What does it really mean to be a musician? Up-and-coming songstress Asanda Lusaseni, who is no stranger to the Grahamstown music scene, is making it her mission to find out and has just earned herself a coveted spot in a North Carolina music school. Michael Salzwedel asked her about her musical journey thus far.
What does it really mean to be a musician? Up-and-coming songstress Asanda Lusaseni, who is no stranger to the Grahamstown music scene, is making it her mission to find out and has just earned herself a coveted spot in a North Carolina music school. Michael Salzwedel asked her about her musical journey thus far.
Tell us about your musical past.
I have always been fascinated with song and hearing voices combine in harmony. So in my spaces its always been natural to collect a bunch of friends around me and make some music. Throughout my tertiary life, friendships combusted into bands. I sang for a brass-heavy jazz band in Port Elizabeth (2005), was in an alternative rock collective called The Patience in East London (2008), did some work with electro-experimental band Johnny Cradle in Cape Town (2008) and was in a guitar and vocal duo called Kate I in Grahamstown in 2009. I did a laughable cover duo called Friend of a Friend (loads of fun) in Leeds (2011) played with Richard Omrod, a multi-instrumentalist based in Leeds, doing mainly South African Jazz standards (2011) and a jazzy afro-pop band One Shushu Day in Grahamstown (2011). They have all contributed something to my soundscape and pulled at something that was already in me.
Where are you right now with your music?
Right now I'm playing mostly solo, sharing the skeleton of the music that is inside of me. I am in the street sessions and the open mics, and sometimes I open for more established acts like Jamali, Micasa, Liquid Deep, Zakes Bantwini and Black Coffee at the Legends in the Making concert in East London over Easter. I want to attract the kind of musicians that feel like they can flesh out the skeleton and build something special with me. I want to be able to demonstrate how an artist can produce a quality project while being based here in the Eastern Cape. My aim is to partner with entities like ECPACC, the Miriam Makeba Centre, Dolce Sound, Aspire artists' retreat, local video and documentary specialists, local session musicians as well as local fashion designers and stylists and of course local media. I want to make this alternative route accessible to other artists and I want to share my findings via my organisation called One Shushu Day Artistry.
You were one of 25 selected from hundreds of applicants for the 18 Inch Journey music school in North Carolina in June – what’s it all about?
18 inches is the distance from the head to the heart. The school runs on a unique vision so it attracts many people with a passion to see change through the arts from around the world. I see music, or any creative output, as a mouthpiece for what is going on in someone's inner world and a means to negotiate with one's environment. The school shares that view. The emphasis is not just on being equipped and mentored on the pragmatics of being an artist and thriving in that space. It also focuses on things that trip artists up: ego, insecurity, and not understanding one's own creativity. I also thought it an opportunity to make some life-long friends, and have a global perspective on music through other musicians personal views. I am looking forward to being part of such a community! I see the school as a much-needed foundation. All good foundations begin with the heart.
What have been your musical highlights of late?
All the Singing for Soup events. Music which is made in a space where everyone, from the listener to the performer, are there to give, always resonates with me. When I started Singing for Soup in 2009 I was hoping people would get behind it wholeheartedly and realise they could make a difference in the Masincedane Soup kitchen feeding the Xolani community. The musicians agreed to be paid in soup. The women of the area baked us homemade bread to sell and brewed us some Mqombothi (traditional beer). We made R8000 on our first try that we were able to give to the soup kitchen. So more than anything it proved to me that people love coming together for something good.
What's your take on the music scene in Grahamstown, and in South Africa? The Grahamstown scene is like no other! So much talent! There is the Tunnels singer/songwriter scene which nurtured artists like Dave Knowles, Dreamweaver and Lucy Lillith. There’s the bandy Live Music Society scene, the former Bua poetry society come Bla-zeh-blah scene full of soulsisters, MCs, poets and rastas, where talented acts like Words Untame can be found. There’s the scene up at Makhayas's Tavern, the Unseen Cyphers, the Beethoven Room scene, the hidden gems up in the golf clubs that the student never see, the experienced jazz , blues and rock legends hiding in their home studios, Sunship, those crazy talented Portuguese guys over at The Monastery, the Pirates acoustic vibe where you can catch future stars like Dani Bowler. Grahamstown, you are RICH!
The scene in South Africa is exciting but really predictable and heavy handed sometimes. Its still full of formulas and people trying to produce something that sells rather than looking into themselves and drawing from this infinate pool of creativity and bringing out something different. With that being said, there are risk takers that keep blowing my mind! When you experience somethig authentic it doesnt matter if it is simple or complicated. It moves you. South Africa has a lot to say, being a rather globally aware country with such rich heritage. I dont enjoy how polarised the industry is, how black and white it is. We are all missing out on each other in a big way. I think a challenge goes out to the media to start potraying the music scene as it is on the ground.
Asanda is putting on special fundraising show to help raise the much-needed funds required to attend the 18 Inch Journey music school. She will be joined by a variety of musicians and poets for the show, which is happening on 26 April at the Arts Theatre near Turnbull Park in East London, from 6pm. For more information, or if you can assist financially, contact her on alusaseni@yahoo.com or 071 813 9184
