now and that’s why I got these musical instruments. This time I’m working with a band to kind of develop the song. It’s one of the things I didn’t have on the first album, UMLILO. I just did things, but I’m happy that it happened that way. With the first album, I didn’t really understand what I was doing. I wrote the songs in a guitar chilling in a studio and then they would be interpreted from there. Now I’m aware of what’s happening around me and I understand music more than I did when I was 24, making the first record. 4. What is Ndibonisiwe and Isizathu about? Let’s start with Ndibonisiwe. What I was trying to communicate was that, sometimes you can be in a situation that is not good and the song is about escaping and running away. When you see that things are not working out, it’s better to escape to something better or try something that works for you. It was also written about me trying...
Review: Die Antwoord live in Belgium – ZEFFING HOT!
On the way to watch Die Antwoord last night all healthy eating habits were broken as we chowed down at our local fastfood outlet to get to the show on time. Behind us two young women in their early 20s were perched at a window booth doing that annoying noughties thing, playing music on their cellphone at full volume. It was a depressing set of soppy badly-produced RnB and as my partner-in-crime put it so aptly, there’s no worse ‘bad RnB’ than French RnB. The girls loved it though and sang along to every lyric mimicking the sadness, the heartbreak, the ecstasy of whichever madamoiselle’s mediocre voice was blaring out. I was on the brink of heartburn from the sheer painfulness of it all until they suddenly switched stations and I sat back enraptured. The RnB turned into a Bollywood hitsong, the girls jumped giddily up during the opening notes and began to act out a choreographed dance routine while singing every word of the song. The point is, they certainly didn’t look or sound Indian and yet they knew the lyrics by heart. You see, they’d bought into the package deal of the Bollywood song, they clearly loved the exotic melody, the high-pitched rise-and-fall singing style; and their clean dance moves showed they’d spent hours imitating the music video. They loved it so much that they’d learnt the words, every single one of them, while more than likely not understanding a single one. Little did I realise that I would experience this same feeling of awe times one million a little over an hour later, as I listened to hundreds of European fans singing along to Die Antwoord’s mishmashed South African lyrics in a beautifully rof yet finely perfected South African accent. So much of naas. I just couldn’t get the grin off my face throughout the performance, and looking back, nor could most of the audience. It was absolutely thrilling – Die Antwoord is the modern-day antidote to boring live music performances. I’m no music fundi but I am certainly a music lover and I can attest that throughout my lifespan and certainly way before that, English language songs, largely from UK and USA based artists, have dominated both the global music charts and the mainstream ones in South Africa. For how long have South Africans complained about the rest of the world not knowing about our music, about how much we hope to enter the international music scene, about how we dream of people knowing more of our artists than the legends Johnny Clegg and Miriam Makeba. From Rock to Kwaito to Folk to Soul to...
Die Antwoord ripping up the interwebs
Skandaal! For once Cape Town is on the map for a reason other than the mountain (we love you mountain) … enter… Die Antwoord: crass, vulgar, in your face, rof… with the slickest beats and ryhmes …The tongue-in-your-bruised-cheek trio take the dirtiest side of being a poor white South African and rework it into a mish-mash of edgy Afrikaans flow and rough South African English slang that has the world sitting up and taking notice of their bottom-of-the-barrel approach. We’re thinking they’re South Africa’s very own THE STREETS. .. but with lyrics that will have the voorvaders doing somersaults in their graves, you actually can’t compare them. Irreverance in a sweet beat. Truly Scandalous. Add your hit to the fab video Zef Side that’s making the groot trek around cyberspace. Zef Side. Nice one Waddy! Hard work always pays...
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