My first interview in a while and my first ever interview for NAR, and I must say I really enjoyed this one. On Saturday, 5 October 2013 we met up with Ms Isis, for not only an intimate session but as well as an intimate one on one interview.
A blazing day it was and I’m not just talking about the gig - 30°C, sunny, but cool. The wind blew haphazardly and there was a calm optimism in the air. I arrived at The Bohemian flushed and dizzy, so I found a place to sit down, got myself a drink and observed. Cigarette smoke suspended in hot air and hippies were having an excitedly awesome time getting drunk while others sat by the bar enjoying the game, a few were playing pool in the corner and the rest relaxed at the back in a mystic-like garden, which is where I was sitting. I got there at around 2pm and the show hadn’t yet started.
A few hours passed and incredibly artistic people started filtering in, the mood was fresh, light and young and it didn’t really matter weather things were delaying or not – the timing couldn’t have been any more perfect. And then, the moment of truth had come, Ms Isis and her crew entered the scene and suddenly things were starting to look up. Nervous as hell LOL I decided to approach her for a mini conversation before we got down to business.
A humble soul with a gentle heart she was. She herself was quite nervous and in her words, “very shy”, but our energies had a way of calming us both down. I retuned back to my seat just so I could go over the questions I prepared, after about an hour or so I called the lovely songstress to the side and we had or rather I had one of my most inspiring interviews ever and this is how it went.
Angela Nimah: Hi Ms Isis [giggles]
Ms Isis: Hi! [giggles]
Angela Nimah: I’m so excited! Uhm, ok! Is this your first time in Johannesburg?
Ms Isis: No, not my first time in Jo’burg. I’ve been around – since I live in Pretoria I came to study here and so it’s not my first time here. I’ve travelled to do shows, to see shows. So it’s definitely not my first time. It’s also not my first time performing here. I’ve done a few shows at a few places like Kitcheners. They’re not in my head at the moment but I’ve done a few gigs here in Jo’burg – not a lot though but we’re trynna increase the numbers.
Angela Nimah: Ok, and how do you find the crowd or rather the people here different from the crowd/people in Pretoria?
Ms Isis: Well, they’re laid back. Here there’s not a big difference in terms of like people’s vibes and stuff. People are the same in term of meeting them and talking to them, everyone’s nice, everyone’s sweet, the vibe is cool. Uhm, there’s not much of difference – there’s a lot of love, people give you a lot of love and maybe I’d say the amount of people because here you can get a lot of people more than you get in Pretoria. I think people here are more open to different things, uhm, but yeah, basically I always get the same reaction, it’s always a good vibe.
Angela Nimah: As far as your journey in hip hop and music in general where does the producer in you originate and what’s the story behind wanting to make beats?
Ms Isis: Tjo! What happened? Well, I had this thing that I wanted to sing, I can sing, but I’m not sure, I didn’t know if this was something I really wanted to do, something I could live off of, you know? Well everyone just discouraged me, they always thought it was a hobby, but I decided that I do wanted to sing but getting someone to support you was always very hard especially coming to Jo’burg you’re fresh, coming to Pretoria you’re fresh and I didn’t know anyone. People needed beats, people had beats and that was very hard for me to get in.
So one day I was like yo! Friend of mine, show me how to do this and he showed me. Uhm, how to move the mouse here, keep this here, cut this there and eventually I started playing and it was interesting and I started liking it and I was like maybe this is something I could do, and then it started turning from a hobby to something that I liked. I began making people listen and they were like wow your beats are actually quite cool. So I’ve always had that music thing but the producing thing is just a step ahead.
Angela Nimah: Was that when you decided you wanted to this. Did it lead you to that conclusion?
Ms Isis: Yah! Not necessarily because of producing or anything like that, but from when I was young – I don’t remember but from a small age people were always like, oh you have such a beautiful voice, but I would never take it seriously and only when I was very old when I would going to gigs, watching that space, being in that space – I was like maybe I can do this and I actually fitted in and I gave it a try. I think it was back in 2000 or ’99; I was like music is something that I wanted to do.
Although I tried to study it, it didn’t work out so well – in those times maybe I was 22 -23. I was always surrounded by musicians, my brother was doing this music thing, uhm, so it was very easy…well hard…well, I don’t know whether to say easy or hard but it was always comfortable to be around the musicians and I was like this is home for me and this is what I wanna do – I wanna do music. And I’ve been pushing, well, since now. [giggles]
Angela Nimah: What are you currently studying?
