South Africa has kwaito, jazz, house music and amapiano among other genres. Now a group of musicians are bringing something new to the mix.
They are calling their new sound Mkhalambazo. The new sound is a mixture of traditional sounds and revamping old school South African songs, giving them a modern twist.
Jamville is a musical duo from Ladysmith, Kwa-Zulu Natal. The band is made up of Siphesihle Sithole, who goes by the name Vesta, and Lungsani Mjali, whose stage name is Bhuda.
Vesta says that his love for music started at home. His father loved music and he passed on his love to him. He's been honing it and creating since his teenage years.
“I grew up in a family that had so much love for music, especially my dad. I grew up with him playing a lot of music in the house. I started writing my own music when I was in high school, so did my partner, Bhuda. We met after high school. I was with a group before I became a solo artist, unfortunately we parted ways because of growth and having different goals and visions when it comes music,” Vesta tells DRUM.
Vesta says he and Bhuda met in 2016 and decided to form a music duo because they both enjoyed each other’s music.
“We also found that we have the same goals in mind when it comes to music, we saw a vision when we joined forces that we could bring something different and that’s how Jamville was created. Finding our feet in the music industry has not been easy but one thing that has kept us going is having a passion and a different sound. In 2019 we released an EP titled Icebo which did well and better than we had expected.”
The duo has worked with award winning artist Mlindo: The Vocalist on a song called Amehlo which South Africa has well received.
“The song was the first that we released commercially, and it was beautiful, people accepted it. But the song didn’t go as far as we wished because being independent means that we have to learn some things as we go. It has been beautiful although it has its ups and down," Vesta says.
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His partner Bhuda says that they are going to go far in the music industry because they are dedicated to making their mark.
“My love of music started at a very young age, I was a solo artist before I met Vesta. I knew him from his music and I enjoyed it. I featured him on a song of mine and the audience loved it. We decided we will be more impactful if we joined forces,” Bhuda says.
They are hoping that the Mkhalambazo sound will catch on.
“The kind of sound we are pushing is a sound that no one is currently doing. Mkhalambazo is a genre made of many African genres and sounds to make it unique and different. Every song reminds of a certain artist but we don’t sample songs but we take sounds and revamp it.
“We really hope sound can be heard all over the world, we are hoping to make it big as Lady Smith Mambazo.”
They are releasing a new song featuring Nate called Ingoma and they are excited for their fans to hear their latest offering. The song will be dropped on the 14th of May.
“We are hoping the song is going to do well because it’s a South African song and sound that the people will relate to.”
