Interview: Bongeziwe Mabandla On His New Album ‘amaXesha', Love, Relationship With His Mother, Working With Tiago + More

Internationally recognised South African folk musician Bongeziwe Mabandla is back with yet another album, ‘amaXesha’, a follow-up to 2020’s ‘Iimini’. ‘amaXesha’ is the third project in which the artist works with producer Tiago Correia-Paulo. Lyrically, he continues to explore the theme of love while Tiago continues to inject electronic sounds to the music. 

We caught up with Bongeziwe about the album, love, his relationship with his mother, working with Tiago and more. 

‘AmaXesha’ explores love for the most part, which was the case with your previous project. What is it about this theme that made you continue exploring it? 

When the idea came to do a new album I knew that I was not ready to write a new theme and moving quickly felt way too fast. I wanted to continue the story on this album. I’m no expert at all on this subject and I plan on moving on, on my next project

Overall, you sound very optimistic about love on this project. You sing about the challenges of relationships but you also sing positively about it. What would you say shaped how you view love and relationships today?

I think the two extremes have both been my reality with love and I found that so compelling. How someone can make you feel so seen and bring you so much joy, then the same person can make you feel invisible and unloved. I think my views of love have been mainly shaped by TV and soapies which were really huge growing up. I didn’t see a lot of people in love in my own life and family, so I think I started fantasising about love very early in life and I always had an unrealistic understanding of love in terms of I didn’t know there is so much that comes with all of it.

This is your third project working with Tiago. How was the process different or the same to your previous projects?

It was a different project I have ever worked on, mostly because of working during a lockdown. It made so many things challenging because we could not always be in the same place. But I also think it brought a new experimental sound to my work. I love working with Tiago so much, he really understands me as a person and as an artist, I value our relationship so much. 

‘thula’ is a song where you taking about knowing you can always be vulnerable to your mom after the song ‘ndikhale’, which is essentially a crying song. What kind of relationship do you have with your mom and what influence does she have on your music?

My mom is the love of my life and we have always been close. She was always the person cheering me on and buying me music instruments or waking me up to go  to auditions, so I would never be able to achieve anything without my mother. She is the mastermind behind the scenes.

Your COLORS performance was quite good. What goes behind preparing for a performance like that and how does it differ from your regular performances?

I would say it’s not that different. I decided not to have my guitar so I could focus more on the song. ‘Sisahleleleni’ is a difficult song for me live. It has that very high part that terrifies me, so I had to rehearse a lot before the shoot. I also had to rest my voice a few days before. We only did six takes before we decided on one.

Stream ‘amaXesha’ by Bongeziwe Mabandla below: