Radiant Zoë Modiga soon strikes a fabulous pose on The Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) stage. JANE MAYNE found out more about the singer’s sonic explorations.
Face to face, Zoë Modiga is warm and engaged. Her enthusiasm for South African music makes her the perfect ambassador for the new generation of pathfinders. She says: “The view for the future of South African music looks amazing. We continue to spearhead conversations not only here locally, but in the world. I’m excited to be discovering different kinds of artists, whether they’re in the music space, the theatre space, or fashion space – our stories are continuing to be told, and I’m excited to behold that, to be a part of that, and to impact that in some way, but also to learn from it too.”
“We will always have rich stories to share, and that’s something I’ve seen from those who’ve come before me. It’s something I see amongst my peers and its definitely something I witness in those who are coming after me. It’s exciting and beautiful all around.”
In keeping with many other chic local divas, Zoë always surprises with her eye-catching fashion style. It’s no surprise then that she quotes the likes of Nao Serati, Rich Mnisi, Thebe Magugu and Inga as designers she’s collaborated with. Is she mostly in the artist’s seat here too? “I would say it’s a little bit of both. I am an artist who has been deeply moved, and just really been carried by a lot of artists all over the world who consider not only the sonic landscape of their music, but also what it is that they communicate visually.”
“I’ve always been a scholar of that, it’s something that excites me about the artists that I love. So, when it comes to my own costumes, my own image will always be considered and I get to work with really incredible designers from time to time. There’s a lot of designers that I find I really relate to what they share. But I also love to style my own looks as well, so that it lines up with the messaging of the music. With my album Yellow: The Novel, I was wearing a whole lot of yellow, finding it from goodness knows where, and with the second album Inganekwane it was really about wearing cultural regalia and celebrating that. I got to have fun with it and kept myself on my toes as well ”she adds.
The modern African story
Once a contestant on The Voice South Africa, the songwriter’s subsequent accolades include nominations at the South African Music Awards for Best African Album and Best Jazz Album, as well as clinching Standard Bank Young Artist for Music for 2023.
She says: “I’m just an artist who presents the modern African story, but also an artist that really speaks to a contemporary sound more than a particular genre of music. It’s a space I’m proud to occupy and I have learnt a lot from it and I’m constantly taking it in as well. Hopefully, music lovers are able to receive it as exactly that – something that’s not trying to be a particular thing, but something that kind of feeds into different kinds of music landscapes.”
“It’s never been about a particular sound that has informed what it is that I do, it’s really about the melting pot that is music and how that’s able to be expressed through my eyes and ears and my heart and through my perspectives as well.”
For her upcoming CTIJF repertoire she says that she’s, “excited to be sharing some new music. We have been celebrating so many of the other eras with music lovers in the past year from my debut album Yellow: The Novel, which actually did get to be debuted at the CTIJF quite a few years back, as well as my sophomore album Inganekwane, which really was a love letter to the human experience and the black experience. Now we are here in this new era we have started the rollout of a new album and have released a single called Ngelosi, as well as Amen. These are the materials that we wish to share with the music lovers at the CTIJF, but also, we’ll also be sharing a lot of the favourites and the music that has been speaking to people over the years.”
Zoë confirms that her new album will be released in the first quarter of the year, hopefully in time for her festival showcase. She comments that this work is: “Exciting, beautiful, it’s inspired, it’s ceremonious, it’s cinematic. It is a whole wonder, and a whole world. And I’m happy to finally to be sharing it with people after four years of really building it up. I’m not sharing the name of the album yet, let’s just say it one of my names. It’s really there just to celebrate divine feminine energy and the nurturing spirit worlds that we all sometimes find ourselves seeking within ourselves, within the higher power, and within each other.”
“Zulu storytelling is something that I believe that I walk in because I’m a singer, composer, and songwriter, and I like to also share the visual experience of my work. That is something that will always be a part of what I share with people. I never claim to have any answers with what I do, I just know that I am an artist that is curious that is constantly finding ways to document and reflect the times, and to be true and honest in how it is that I express that.”
Different symbols for each era
Apart from her love for the colour yellow, cows have been emblematic in her work, why? “Yellow was my favourite colour that’s why it was the symbol of my first album. I was just coming into sharing myself with the world and I really wanted to articulate the boldness and the happy pill that I was coming with. And the symbol for my second album was cows because I feel cows are very culturally significant especially with my background being South African. Cattle represent wealth, and represent land because you need land to have cattle. They are in conversations around dowry and they’re used in a lot of cultural and spiritual practices, and practices of celebration. I’m constantly looking for ways to marry the sonic experience to the visual experience in my music and I love being able to look for different symbols for each era of the sound of my music. And that’s why cattle were so important to me. But they also remind me of my paternal grandmother, because I would go to visit her in the homelands and it was also a place where there was a lot of cattle. I was very fascinated by cows early on, and found such gentleness in them as well.”
The power of music
Culturally, South African audiences have such different points of reference, how does one bridge the divide to create a unified musical experience? “I think as human beings there’s a way in which we connect with honesty that just resonates differently. Honesty is a vulnerability, and vulnerability draws people towards you. A lot of my work has been inspired by places that I’m not the most confidant about, even though I am learned in the music space. Because I am curious about things, and it’s usually things that I first feel very small about. An example of that would be my debut album. At the time that album was written I wasn’t able to complete my studies and so I was moving into a lot of spaces of self-realization – a lot of doubt.”
“With my second album it was about identity because I felt I that was very proud of the roots that I carry and that walk with me, but I didn’t feel competent to even write in my mother tongue at the time. So, I think it is just informed by the vulnerability and honesty that is able to translate and whether people relate to the perspective and the lived experience that you have. And also, it is just the power of music – the fact that music is just that beautiful and that accessible.”
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Who: Zoë Modiga interview
What: Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF)
Where: Cape Town International Convention Centre
When: 3 and 4 May, 2024
WS
