Well known for his diverse collaborative work, Pops Mohamed says he wouldn’t be averse to adding a new genre to his repertoire
MC Sparky
Pops Mohamed is preserving the sound of ancient instruments in a modern world and hints at a kwaito collaboration.
“Music is the only art form that brings people together at any given moment, making them share their feelings and experiences. It’s one of the most natural ways for people to connect with each other and with the divine.”
I am sitting in the Johannesburg home of Pops Mohamed, the highly collaborative multi-instrumentalist whom Powerzone has dubbed “South Africa’s unofficial Minister of Music.”
He offers me a coffee, which I accept gratefully, and disappears into what I presume to be the kitchen.
I look around the room. What decorative images are expressed by a man who in the same year simultaneously releases two CDs – one a production of authentic recordings of the Khoisan and the other a collaborative venture with some of London’s most cutting-edge drum’n’bass DJs?
There are a lot of CDs in this room, racked vertically and horizontally all over the place. On one shelf is a fax machine, while next to that stands a tall wooden carving of a giraffe – the kind you see purveyed on the side of almost any major road route in South Africa. On the wall hangs a traditional mouthbow, suspended by its single string.
Next to my seat is a small haphazard arrangement of various drums and percussion devices. In a bowl on the coffee table are three painted ostrich eggs.
Pops returns with my coffee and his breakfast – a modest meal comprising one slice of bread supporting a lightly fried turned-over egg. He has a seemingly frail physique, disguising a strong kinetic energy and his slightly enquiring eyes suggest a casual but not indifferent interest in the world around him.
He has recently finished a show at Sun City called Beyond the Rainbow, which he describes as a rubbing of shoulders between African and Chinese music, both pop and traditional. He shows me a review in which the journalist questions whether the show was musically representative of all cultures – an old chestnut, and one easily challenged. “Where was kwaito?” asks the writer.
“So what do you think about kwaito?” I ask Pops. “It’s a trend at the moment, but I think it needs to work on itself. It needs more collaboration. When kwaito first came out, drum’n’bass was just starting in London but it quickly developed due to the cutting edge nature of the London dance scene. Kwaito hasn’t had that same degree of development.
“It’s good for the young guys who have created an industry for the people, but the guys keep using the wrong sounds. People from the old school like Chicco and Arthur have been influenced by it and thus contributed their own influences, but it still needs more overseas people to get involved and take it a step further.
“When I was in London working with the London Sound Collective, I played them a couple of kwaito tracks to see if they’d like to work on something in that vein and many of them found kwaito very boring. I told them how well the music was selling back home and they said: ‘Well if it’s that easy, get me a job in South Africa.'”
Pops is well known for his wildly diverse collaborative work – the Khoisan, Xhosa Cultural Group, Bruce Cassidy, Zena Edwards, Live, Jimi Presley and the London Sound Collective to name but a few. Would he consider collaboration on a kwaito project?
He holds an unlit cigarette in his hand as he calculates his answer. I have matches. I give him a light. “I’m open to it,” he muses.
“If kwaito wants to work with me then I’ll certainly think of it, but I would like to make it something different – not just another kwaito album. You know, in Europe, many people are doing exactly what kwaito is doing, but they have a strong identity of culture and they’re all being influenced by each other.”
I ask Pops if he thinks international collaboration is the way forward for kwaito. “People learn a lot doing collaborations. Kwaito could be something very big for South Africa.”
It is this sense of collaboration with all sorts of music that has made Pops Mohamed one of the well respected international icons of the industry, particularly his work with ancient and traditional instruments. His two CDs released this year under the MELT 2000 label both sing an anthem for the survival of these instruments in today’s eclectic market.
Bushmen of the Kalahari is Mohamed’s homage to the music and culture of the Khoisan. Recorded in 1995 and published by Kalamazoo Music, Pops describes it as “a pure Kalahari album”.
There are 17 songs on the CD, all played as they have been for hundreds of years. The information leaflet and interactive CD-ROM will guide the listener through what to many will be a transcendental journey of the ear into unfamiliar territory.
Pops Mohamed Meets the London Sound Collective is a fantastic drum’n’bass excursion that should excite any progressive dance fanatic. Each track is dedicated to traditional instruments like the kora, mbira and mouthbow, cunningly textured against a backdrop of rough jungle beats conjured by some of London’s finest.
“Music is about reaching out,” says Pops. “If you start trying to connect with other people, then they will in turn reach out to you. Being interested in traditional instruments, I’m always looking for ways to save them from disappearing. Collaboration with popular forms is how I see the future of preserving indigenous instruments.”
Pops Mohamed will be playing with Bruce Cassidy at the Bassline in Melville on December 3. For more information Tel: (011) 482 6915