Ms Isis: Now I’m studying bass guitar at Vusi Mahlasela – it’s called Vuma, uhm, I’m doing theory 1, so I’m back to basics. I’m like a kid in school. So I’m doing theory 1 and hopefully we’ll gradually get to 2, 3, 4, and 9. Because me liking producing… I like to produce music but I don’t think it’ll help me get there, so bass guitar is a sort of instrumental foundation. I chose the instrument and I loved it, I still love it, and I’m hoping one day obviously I’ll do my thing on stage with my bass, and that’s the plan really. I just progress like that.
Angela Nimah: How would you describe your relationship with hip hop?
Ms Isis: Wow! I don’t know why, but I’m finding it hard to step out of it because I think I’m just used to it too much. I like the fact that hip hop has always had a message; it’s always had meaning, because you won’t just listen to a song and it’s telling you to go out and do this and that, uhm some people that you listen to they tell you to go to school, you can do it, pick yourself up, uh brush yourself off, it doesn’t matter where you come from, whether you’re rich or poor, believe in who you are. So hip hop for me has always been comfortable; I didn’t find it in Kwaito, I didn’t find it in uhm, jazz in a way, I didn’t find it in a lot of music but with hip hop I thought I fit in here.
But since my brother introduced it to me, that’s just all we used to listen to and I was automatically attached to it. Until today I’m still that ‘hip hop girl’, I mean I don’t rap; I’m not an emcee, I don’t necessarily consider myself a hip hop head but I love hip hop to bits and I think that’s where I fit in the most.
Angela Nimah: How do you remain consistent and relevant, because as a musician you’re only as good as your last performance?
Ms Isis: I think you just have to always be working. It’s even tough for me because sometimes you get tired, you get frustrated, you get annoyed at the situation especially if you don’t have a certain surname you can’t get anywhere, if you don’t have money you can’t get anywhere. An I consider myself a normal human being in terms of fitting with everybody, so trynna push the music is quite hard for me, but it’s something that I wanna do, it’s something to live for – it’s a living. That’s why I even decided to branch away from just being a musician by hosting shows where I’m doing poetry and people come, so it’s embracing the whole hip hop art, soul music culture, and it’s a slow, slow journey, I mean some people get there faster some people are slower, but I’m getting there and I’m having a lot of fun – a lot of complications, but a lot of fun [giggles].
Angela Nimah: Do you write your own music?
Ms Isis: I write my own music, uhm…
Angela Nimah: What goes into the whole creative process of writing a good song or making a tight beat?
Ms Isis: Uh, let’s see. Well, I never have a day, but sometimes you feel compelled, ‘ok, today I’m gonna sit down and write a song’, sometimes it comes to you because of how you’re feeling and if you’re a person who likes to write thoughts you don’t know how else to express yourself, or you’re a person who’s bottled up or… I always thought let me write a song, let me write a poem, it’s my thing, no one is gonna see it, no one is gonna hear it. Until I started saying let me hear what people had to say about the way that I write and they were like you can write well. There’s no process really, it’s like a mood thing for me, sometimes that delays ‘the process’ because you can’t process your moods like ‘hey I wanna be happy, hey I wanna be sad, I’m going through this or I’m going through that’, but I think every day there’s something happening that you can always write about. I try to write everyday but it doesn’t happen like that, but usually the good songs always come randomly.
Angela Nimah: Do you ever feel the need to perform at a peak to try to impress your crowd, to impress your fans, to impress people who love your music?
Ms Isis: Hmm. I think definitely you want to impress, you wanna have a good word out there, you wanna impress people, and you want them to be happy with what you do. You try not to make it about yourself too much, you try to make it about the people; will the people enjoy this, will they relate to this, will they understand?
Most of the time I used to…well, even now, I’m gonna see today what happens, but usually when I sing I get frustrated and I’m like this is a jamming song, ‘why aren’t you guys moving?’ and it’s ‘cause they’re listening. I get bumbed out…I don’t know how to explain it but…uhm, but you definitely always want to impress the people, you want them to leave the place saying ‘wow, that was a great show’, you always want your sound to be 100% so it’s good to have a good image, to leave the stage clean, to leave people happy. You can’t give them bad sound, you can’t be late! At least be punctual as an artist. We’re trying our best to do all of that and one day it’s gonna be perfect.
The crowd today is great I can’t wait and it’s about to start – I can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen. Are people gonna stare at me are they gonna move – it’s definitely for them. Even now, the place might be small, you perform at your peak, the place might be big, you perform at your peak – you give it your best all the time.
Angela Nimah: Tell us about your influences and how they have contributed to you being at the level that you are currently at with your craft and what is about them that inspire you?
Ms Isis: I have one major artist [blushes] – Erykah, I like her, and I’ve always liked her since I was young. I think she was the one artist that I connected to immediately because I was like I like this hip hop but I can’t rap and I like this soulful type of thing but I don’t wanna do RnB you know… so she was one of those people I was like YES! That is it, that’s what I wanna do and I’ve always followed her, Amel Lerrieux, uhm, I skip around; I can go to Common, I can go to Mos’ Def, Fat Freddys Drop, I can go to Kulture, Reggae. I love every aspect of music; if it’s good music I will love it. There’s a lot of music that sometimes it’s not good but it’s popular. But I have this thing of, it’s good music I’ll love it.
I don’t know, your Ella Fitzgeralled, from rap to soul to Merriam Makeba, Thandiswa Mazwai but I had to find where I fit in and where I’m comfortable. I can’t be Thandiswa Mazwai because I can’t speak Xhosa that well, I’m not that rooted, so this is where I fit in. all those people make sense to me and this is the product that I come up with because of all of that.
Angela Nimah: How long have you been part of this music journey and where do you see yourself most satisfied and content in your career?
Ms Isis: I’m still not content. I think I’m very far from where I am going, but I’m definitely gonna get there. Between 1 and 10 I can say I’m at 7 – I feel like I’m at 7. I don’t know what 10 is, whether 10 means being successful, whether it means you have money or whatever, but my goal is for everybody to enjoy the music, listen to the music, love the music, and that’s it really; if everybody can hear it and if you say ‘hey, there’s that girl called Ms Isis out there’. That’s just basically what I wanna do, I wanna help other artists to get on stage and hopefully today I see a lot of people on the open mike and just do it yeah.
Angela Nimah: What do you feel you represent in your music within the South African landscape?
Ms Isis: Wow! That one I can’t really… I’ve always found it hard to relate to South African music. My music is very internationally influenced, so I don’t know a lot of South African artists, but I guess that’s what I’m trynna do, is to make South Africa be like ‘hey there’s this kind of music, hey listen to me you know?’, uhm so I guess I’m trying to make hip hop fun, make people think that hip hop is not just about being grimy and wearing long pants. There are kids who can sing and do different things. I’m just trynna introduce something new and hopefully South Africa will love it and like it and I’m excited about it.
Angela Nimah: What would you like your current and future fans, supporters, and lovers of your music to have insight of on the person behind the mike?
Ms Isis: She’s really nobody... dramatic… [giggles] she’s very cool, she’s very humble, you can come to her and talk to her and say ‘hey Ms Isis, I really like your stuff or Ms Isis I don’t like your stuff’, uhm, she’s a very fun, loving person, she loves to sing and people mustn’t be shy of her. She’s quite down to earth, easy-going, and she’s willing to work. She’s got all the time in the world, and if god blesses her with a lot more time than definitely, I wanna work with anyone and everyone.
Angela Nimah: What are your greatest aspirations in this field?
Ms Isis: Hmmmm, well. Can I say everything? LOL There’s so much I wanna do, there’s so much I… I don’t wanna be stuck in one place; I wanna go everywhere and do everything. Some days are better than others but I’m pushing.
Angela Nimah: In your understanding of this diverse medium of expression, what do you consider essential or what makes a great artist?
Ms Isis: A great artist has to have good sound, must be on time, must look good, feel good, and respect the people. This whole thing that we’re doing is for the person; that’s why we’re here, that’s why we’re doing shows and hopefully they’ll enjoy it. But just be real and I guess it also depends on who you are and what you do and where you wanna go and where you find yourself. Always be humble as an artist, you never know where you’ll find.
Angela Nimah: Should we expect an album soon, any projects or anything you are currency promoting?
Ms Isis: Yes! There’s a lot, it’s just that I’m giving myself time and hopefully people will also give me time. But there’s a lot. There’s an album coming out so hopefully the song will come out, I don’t know, maybe we’ll squeeze it in somehow, between now and December. Take the music abroad and yah…
Angela Nimah: Any last words to those reading this interview and have gravitated to your energy?
Ms Isis: I say thank you for giving me the time of day to interview me and I didn’t even know I was gonna get interviewed so that’s a blessing. It means something and hopefully the people who are listening are going out there and supporting local artists, supporting hip hop music, supporting sistas, supporting sistas in hip hop and to those sistas, don’t be scared. There’s a lot of brothas out here putting yall down, saying you can’t do it. I’m doing it so I’m waiting for yall, let’s work!
Angela Nimah: Where can people find you?
Ms Isis: They can find me on www.reverbnation.com/missisis that’s the first one. Second one is www.soundcloud.com/msisis and our email is Charlene@tsanemedia.co.za and we also have a website, www.tsanemedia.co.za people can check it out, find it there and yah, we’ll see.
Thank you to Ms Isis for allowing us to do this interview for our blog. Supporting and covering local artists is our priority!
© Angela Nimah 2013 Revolution Validates Life
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