Samthing Soweto to headline Bassline SUMMER festival in December at Constitution Hill
By CityLife Arts Writer
Hot on the heels of last year’s successful Bassline Fest I AM HERE in December 2021, Bassline announces SUMMER, the new annual music event on its calendar. “Bassline SUMMER celebrates the end of the year, time to have fun and let go, with the best of Mzansi talent from our most shining stars to our rising stars in the making. This year Bassline SUMMER falls part of Johannesburg’s annual Arts Alive Festival.” Says Bassline Live’s Brad Holmes.
The City of Joburg, through the Arts Alive International Arts Festival and other initiatives, continues to support the creative sector and expand its reach and impact through partnerships. In celebration of the 30th edition of the Arts Alive International Festival 2022, the Arts Alive Festival will present a variety of artistic programmes featuring artists from various sectors of the creative industries through cultural activities which includes music, fashion, craft, comedy, dance, theatre, visual art and cultural educational workshops.
This year the Bassline is supporting the development of our Mzansi rising stars in the making, by putting out a call for two, female artist lead bands, to apply to get on the bill. The artists will submit their application via the Bassline website contact page http://bassline.co.za/about-us/ and be chosen via a panel of music experts.
To further add to the development and training of the live music industry at large, the Bassline will be giving the artists performing and the technical trainees on the Fest production one year usage to the Bassline Music Biz Essentials, online masterclasses, where they can, HEAR IT FROM THE PROS, with a series of online videos covering the essentials of the live music business, straight from the industry pros. For more info: http://bassline.co.za/bassline-music-biz-essentials/
No Summer fun is complete without food, refreshments and markets; adding to the music on offer will be an artisanal craft market (more about that below) and bars, beer gardens and food vendors.
This year’s celebration is on Saturday 3rd December 2022 at Jozi’s iconic Constitution Hill (which has become the home of the Bassline Fests over the past five years). Constitution Hill and Bassline take their relationship up a notch this year, and includes a partnership with an intimate curated Craft Market, called the Creative Uprising Market which is an artisanal pop-up market that showcases the talent of local artists, makers, and unique small businesses who create handmade goods and original artwork with a story.
The headline artist is multi-award winning, Sowetan born and raised, singer-songwriter supreme, Samthing Soweto, who is perfectly placed to transcend the audience with his silky voice, come the end of another hard year. Samthing Soweto began his career as a member of the globally acclaimed South African acapella group The Soil, which he co-founded. He contributed to the band’s multi-award-winning self-titled debut album’s success by penning eight of the eleven songs featured on the record. Following his departure from the band, he released an indie EP named “This N That Without Tempo” in 2010. The album highlighted the singer’s strong song writing roots as well as his love of acapella music. His second album, “Isphithiphithi” (2019), was certified platinum by the Recording Industry of South Africa RiSA, and included his unique blend of Afro-pop, amapiano, and R&B. 2020 saw him release an EP titled “Danko” with 6 Amapiano tracks. Each live show of Samthing Soweto’s is a unique experience, not to be missed.
About Samthing Soweto
In an effort to safeguard his real vision of becoming a musician, an adolescent Samkelo Lelethu Mdolomba often told people he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up. But it was through following his dream that he became Samthing Soweto and grew wings.
Born in 1988 — exactly 12 years to the day when the Concorde introduced its first commercial flight — Samthing Soweto was the third of four siblings and the first to break family tradition by only briefly living in the Eastern Cape.
His mother had recently begun her teaching career and his father drove buses. When Samthing Soweto was a toddler, his mother moved him from their home, in the township that the second half of his moniker is named for, and sent him to his grandmother to be reared as his older sisters were. But he cried every single day at 4pm until his mother returned for him a few months later.
Taking in an aerial view of this memory, Samthing Soweto believes this experience of intense longing to bridge the distance between himself and a loved one may have started the common thread that can be found in the songwriting of a few of his songs.
At just six years old and once he was permanently living in Soweto again, he allowed his family to control the main radio in the house and took a liking to a small stereo. He slept with the gadget fixed to his ear every night.
Influenced by an uncle who lived with them, Samthing Soweto often tuned the stereo to stations that played reggae. He peppered his obsession over Bob Marley with serious attempts to sing like Usher. Samthing Soweto never quite achieved the latter but says his trying is what led him to find his unique voice.
