Name: Bongeziwe Mabandla
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, guitar
Nationality: South African
Current release: Bongeziwe Mabandla's new album amaXesha is out this Spring. A new single, "ukuthanda wena" is out March 3rd 2023 via Platoon. Bongeziwe hasalso announced a live show at The 100 Club, London on June 1st 2023. Get your tickets at wegottickets.com and dice.fm.
Recommendations: Frank Ocean: blond; Photographer Thabiso Sekgale: Homeland, Jane Nkuna, Loding, Former Kwandebele, 2009.

If you enjoyed this interview with Bongeziwe Mabandla, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I have always loved music from a very young age. I used to stand in front of the mirror and pretend I’m a singer and also perform for my friends and family. I never thought I would become a musician though, it was just something I loved and admired in others.

I always grew up thinking I would be a painter. I loved creating art so that is where I thought my life would take me.

I think what drew me into music was coming to Joburg and experiencing the music scene.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

When I listen to music I always see things from my past that I experienced.

Some songs take me to my early childhood and the Eastern Cape. Some songs make me remember certain people and how they changed my out look on life. But some songs take me places I think I have not been to, maybe I saw in pictures or on tv, and want to experience in the future.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

My career has taken very long. But it’s something I have come to appreciate because it’s made me work so much harder and I feel my art is always changing and developing for the better.

I have had a lot of challenges too. But I think they have made me stronger and more determined as an artist

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I see myself and an introverted person. I’m also a very sensitive person. I am also a bit of a loner.

But basically I see myself as an ordinary person who happens to sing and make music

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

I think my approach to music and creating is mostly focusing on emotion and evoking emotion. I do that through lyrics and also how things are expressed and conveyed.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I am very interested in both music of the future and the past. I think my music fuses together these two worlds. It’s modern yet very ancient. I want my music to last forever.

My dream is that my music will become more popular when I’m no longer around and people will find relevance in it for years to come. I love timeless music and that’s what I want that quality for my own music

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

It has to be the guitar for me. This is the one skill I’m constantly working because it informs my work so much. Practicing is always best way to get comfortable.

I try to practice everyday and I have some good and bad days with it. I want to be a great guitarist one day and challenge myself to be able to write better songs.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

My days are never the same actually.

Most involve going to the gym or going for a jog and then coming back and practicing guitar. I try to do vocal exercises everyday, but my days are never the same as I said. Sometimes they involve rushing to the airport to catch an early flight or all day rehearsal or shoots.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

Song writing is my favorite part of making music. It starts off with an idea or concept that I feel very strongly about and then I try and start finding the chords on the guitar. When I find a good chord progression I start playing with the melody.

Then starts the difficult part of trying to find the right words to bring out the message I want to convey.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I love writing alone and that’s the part where I pour out myself into the song. I feel the recording is an extension of that part. Writing the lyrics is the base of what I do and everything is based around that.

I enjoy the writing part because it’s always based on my life and things I think and care about. It’s very healing to me, to put into words something that was inside my soul

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Nina Simone said that music has to reflect the times and I totally agree with that. It’s something I try to bring in my own music.

So much of my music is political even a simple love song can have so much to say about how I think as a South African man in 2023. I think that’s very political in the society I live in and all the issues in our country at the moment.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Music has always helped me deal with a lot of the hard questions I have about life. I have always loved albums that seem to talk about the issues I deal with in my life.

My favorite album is the Lauryn Hill Unplugged album. I grew up using this album as almost the bible in my life. I would take aspects from it to somehow have a better understanding of my life.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Music is very powerful and I think itself is a science of making us feel so much in such an unassuming way is the science behind it.

A lot people always say that my music makes their hairs stand up. I think that’s the vibration and power music can have.




Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Difficult questions. I think it can be similar. I feel music can feel like a beautiful gesture, like cooking someone a meal or a great hug.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I have always felt the importance of music in our lives. It has the ability to bring a lot of change in us humans, mainly because it connects us to our emotions which we seem to hide a lot in our daily lives.