It’S been two-and-half years since The Muffinz broke on to the music scene with their album, Have You Heard? It earned them several awards, had amazing CD sales and played on international stages. It was written in the stars, and first published in Tonight, that this band was one to look out for.
Now releasing their second album, after holding out for almost three years, the quintet of four guitarists and a drummer have returned with Do What You Love, a project that is set to be better than their inaugural effort.
“We have been taking our time and did not want to put out a rushed product. We had planned to release it earlier, but I think we felt like the music was not ready. So we had to wait until it was right,” said Mthabisi Sibanda, who is also known as Mthae.
When they first came out with Have you Heard?, the band took the risk of crafting a new sound. It’s a much more soulful sound, with hints of Sophiatown-inspiration and profound about social commentary.
“We never sit down to think about what we should really do when it comes to writing new stuff. On the first album we spoke about what we want to see in the country as young people. It wasn’t a conscious thing to say, ‘this is where we want to go’, it just happened,” said Sifiso “Atomza” Buthelezi, the philosopher of the group.
Now that we know what they sound like, The Muffinz were open to featuring other artists on their project.
“We have three features on the new album. We featured a guy called Josh Meck from Zimbabwe. He plays guitar and sings very well. We all loved his albums and when Sifiso said he bumped into him, we made plans to work on something. We had dreams of featuring the likes of Hugh Masekela or Lira, but Sifiso simplified it by just saying we should try out Josh. We came up with the song Africa,” said Simpheiwe “Sims” Kulla.
Then things went from multiple instruments to poetry laid gently on bass strings, with a heavy and very familiar subject which we usually do not want to talk about.
“Karabo met a poet, the great Lebo Mashile, who then agreed to do a poem with us. It was a profound piece which questions if there is a sin that’s unforgivable. The answer to the question is in the poem and it is ‘yes’. It has to do with taking away the dreams of a child. If you take away their future, their hopes and their trust in humanity then you don’t only rob them, but all the other people who were supposed to experience those dreams with them. It is pretty deep and it’s well written and presented as if you are watching a theatre production. The song is followed by another heavy one called Malume and there things get really serious,” said Atomza.
Another addition to look out for is the legendary Oliver Mtukudzi whom they say “was an amazing act to work with”.
“He did a sad song about dealing with loss where he reflected on losing his son. Keke (Gregory Mabusela) co-wrote the song, lamenting on his mom who passed away. So it was like a father and a son singing about dealing with loss,” said Mthae.
The Muffinz continue to pursue sounds and themes people don’t generally want to discuss.
“For instance, the Malume song, it could be just a song to you, but it is a reality to someone. People may love the ‘turn up’ music, but you can’t turn up all the time. There has to be a time when you calm down, that midnight hour when your reality hits you, that’s when our music makes sense. Sometimes when people turn up, they are running away from issues that they haven’t addressed,” said Karabo “Skabz” Moeketsi.
“The sad thing is, people can say they don’t want to listen to that music because it doesn’t affect them. They’d rather go out and drink, but what they forget is if the situations we talk about are not dealt with, you will not be able to have that drink. You might end up out of a job and being unable to afford that lifestyle. There are pressing issues we need to be talking about that are holding back our freedoms. Instead of singing about waking up in a Bugatti that most of us have never seen, we choose to sing about what affects us on a daily basis,” said Atomza.
Yet, this stance gets them more flack than pats on the back as South Africa is not ready for anything other than escapism.
“We really don’t know how to navigate around this. We feel like we have a lot to say, but radio decides who gets played. It’s really unfair. We have been struggling with local stations playing our music as they’d rather play international material. We get the need to escape, but also feel there is need to acknowledge local talent,” said Atomza.
They describe how the gatekeepers in the industry bully up-and-coming artists in favour of the international ones, even at live shows.
“They ask you to submit your equipment and then instruct you to have the volume at a much lower level that that of the main act. So when John Legend steps on the stage and sounds better, he is the hero with ‘better equipment’ but the reality is we use the same speakers. When we go abroad, we are not treated like that,” said Sims.
• Do What You Love releases March 2.