South African musical trio, Afrosoul needs no introduction to local music lovers, having made a lasting impact on our music industry for the past 19 years. Despite their nearly two-decade run in the industry, they remain as hungry as up and comers who are ready to shake up the scene with some new sounds -- starting with their latest single, a tasty track titled "Don't Take your Love".
The newest single is the second release from their 2018 album, Uhambo and was produced by DJ Maphorisa who put his signature touches on it before the track could see the light of day.
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ZAlebs had the opportunity to speak to all three members of the music group about their careers, the landscape for musicians in Mzansi right now and a few lighter and funnier conversation topics. Here's what went down:
We began by reflecting on 2019, which has begun on a strong note for the band and they were more than happy to share some of the highlights so far when they said:
"2019 has been very good I must say. One thing that stands out is our latest ALBUM titled UHAMBO is getting a lot of attention from music lovers and the media. Last year December we released single "Ilanga" which is number 5 from the album and we crossed into 2019 with a lotta fun as the single was getting a lot of airplay around the country. We recently released another single and it's doing well, both these songs we produced by DJ Maphorisa."
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"#DONTTAKEYOURLOVE we are very happy with the response it's actually going according to our expectations. We going to shoot the video of Don't Take your love next week and we hoping for even more attention. "
We also spoke about working with DJ Maphorisa, a musician who has worked with Wizkid, Jidenna, Nasty C and many of Africa's most exciting talents. Afrosoul spoke in glowing terms about the influence he brings to a track:
"Working with DJ Maphorisa was one of the highlights in our musical journey, it was always fun, we never felt the pressure as you will normally feel when recording.
Maphorisa seems to understand exactly what people want to listen to or hear. He plays with ideas the easiest way ever and always preach that "Let's not complicate the Music" keep it simple. Also, we love our African sounds especially the older Afro-pop sounds from e.g. Brenda and Soul Brothers"
Our conversation took place almost a week after the ANC was announced to have won the South African national elections. I wanted to know if they were happy with the outcome of the election, to which they replied,
"Yes, I would say I'm happy. I'm happy simply because I still believe in our government and hoping that they will overcome all the obstacles that our country is facing and the damage that was caused by the apartheid regime within our fellow South Africans, people were made to hate themselves and that is why some black South Africans have no faith in each other. "
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But then I put the band on the spot and asked a serious question... does the current government provide enough support to local artists and entertainers. They couldn't help but reply honestly when they said...
"Our law doesn't protect Artists at all. Very sad. "
Sticking on the topic of government, we couldn't help but wonder what they thought of a proposed law to ban pornography from South African internet. Surprisingly, they agreed with this!
"We kinda think it is necessary. I personally feet it will be the right thing to ban it. Our kids with smartphones and pornography being easy to access is a disaster. "
We ended our interview on a fun note as I asked who each of their celebrity crushes are and they said:
