Interview with UJU - #BandsYallShouldKnowAbout

RVL: For those who still don’t know who UJU is, please tell us briefly who you are, how did you meet and what you’re about?

Uju began in a small rehearsal room at Dark Star Studios in Newtown nearly 11 years ago. Ntuthu Ndlovu assembled a bunch of musicians together with the promise of doing something great to support her on her mission to bring her vision of Uju to life. The jam session lasted over 12 hours and the first incarnation of Uju was born.

RVL: How did the band name come about?

It was the final iteration of a process that started with Black Symphony, progressed to Embryo and then finally settled on Uju.

Uju, meaning honey in Zulu, speaks to the organic nature of honey production; how bees come together to produce this elixir that is life sustaining for their young, sweet to some and repulsive to others.It is also an apt analogy for stinging lyrics masked by the sweet melodies.

RVL: How would you describe your relationship with music and what are you hoping to achieve within the art industry?

As a collective, our relationship with music has been conflicted yet deeply nourishing.

We started out just like everyone else, with stars in our eyes. We expected that the world would melt at the slightest mention of our musical genius. How different and interesting we would be. How our vision would be enough to spark a worldwide movement and make millionaires out of us. Of course, as it is with most things, that was not the case.

Over the years we came to understand that creation and artistry are not the same as career and performance. As our career progressed, we noticed that we were drifting further and further away from the music. Creative decisions were being informed by commerce and marketing not by artistic integrity or creative inspiration.

When this happened, Uju was a fork in the road. Some wanted to go the commercial route and exploit our musical skills to earn a living, while some of us chose to remain true to our creative intent regardless of commercial appeal.

This is by no means new or unique. Many artists have faced this dilemma and will continue to on their journey. The Uju of today simply came down on the side of artistry; this is not a moral judgment on which is better than the other. We just couldn't bring ourselves make music that didn't represent us for the sake of commerce.

We are not entertainers. We are artists. We make our art primarily to express ourselves in ways that only we know how. External validation of that art is a happy consequence.

Art is not industry. Art is expression. If we can leave behind a body of work that is a true expression of who we were as artists during the time we actively created, then we will have achieved what we set out to do.

RVL: What do you feel you represent in your music within the South African landscape?

At this point we are simply an exponent of artistic moments in time. I’m sure we’ll come to represent more as the years go by or maybe not.

For now, we just want to be honest about how it feels for us to be South African. Not in an academic sense but rather an emotional one. These feelings come through in the familiar, yet eclectic mish-mash of musical references. They are prevalent in the dark lyrics that cut through the sugar coated South African rainbow and speak to the pain and struggles of a South Africa in transition.

I guess we are just a broken mirror on the souls of those who find themselves floating on the fringes of functional existence. In a country that isn't tolerant of difference no matter how much we may think we are.

RVL: How does music affect you and the world around you?

Music is the language with which we get to say what we can’t in conversation. We can scream, cry, laugh, f*ck, hate… all through our music. We hope that by providing an emphatic space, people can use it as an outlet for their own expression. And see that there is a shared experience even when their experience feels completely unique and lonely.

RVL: Take us through the music-making process.

It’s very simple. One of us has an idea. If it receives a response from the others, we jam it, develop it, revisit it and eventually either discard it or cherish it. What you hear at our gigs are the songs that survive this organic yet rigorous process.

RVL: What makes a successful band and how do you measure success?

As I mentioned before, success depends on what you want from the time and energy you dedicate to the creation and performance of your music.

For us, success is measured in longevity. The best bands in the world aren't the most famous ones, or the most commercially successful. 

They are bands who, like a marriage, have been able to grow over the years and make music that represents all the individuals in the band at any point on that timeline without imploding or deviating from their truth.Whether you make money or not, if you’re still together and creating, then you’re successful. Because, then you’re no longer a band, you’re a family.

RVL: What are the biggest obstacles you face as a band?

Real life: trying to balance our basic individual needs with that of the band. I guess if we were able to make a decent living off the band, it would be easier. But money doesn’t make you a good parent or good spouse or a good student.

A band is like an infant. If you ignore it for too long, it will die. So finding the space to live decent lives as well as create and perform is always a challenge.

Then there are the very real obstacles of trying to record our music. Musically, it is difficult to find a producer who understands what we are trying to achieve, or for us to translate the energy of our performance to a recording.

Where others make music to sell, we make music simply to be. So we often find that producers want to mold our expression into something they can package for some market or other.

Not that we would complain if we sold tons of records. It’s just that we've learnt a hard lesson and now we've lowered our expectations and focused on making the music we like.

Then there is the very real issue of money. We would love to be able to record the new music without the pressure of having to sell it in volumes. So going through a label, makes that near impossible.

Instead, we need to raise the money ourselves. And this can be very difficult when you are time poor trying to pay bills.

RVL: Which bands or instrumentalists inspire you?

That is a very personal thing to each of us. We are all very different people. In many ways, we draw inspiration from more than just musicians. Mo and Given are consummate musicians and highly skilled with their instruments.

So they list a number of maestros on drums and bass as inspiring. Richard Bona is a definite favourite. Ntuthu and Earl are less skillful but heavily focused on creation. So we draw on painters, and poets and writers as well as musicians. Ntuthu loves Frida Kahlo, Busi Mhlongo, Jacques Derrida to name a few.Earl is more of an old Indie Hipster and draws on Gustav Klimt, Grindhouse movies, Motown, and British Indie.

RVL: How do you remain consistent and relevant in an ever changing and controlled entertainment industry?

We don’t try to entertain. We just keep creating and performing what comes to us as our world changes around us and as we change within it. We’re always relevant to ourselves, and sometimes relevant to others.

RVL: How can people get hold of your music?

At the moment, our 1st album is available on iTunes. However, you can listen to some of our newer and more current demos on myspace.com and soundcloud.com -Both ujuband.