We talked to Botswana’s rising artist, Mpho Sebina
INTERVIEW
Mpho Sebina is definitely on our “artists to watch list”. The Botswana artist knows how to blow our mind and take our spirit and our soul through her mesmerizing voice.
She took some time to inspire us through her journey, introduce us to some other great Botswana artists and much more. Have a good read!
On defining her music
“In my own words, I do describe it as soul. Someone once deemed it ethereal soul and I’ve decided to run with that name.”
On what led and motivated her to do music
“I’ve always loved music. It started with the love for it, then just enjoying singing and discovering that I can actually sing. Then it went to writing, and at some point, I was recording. I also have a honours degree in International Business so I was working and I went to university but I was always doing music on the side. There came a point where I was working at an advertising agency called Voodoo. I was there for about two years and at some point I was like “I like my job, I learned a lot from it but it’s not something that I love”. At that point I wasn’t married, no children, living with my parents with no real financial obligations, so I thought “let me see what would happen if I invested all of my time and my energy into doing something that I love”. I quit my job, I think that was about 2014/15. I was curious, what would happen if I just decided to explore my artistic self fully.”
On memories she keeps from working on her first record while studying in Malaysia
“I had a friend who owned a studio in Melaka, Malaysia. I used to go there and record covers of songs. My first time in the booth, I covered Eurythmics. That was the first thing that I ever remember doing a cover of. That’s a very fun memory of that time. And I remember also singing at a high school prom. I don’t know how I ended up in an high school in Malaysia but I was there singing Taylor Swift. I remember forgetting my lyrics on stage, that was fun (laughs).
At that time also in my spiritual journey, I’d just found christianity and I remember singing a lot in church. I don’t really go to church anymore but I remember exploring that side of music as well when I was in Malaysia.”
“I want to create a place of joy, healing, and peace. Celebrating Africa and our africanness and at the same time embracing our femininity and masculinity.”
On the Naked Souls Sessions
“I had just quit my job and I thought that I’d be busy all the time, in studio, getting all these gigs but that wasn’t the case, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. Also, I am an outgoing person, I like attending events, especially live music events and at that time there wasn’t a space really for Botswana artists such as myself who weren’t exactly mainstream, I would say. So out of my boredom and the lack of that kind of space in the city I was like “I have so many musician friends, so many artists friends, putting this together won’t be too difficult”. So a group of us came together and we did it. We ran it successfully for about three years. I wanted to go to a place that played great local music. I’m from Botswana and I felt that a lot of the artists in Botswana were not that celebrated at that time. And when there’s an event, there’s always this headlining artists and a lot of our artists were being overlooked. So I decided to create that space for artists to just enjoy setswana music and hang out with each other.“
On Botswana artists not having a platform to express their music
“It is slowly changing. Now we do have a lot of conversations surroundings the art scene, about why we have to source other artists. We’re very close to South Africa and the music scene there it’s way more advanced and bigger, so we end up using a lot of South African artists as opposed to Botswana artists. I do see that changes a lot. I do see a lot more artists speaking up about it and just saying “let’s just headline our own shows”.”
On Botswana artists she loves and recommend
“Definitely Thato Jessica. She’s brilliant, an amazing singer, vocalist, songwriter, as well as Dato Seiko. She’s also a very great singer. Veezo View is a great rapper. Ntirelang Berman is a great folklore setswana artist, Sereetsi & the Natives, also really really cool.
On what she learned through her music journey
“I’ve learnt a lot about myself. How to be patient with myself, my work and people around me. I’ve learnt to celebrate and express myself best within my Setswana culture, being through melodies, stories and the Setswana language. All in all my musical journey has driven me to “learn to love myself unconditionally”. Just like India.Arie said.”(laughs)
On what she’d like to bring to the world through her music
“I want to create a place of joy, healing, and peace. Celebrating Africa and our africanness and at the same time embracing our femininity and masculinity.”
Credits : Thabang Kagiso Moleya
On advice she would give to someone starting his/her music journey
“It all sounds so cheesy but that’s the truth (laughs) : stay focused, because I feel like we all have that vision and we kind of know what we want at the end, but then during that journey there’s always so many obstacles that say you can’t do it. It’s tough, sometimes there’s no money and sometimes you’re not getting as many streams as you thought you would, but just stay focused and keep going.
Try to diversify your income streams, because what we are mostly passionate about usually isn’t giving you the reward that you deserve at that particular time. So it’s always good to just diversify.
Also your main passion, it’s nice to step away from it for just a second sometimes to just let it breath and take care of yourself. Guard your heart because I feel like our energy is the currency and there’s so many things that are trying to deter it, waver it and shake it, so just keep yourself protected. I don’t know how you take care of yourself, whether you’re prayerful or you meditate, or you dance, take care of yourself and your spirit. Love yourself and keep going.”
On having doubts when quitting her job to follow her artistic path
“There was time I was like “Where am I gonna get money from?”, “How am I gonna pay these bills?”, “Am I gonna stay with my parents forever?”. There was a lot of obstacles and lot of crying myself to sleep at night and I can tell you that those nights get fewer and fewer. It does get better. You become stronger. The dream does flourish and become exactly what you have envisioned.”
On her upcoming projects
“I’ve recorded a lot of music while I was here lockdown in Johannesburg. I’ve worked a lot. I’m nervous to share it, but will be sharing it sometime soon.”
On ‘Melodi’ music video shot during the lockdown
“I was visiting my boyfriend from Botswana and he also had a friend that he was working with in Martinique who was visiting him and both of us couldn’t go back to our home countries. So I was in lockdown with a DOP (Director of Photography) and a film director. I would make music and my lockdown buddies were like “Ok, let’s shoot!”. It’s nice to be around a lot of creatives because when they get bored, they want to create. We shot two music videos and I learned a lot from those two during the lockdown. Just learning different work ethics, different industries. Male energies is also a different beautiful thing.”
On whether the lockdown affected her creative process
“I think it really did cause me to introspect and dig deeper within myself and who I am, my culture, a lot more setswana coming out and realizing the wounds that I want to heal within myself. It definitely did affect the art in that sense because I had to think about a lot of things and overcome a lot of things as well. It’s got me thinking about life.
There’s a lot of shift that’s happening in the air, but I think we will come out stronger. We are now more aware and vocal of a lot of things with the whole Black Lives Matter movement and I just see a lot of great things coming out at the end. And systems that need to die, dying as well. I see that happening.”
On what she’s been listening to lately
“I listen to the new Kabza De Small album. He’s an amapiano artist from Johannesburg, I love amapiano. And I listen to the new Zoë Modiga, she’s a South African artist. Veezo View dropped a EP during the lockdown, so I listen to that. And a lot of Martinican artists now that I was lockdown with a Martinican like Kalash and a Parisian artist, Aya Nakamura. I love her so much.”
On what we can wish for her
“There’s a whole virus out there in the world, I will need some protection and love, abundance and healing.”