But it wasn’t until he was a teenager detained in a place of safety for children awaiting trial that Samthing Soweto began attaching his original lyrics to the voice he’d cultivated. On the runway between primary and high school, Samthing Soweto was transported into life-changing years.
In that period, Samthing Soweto’s mother experienced undiagnosed bipolar disorder. It created a ripple effect that saw him face scholastic challenges, food insecurity and bullying. After spending some time with young people in similar predicaments, he quit school and started getting into trouble. He was 15 years old when he was detained.
While at the detention centre, he learned how to read at his age group’s level through studying the bible. The only instrument at his disposal was his voice so he used it to craft the a cappella style that introduced him to the public. Here, his songwriting also took off and he wrote Joy (We Are Family), which would become the boundary-breaking first single of The Soil, a group he co-founded in 2004.
For six years, he flew The Soil flag high, pouring his formative years into ushering in a fresh style into the South African soundscape. The group bagged a record deal and a year before they released their debut album, Samthing Soweto put out a solo effort called This N That Without Tempo in 2010. At the time, South Africa was the host of the FIFA World Cup but Samthing Soweto was scoring his musical goals too.
The triumph was short-lived. Having signed a record deal and with his words being sung and his vocals the lead carrying hits on radio stations across the country, Samthing Soweto found himself excluded from the celebrations when The Soil’s first album was released in 2011.
The narrative around his absence sent him into a dark period in his life. A flicker of light was found in a band he’d co-founded concurrently called The Fridge. The three-piece outfit amassed a cult following among nu-jazz enthusiasts and released the Bass, Drum & Sam EP, also in 2011. Over the next four years, they organically stopped performing as a group. The end of a group era ushered in a period that saw Samthing Soweto become more grounded in standing on his own.
In 2014, Samthing Soweto put out Eb’suku, a 5-track offering that reflected on his journey into the industry and saluted his lineage. That year, he also lent his voice to various visual projects that included composing and performing the opening sequence of e.tv’s iconic soapie, Rhythm City.
Three years later, he found himself at a crossroads. He released Val’amehlo in 2017 and it featured some fan favourites as well as some live cuts. By then, Samthing Soweto had already amassed a following but he felt his music hadn’t reached its cruising altitude.
Enter Akanamali by prolific producer, Sun-El Musician featuring Samthing Soweto. It became the sound of 2017 and beyond. A song that turned both collaborators into undeniable household names and sought after for sync deals.
The platinum-certified single won three South African Music Awards and the accolades for Samthing Soweto kept coming. Two years later, his Isiphithiphithi album further cemented Samthing Soweto’s acceptance into the mainstream.
Led by Akulaleki featuring ShaSha, the album allowed Samthing Soweto to dethrone Billie Eilish and break the record for most Apple Music pre-adds. From this album onwards, Samthing Soweto partnered with Platoon, the artist services company that was inspired to enlist the Baz-Art NGO to create an album artwork mural to celebrate the success of the music. A year after its release, Isiphithiphithi was crowned the Best Afro Pop Album at the South African Music Awards.
Although he is not one to be tethered to genres, in 2020, Samthing Soweto, put out Danko!, an ode to the amapiano community that has lovingly embraced him. He says his experience with a myriad of music has set him on a mission to make every sound that he hears even more beautiful when he adds his voice to it.
This pursuit of audio alchemy led him to put together the EP’s closer, The Danko! Medley featuring the Mzansi Choir. The unorthodox track comprises the amapiano hits from Isiphithiphithi — all sung in the a cappella style that launched his career. The anthemic Hey Wena single is also off this album. With gratitude, he is now ready to move on from amapiano.
His first song released in 2022 is Amagents, and it is preparing to land his new musical era. From this single that is addressed to his daughter and is a cautionary tale about men, it’s clear Samthing Soweto will be sharing his vulnerability with all in this next phase.
The last two years have seen him prioritise his mental and physical health. Through #WednesdayUpdates on his social media platforms and approaching his concerts as a collaborative effort with audiences, Samthing Soweto gives everyone a peek into his creative process of his to-be-announced new album. Journey with Samthing Soweto as he prepares to make the sky just the beginning again.