Durban - He grew up wanting to play among the stars, now he is one.
Wrapping up a successful European tour, KwaZulu-Natal-born musician Muzi Mazibuko, who is revving up for Oppikoppi, wanted to be an astronaut when he was a child.
He realised opportunities for that career were limited in South Africa, and nurtured another talent: music. Now he’s off to Oppikoppi (from August 9) to shine.
Fans can expect to hear new remixes of his tracks from his second album, Afrovision, released under Sony Music Africa.
Speaking to The Independent on Saturday from London this week where he finished his tour, the 27-year-old, who grew up in Ngwelezane outside Empangeni, said he would also drop some remixes he had compiled for his Muzi Mondays, where he remixes some old South African classics.
“I might be dropping other versions of my songs, including Questions, and once back home, I will also be shooting more videos for Afrovision.”
Empangeni-born musician Muzi wraps up his European tour this week before coming home for the Oppikoppi festival.
Known simply as “Muzi”, the musician said: “Afrovision’s theme is Africans being in space and there’s a character in the songs - her name is Ziphozonke - and she will be helping bring these images to life in the video when we shoot for Zulu Skywalker.”
Once he realised he was not going to make it into space, “music came for me when I was about 11 and because I was a nerd, it was a chance for me to be cool.
“I started making music then, so I would say it found me in a way - even though I grew up in music-orientated family.”
He was making beats and beat-box banging on his mom’s kitchen table.
“I always had rhythm, but I never realised I could make a career out of it - and that’s how it started and I have been hooked since then.” In 2013, he was making beats for various hip hop artists, including JR, Psyfo and popular Durban artist Okmalumkoolkat.
Muzi said his life had changed since the early days and now he only makes beats for artists he is close to.
“I make beats for myself because I have to be more focused on Muzi than anything else.
“Now it’s just me doing things on my own and working with people I really want to work with instead of doing it to build up my profile.”
Looking back, he said in his earlier days he did not have the confidence to do what he wanted to do, but that’s changed.
“I realised I don’t need to be anything besides myself and if I continued to do that it would all work out in the end. Making music on my terms means having my signature on everything that I do - a little bit of Muzi in everything I produce, whether it’s artwork and or directing music videos.”
Muzi’s sounds are an eclectic mix of African music and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) and he believes experimental electronic dance music has room to grow in South Africa.
He explained that in South Africa, this genre was more dance oriented and bold, whereas overseas it was more electronic.
“Kwaito was electronic and it was dance music , so is house music and bubblegum pop and so is Gqom, it’s all electronic - these are all electronic genres and people dance to it.
“It’s all made on a computer. With experimental electronic music, it might take time to build in South Africa, but for the most part, it’s just that people have not opened their minds to the term yet.”