You dropped Germander (Deluxe) in 2019. Then, you came back with the follow-up Germander II, but this time, it was an album. A really interesting quality within your music is the theme of continuation, from the moments when you initially drop a project until you revisit it years later, and carry on by finishing the story. Is that intentional on your part ?
Damn! You are actually the first person who understands my music – like actually understands my music. There’s no one who has interviewed me who has ever said that before, and that’s exactly what I do. But to answer your question – basically, how I look at life is that everything that happens in life is the same, but it just happens in different ways and on different scales. Personally, when I listen to my old music, it’s a whole experience of me learning something about myself. A lot of the time, I look for my flaws when I’m looking back at old experiences; they are the one thing that probably makes me want to become a better person. So, with my older music, that’s the same experience I get from it – where I can find certain things that I can bring into my life right now, but tweak certain things for the better, and balance the person I’m trying to be, you know what I’m saying? ’Cause at the end of the day, if I already knew everything, I wouldn’t have anything new to learn. That’s how I look at the music process as well. I can’t stop learning at all. If I was already perfect at making music, I don’t think I would even have a reason to be making songs right now.
That’s a very valid point, because I believe an artist’s imperfections are what we gravitate towards as listeners. It’s relatable. It’s raw. It’s real. When listening to your music, there is almost a closeness to you but, then again, we have to remember that your life is quite different to us ordinary listeners, who probably have a different set of problems, routine and reality to you. How do you mould your sound to be so relatable to an average South African hip-hop head, but also maintain this international sound that is foreign, compared to what we’d typically hear locally?
I love that question too, because a lot of people really don’t understand the type of music I make, or look at me as an “American wanna-be” R&B vibe. But, if you’re actually paying attention, you’d know that as much as, yes, for sure, my sound is influenced by a lot of international music (and when I say international music, I’m not even talking about American-sounding music; I listen to a lot of Latin music; I love country music, which is crazy; and my favourite genre is soulful, old-school R&B), I’m more inspired by those types of genres than what people keep saying I sound like. To me, though, all my influences made me – Lesego Mnyandu, who was born in Katlehong and grew up in Pretoria – and that’s what you’re going to get on the music. Me. It might sound like it was written by a guy in LA, but it’s still me.
It’s interesting that you address that you’ve been influenced by so many sounds, because when listening to Germander II, you hear so many samples of old-school songs, such as Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock With You’ on ‘Rock For Life’, Usher’s ‘You Make Me Wanna’ on ‘Fall Thru’, and on ‘Prayers Up’, there’s this distinctive old-school West Coast vibe, which is a really nice nod to your musical influences. For this EP specifically, why did you choose those types of samples and those features too?
I think a lot of people don’t even realise what I actually did on that project. With every sample, it was actually more intentional than me just using songs in general, you know what I mean? I think my having to chop up all the samples in there and just create some of my best music, for me was like, yo, I just needed to do that for myself. First things first, I grew up around a lot of music at home. I grew up around my aunt and my older brother, and there were a lot of women at home. You’re hearing a lot of music that they’re playing. My grandma was the one who would be playing country music. She was playing your Dolly Parton and other legendary country music stars. What’s crazy is that I still love that music to this day. I still listen to those people to this day. My aunts were also listening to a lot of R&B and gospel. My hip-hop influence came from my brothers and my uncles. So, with my EP, I just wanted to do what I liked, and I’m also tryna show people where I come from. I was trying to show people that, as much as I’m a hip-hop artist, I’m really just an R&B artist.
