For the first 5 Minutes interview of 2021, we are pleased to introduce Mehe Demula to our Moziak faithful. The young singer-songwriter has worked with some of your favourite musicians and this year he decided to take the leap of faith and release his very first project, titiled F I N D I N G S P A C E.
The project dovetails with an upcoming videogame which he plans to create this year and boasts airy, eclectic and alternative sounds which take listeners on a mesmerising journey throughout 7 emotive tracks.
Describing himself as a dreamer who spends a lot of time in his head, we invited Mehe to step out and tell us more about the project, his career and his future as one of South Africa’s most intriguing up and coming musicians.
Welcome to Moziak Magazine bro, please tell me abut your journey as an artist so far:
Thank you for having me.
I am a self-taught musician and my journey started out volunteering as a guitarist in church and doing small gigs then eventually transitioned into being a session guitarist and musical director, where I had the opportunity to share the stage with some amazing artists like Tresor, Beatenberg, Mafikizolo, The Soil, Zoe Modiga, Martin Smith (lead singer of UK band Delirous) and many more. I always entertained the thought of releasing my own music and after the COVID pandemic hit I started asking some really hard questions about my legacy and realised that I could do more and be more than the introvert behind the guitar.
Your project F I N D I N G S P A C E just dropped on streaming platforms everywhere. How would you describe your EP for those who will be hearing it for the first time?
F I N D I N G S P A C E is a laid back 7 track album, with subtle 90s video game sound design and ambient African elements. The idea behind the lyrics was that it would allow the listener to journey with me the writer and cause them to reflect on their own tensions with love, space and time. I guess if I was to label it, I would call it Alternative Indie Pop, but I love the idea of the listener defining what the project is to them.
What concepts or ideas inspired the theme of the album?
The album was inspired by video games and outer space. I try to explore more than the physical dimensions of height, depth and width within which all things exist and move but instead focus on the psychological connotation of the word space to create a dream-like video game world. The album is meant to go hand in hand with a video game that I am creating also called Finding Space.
Tell us about your inspiration behind the artwork?
Being an introvert/dreamer, I tend to spend a lot of time in my head and sometimes it’s hard to distinguish reality from reverie (a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts). The artwork depicts me existing simultaneously in both worlds with one of them being just as real as the other.
As an up and coming artist, what would represent success for you with this project?
It’s always tricky quantifying success but I would say the number of people that connect with the project would represent how successful it is.
Are there any local artists you are looking to work with in the coming months?
I would love to work with artist like Beatenberg, Shekhinah, Jesse Cleg and many more but there aren’t any plans in the pipeline yet.
Stream Mehe Demula’s debut EP F I N D I N G S P A C E below:
Click on this link to stream F I N D I N G S P A C E on your preferred streaming service.
