Interview: StoneSoup - Shapes of Africa
StoneSoup - The Afro-Punks have developed a multigenre smörgåsbord of scintillating sounds that leave you wanting more and screaming Encore!
By Emma Kelly
Published Friday, 31 August 2018 15:34
StoneSoup recently won "The Battle of the Fen", earning them a well-deserved spot on the legendary Splashy Fen Stage where they were incredibly well received, and rightly so...
Before heading to Shapes of Africa's 7th Birthday Bash where they are performing tomorrow (Saturday 1st September) to further investigate Durban's uber talented Afro Punks, we brought you a quick sneak peek ahead of time...
StoneSoup is a Durban-based Afropunk band, which comprises of six extraordinary talented musicians with a new and unique sound. With powerhouse songstress Onele Makiwane on lead vocals, super-skilled duo Suthu Makiwane and Mbusi "Somgav" Ndlela on guitar, master multi-tasker Njabulo "Oudskul Funk" Nzuza on Drums, rhythm-ruser Sphelele Bulungaonon percussion and gifted Bonga Xulu on Bass, they have merged their unique talents and sounds and are taking on Durban and further afield by storm!
StoneSoup recently won Winston's Battle of The Fen for a spot on stage at Splashy Fen - congrats for winning! Were you surprised? (after hearing you guys WE definitely weren't!!)
We weren't surprised... Ok; we were a little surprised, to be honest! We were a new band on the scene, although we knew our music was good. We performed through the qualifying round before the final and won our first heat. There were some really good bands... We won the round. Even then we were quite reserved about winning the whole thing. We performed well and we deserved the heat win!
You guys definitely deserved to win! Your sound is a melting pot of jazzy afro-punk-funk rock, where do you draw your influences from?
We have drawn sounds from African traditional, punk, neo-soul, hip-hop, funk and R&B
How would you describe StoneSoup's music-making process?
Organic and spontaneous at times... Although that's through years of musicianship...
What does the future have in store for StoneSoup?
Success... and many fans!! We're still in the studio recording our EP at the moment. We have a release plan, and we'll let you know when the tide is high! We do have material up on youtube... Live shows...
We're looking forward to seeing and hearing amazing things in the future from this talented group of musicians, keep your ear to the ground for much more musical goodness to come from StoneSoup - The AfroPunk's studio!
Better yet, get to Shapes of Africa's birthday bash in Mount Moreland this Saturday and experience them live!!