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jezebel's VPL | ZOLANI OF FRESHLYGROUND: THE INDEPENDENT DECADE | words: © jezebel | image: Belia Oh Photography www.facebook.com/beliaohphotography
ZOLANI OF FRESHLYGROUND:
THE INDEPENDENT DECADE
M
eet Zolani Mahola, lyricist, vocalist and face of Freshlyground. On stage she is expressive and invective, channelling emotion into an ocean of souls through a voice buoyant with love; in person, she is honest, gentle, jovial and humble. In a word, magical. Jezebel: I want to talk about legacy. You must have gained some perspective by now. It’s been… how many years? Zolani: This is the eleventh year that I’ve been in Freshlyground. I guess one of the biggest eye-openers has come quite late for us as a band. We have always handled a lot of our business ourselves but we’ve always had a record company, and this year we’ve gone completely independent. Everything? Everything. That’s brilliant. It’s brilliant, but it’s flipping scary. You’ve built the brand for long enough, you’ve created gravity around what it is you represent. I think it’s good timing; South Africa was on the map in 2010 for the World Cup, and will be on the map in 2014 when Cape Town holds the World Design Capital title – but my sense of South African music industry is that bands don’t know what they have, don’t know how to market it and don’t know where they’re going. You didn’t know either, back in the day… We didn’t know, when we started; we were very lucky in that we had a guy in the band who had a head for it, for the business side of it – Simon [Atwell: Flute, Mbira, Harmonica; general air of seriousness]. For a long time he was playing in the band and managing the band, basically, and making sure that we were taken care of on all legal and business fronts. But not everybody has that. I would be stuffed, if it was just me, in a solo career, relying solely on one of these big record companies. I
wouldn’t have much hope for myself. Actually. It’s not easy. I interact with solo musicians often and it seems sustainable music careers grow slowly, even if daddy is paying for it at first. I think it’s not only about understanding your market but understanding what it is that you offer – what is unique. It takes musicians sometimes ten years to - to find that thing. Yeah, to realise why people are coming to their shows and then to share that more strongly and more confidently; to own it. Whereas you guys filled a gap from the start, a need that was both emotional and sonic. We had an amazing tour around South Africa last year. We did it concurrently; first we did a township tour sponsored by Nedbank and then we did a ten-year celebration tour. We got such a shock to see who our audience was. We’d always known that ‘everybody’ was our audience –like, ages and races and stuff – but ninety to ninety five percent of our audience were black, women… So it has changed? I don’t know if it has changed. Who did you used to see at your shows six years ago? The shows of yours I’ve been to, the audience certainly has changed. Then again I
was in venues where white, middle class etc. would be the norm. I guess the audience has changed because things have changed in South Africa so rapidly. Even in these six years, just in terms of holding money in their hands, more people are doing that. That’s encouraging! It IS. It’s great. It was interesting to see that it was so extreme. I suppose in a way it’s proportionate to the numbers in the country. But also, where were you? Rural? We were in big centres; it was a major tour. Magical. Sounds like FreshlyGround has found its feet as a self-actualising act. Take a feather out of the hat of a contemporary South African band that always operates with head and heart intact : if you want the world, or even the town you gig in, endeavour, explore, discover, develop! Or, as Zolani uncannily decodes jezebel’s VPL : be“very, very professional”. Their new album, Take Me To The Dance, is available on shelves and online now. www.shop.freshlyground.com and www.facebook.com/freshlygroundsa.