Ever heard of a music genre called future Afro? Probably not, if you haven’t listened to TheCITY. They are a Cape Town outfit that consists of Bonj Mpanza (vocals), Clement Carr (keys/synth), Ryan McArthur (bass) and Ruby Crowie (drums).
The band have just released an EP which you will need to listen to if you have an eclectic ear. We caught up with lead vocalist Mpanza, to chat about their latest project.
“Our EP is going great. We have been receiving some positive feedback from established musicians who are our friends as well. We are happy that finally we can share this with people. The launch event was amazing and we got to see how much people loved our music,” she said.
Bonj admitted that the band members’ various backgrounds have given them an advantage in coming up with a unique sound.
“Our keyboard player and our drummer are Cape coloureds and their heritage includes goema music. So that’s what they grew up listening to. I am from Soweto so I grew up listening to kwaito, R&B and gospel music. Our bassist listened to a lot of punk and reggae. So we fuse all those influences and you will hear the Afro-electronic-punk-soul in our sound,” she said.
With that in mind, TheCITY make music in an organised manner, the way ants would erect an anthill.
“We all write the material we sing. Every-body has a part they play. I write the melodies and the lyrics for most of the songs, but the boys always come up with something from their instruments that complements what’s on the table. It’s a fun process so it’s not like there is a head writer in the group,” said the vocalist.
Their self-titled EP, which is making waves on iTunes, speaks of several themes that the band felt strongly about.
“The EP speaks of love, hope and personal struggles. It has a lot of positive themes to it and that was intentional because we really thought about everything before we recorded anything. It took us about two years to end up with this project,” she explained.
Although they had fun making the album, Mpanza admits that there were some challenges.
“We had some great times and some weird moments. The weird moments where the times when we worked with producers and yet we had not worked with them before. The thing is, we came with our own preconceived ideas, yet these producers felt differently. It was a learning curve for us to open up and let go of our original plans. It was a good thing because we are confident about our final result so this EP is a definite lead to our album which releases next year,” she concluded.
l Catch the EP on iTunes and in stores.