It’s a Monday afternoon, a band of nobodies are sweating it out for practically nobody in a small room in South Africa’s Limpopo province. This is Shayamore (which means hit more) rehearsing for their next gig.
As the band plays, I find myself tapping and nodding to the rhythm. It’s hard to believe that a hot and raw talent like this is unknown.
The band is made up of five members, for whom music is their daily bread: Goodman Mndawe, a bassist; Solly Ndlovu, a pianist; Lazarus Silubane, a guitarist; Surance Chimbilini, a pianist, and Thabo Khoza, a drummer. For 18 years, they’ve been working and playing in vain.
“We’ve performed in a lot of places but we’ve never had any exposure or media interviews. This is actually our first interview ever,” says Silubane, co-founder of the band.
Gigs are as scarce as interviews.
“We sometimes go for three months without booking any shows,” says Silubane.
“We have to spend our own money to organize gigs, design posters and distribute it just to get our names out there,” says Khoza.
On Sundays they do jazz sessions in taverns. They charge R3, 000 ($215) for a performance and share it between themselves.
“We end up coming back with R2, 000 ($145) because of expenses like transport and food. And then we have to divide the money by five.  And it happens that we hire dancers as well and have to pay them,” says Khoza.
To them music is life as well as bread.
“Music feeds my soul… I can tell my story through this music,” says Khoza.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/05/01/top-10-bankable-artists-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Top 10 most bankable artists in Africa</a>
For Khoza, who joined the band in 2014, becoming a musician wasn’t easy.
“After my mother passed away I had to stay with my aunt and she wanted me to become something else. I lost my relationship with my dad. Every time I would run away and go to practises, until she was convinced that I’m really serious about music. Then I started playing music in clubs and local taverns. I had a guitar which was a gift from someone,” he says.
“I had to sell the guitar for R700 ($50) because I was desperate for money and I needed to move out of my father’s place. I couldn’t stay with him when he didn’t believe in me and my music. When I went back to Mpumalanga that’s when I met Lazarus and he introduced to me to the band,” says Khoza.
“Every time we’re behind the instruments we tell ourselves that we are on a big stage, even if there’s no spotlight, and that the universe will one day recognize us.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/05/01/die-poor-blame/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">If I Die Poor, Blame Me</a>
They want to release an album, but money is a problem.
“We don’t want to be signed under any record label because we’ll lose our freedom to do music the way we want. Our aim is to be independent,” says Silubane.
“You see this guitar I’m holding, I take it as my lover. And I’ll never stop playing it, only death would stop me,” says Madalwe.
In five years’ time, they want to be like one of the world’s greatest icons, Michael Jackson, and perform in New York and London.
It’s nice to dream, unfortunately the reality says next year this time around they’ll be playing in Limpopo. That’s just the way it is.

Band-054

‘The universe will one day recognize us’

The seven members of music group Freshlyground are young, hip, charming, funny and, mostly, good looking, with band members hailing from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Even their musical style is a vibrant fusion of Afro-pop, indie, jazz and electronic.
Freshlyground is South Africa’s dream of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ personified. It’s a dream they now want to take overseas. In March, the band, for the first time, released an album in the United States, a major feat that they celebrated with a five-stop tour along the country’s east coast.
Releasing an album in the United States in CD format, not only digitally, is a huge career move for any musician, giving access to 315 million potential listeners.
“Of course, a break into the American market is the top prize for every band. But it’s also a notoriously difficult market to penetrate, one that is largely controlled by giant record labels,” says bassist Josh Hawks.
There is one hitch, though: the support of a major record label is exactly what Freshlyground doesn’t have, since it parted ways with Sony a couple of years ago. Sony BMG Africa had signed the seven-piece-band in 2004 after coming across the catchy, feel-good lyrics of their song ‘Doo Be Doo’. Sony released Freshlyground’s album Nomvula later that year, which sold 400,000 units and achieved double platinum status in South Africa.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-31126 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/lead-singers-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/lead-singers-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/lead-singers-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/lead-singers-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/lead-singers.jpg 683w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
In 2005, Freshlyground was nominated for three South African Music Awards (SAMAs) for Nomvula, although they didn’t win any. A year later, MTV Europe honored them as Best African Act and in 2008 the band won the Best Group SAMA as well as Album of the Year for their third album ‘Ma’ Cheri’, and Best English Adult Contemporary Album.
But it has been difficult to keep up the initial success. Ma’ Cheri sold 87,000 units and in 2010 album number four, Radio Africa, was purchased by a mere 27,000 listeners.
Then came a major stroke of luck. International football association FIFA selected ‘Waka Waka’, a song produced by Freshlyground in collaboration with international pop icon Shakira, as the official anthem for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
“We were in New York to mix our album Radio Africa, when our producer [Fabrice Dupont] ran into Shakira’s producer and heard she was looking to collaborate with an African band for the World Cup song,” says lead singer Zolani Mahola.
‘Waka Waka’ became a worldwide hit and with more than four million copies—the best-selling World Cup anthem in the digital age. Nonetheless, outside of South Africa, ‘Waka Waka’ has mainly only been associated with the Colombian pop icon. Freshlyground’s CD sales remained sluggish.
To those in the industry it was little surprise that when Freshlyground’s contract with Sony came to an end, it was not renewed.
“We were tired of the traditional model where the record company takes a big slice of the pie for little work,” says violinist and backing vocalist Kyla-Rose Smith.
Since their departure from Sony, the band produced their fifth album, Take me to the Dance, out of their own pockets, enlisting Grammy award-winning producer Steve Berlin.
“This time we wanted to retain as many rights as possible,” says Smith.
They struck a deal with retailer Pick ’n Pay to distribute the CD to its stores nationwide. But after putting out the first 5,000 units in this way and managing the back-end of the distribution themselves, the band quickly understood that they had bitten off more than they could chew.
Freshlyground enlisted Johannesburg-based media entertainment company Electromode to get Take me to the Dance into music stores. The move helped sales somewhat but a good four months after being released in South Africa, it had only sold a meager 10,000 units.
On the upside, drummer Peter Cohen says that going independent has opened up opportunities to negotiate releases on the international market, removing a lot of red tape, since distributors won’t have to negotiate with Sony.
“When we still were with Sony, we tried to
&nbsp;
break into the US market several times, but for various different reasons, it never worked out. So we tried to re-position ourselves and identify new platforms for sales,” says Simon Attwell, the band’s flautist.
Freshlyground signed with Word of Mouth Music (Wommusic), a small Scandinavian “boutique label”, which managed to take Take Me to the Dance to the United States and Canada within a short space of time. There was also interest for a European distribution deal, says Smith.
It all comes down to the old question of whether you prefer to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond. Indie labels, such as Wommusic, have far less money to fund records, airplay and tours but give artists a lot more attention than a behemoth like Sony. But in the end, only major labels have the means to turn a band into an international success.
Freshlyground definitely have one thing going for them. When they landed their—at least for now—only major hit ‘Doo Be Doo’ and their album went double platinum, they didn’t get carried away or lead a wild, expensive rock star life. The band decided to remain financially prudent and agreed to pay each member a fixed, monthly salary.
“Running the band like a business has contributed to our longevity. Having a salary at the end of every month means we can work as musicians, with [financial] security,” says Attwell.
And that has worked for them for more than a decade.   FL

Tag: Band

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

‘The universe will one day recognize us’

The Gold At The End Of The Rainbow