Name: Kanii Axtro AKA Banzii Mavuso
Nationality: South African
Occupation: Musician
Current Release: Ndizak'bonisa on Kosmic Natives
Recommendation: Between Rock and a Hard Place is an epic memoir of Carsten Rasch's role in the South African counter-culture Punk and New Wave scene in the late '70s and early '80s./ “Lucidia” by Ambre, this song gets me in my feels. It saved my life and helped me accept a breakup from 2019.

If you enjoyed this interview Kanii Axtro you can catch her online at Bandcamp and Facebook.

When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

First of all, it’s so cool to be doing this. I started writing music in high school. I had an obsession with watching music videos as a child and the love for music grew. Tupac’s ‘Do For Love’ music video was the first one that caught my eye in 1998, I was drawn to the animation and the groove of it, I still remember how excited I was at just 7 years old and I could dance to a Hip Hop song and actually love it, my grandfather gave me my first radio in 2000 and that’s when radio stations like Tru Fm, Mhlobo Wenene FM, Algoa FM were my go-tos for the hottest South African tunes, R&B and Hip Hop.

Some people experience intense emotion when listening to music, others see colours or shapes. What is your own listening experience like and how does it influence your approach to music?

For sure, music does trigger a lot for different people. For me, I can imagine a setting when listening to different sounds. There’s Bonobo and Thom Yorke, every time, I listen to both of their music l imagine that I am in a cabin in a forest by the lake somewhere connected to nature. When it comes to listening to Thandiswa Mazwai and Simphiwe Dana, I think of my mother’s warm hugs and my dad’s love and the beautiful heritage of Amamfengu/Xhosa people and then there’s Ambre, a movie lover who drops hints of this in her lyrics. How she writes and harmonizes is just stunning.

I am a person who is quite deep and when I listen to music, it’s more than a spiritual experience. Depending on the mood I am in, I can paint while listening to music or sketch or journal and cry.

For example, on my first EP ‘Konscious Aktivity’, I used instrumentals from Bonobo’s fourth album ‘Days to come’ and it felt like I was a prophet and I saw a lot of things that would affect me years later. I sang about racism and how unnecessary it is on my song ‘Through my bug eyes’ I also spoke about how people are quick to turn on those who speak the truth on ‘Pedestal’ and ultimately poured my heart out about my first heartbreak on ‘Blessings Come, Blessings Go’

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I have always been an introvert and a highly sensitive child. It has not been easy to get out of my shell especially due to the losses I have experienced as a child but music helped me have a voice and I have been able to heal through it through song writing/journaling in high school.

I would say that I began my musical career at the best time. I’ve met so many interesting people who have built great careers while I was based in East London from 2009 – 2011, like Zahara and Msaki. When I started the entertainment company ‘Jam That Session’ in Cape Town, which ran from 2012 – 2016, I was ensuring that I was booked regularly and visible in the live music circuit. I made friends with the then owner of Ragazzi Live Bar and learned the basics of running a bar, marketing, and fundraising and artist management.

My personal challenges have been mainly ensuring I have a safety net financially. I consider myself a pioneer in the indie, alternative music and events scene in South Africa and if I would do things differently, I definitely would have been more discerning with business partners and with personal relationships and I would have started with therapy at 8 years old and continued with it in my young adult years so I can have the language and tools to understand what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour for me to deal with.

Creating Jam That Session was a huge breakthrough for me, it enabled me to be booked on other similar platforms, and I was featured on publications because of it, artists like Zoe Modiga and Koleka Putuma were regular fixtures on the platform and received huge fan bases just on the strengths of the platform. I also scored my first Rocking The Daisies gig in 2016 from my relationship with Richard Rumney from Redbull. Performing at Smoking Dragon in 2018, 2019 and this year are also huge for me. I also couldn’t forget my first performance in Zurich on the Show-me festival stage in January 2020.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

Funny that you ask this question. Lately I have been shedding anything I have been too enmeshed with. The Queer identity has been my thing for too long and so is blackness and I call bullshit to both of these now because they have limited me. I know this sounds weird, but there’s more to me than those things and for the past 31 years, I am finally happy to be in a place where I identify as nothing. I would say I am influenced by my dreams only now. My EP Cosmic Fire touched on this. I have the gift of travelling between 5D and 3D realities and now I am working on nurturing my gift and not play it off as a joke like I have done for most of my life.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

I would say a child-like energy, intentionality and authenticity are the hugest keys for me. I need to enjoy what I sing about and I also need to live what I write and sing about. I choose to heal every single day, that’s the choice I made. I wouldn’t be happy to just write songs that put down people just because it’s what gets me Spotify streams. My niece is 13 years old today and I wouldn’t feel good about myself if she didn’t hear great things coming out of my mouth.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I’m definitely interested in the music of the future. Tradition – as much as it is important, is a dying concept. What we need are values in music. Values that help us create innovative music that lasts for a long time and causes a huge dent in the Universe long after we are gone. Originality to me has always been the one thing I pride myself on. I could have been a Zahara or a Msaki but I chose to be me. I did away with the typical Xhosa-girl-with-a-guitar image and chose to create music that I like.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

I actually started learning the guitar in 2009 and lost interest in it in 2010 and decided to focus on the piano, I am still learning the piano as well as music production. YouTube University is my go-to lol, I just need to stick to mastering these – it’s time.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Ah man, I have to burn incense as soon as I wake up at 06:00 daily. Then I journal and do breathing exercises for 15 – 30 minutes to release tension from the past day and focus on my intentions for the new day. I discover musicians on Spotify daily and from 08:00 – 13:00. I write my memoir from 14:00 – 15:00, I rehearse for my upcoming performance at Smoking Dragon Festival in January 01st 2023

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

Let me share my creative process for my current EP ‘Ndizak’bonisa’, I wrote it 100% after my divorce in May 2018. I had a lot of dark stuff going on in my life between 2017 – 2018, it was easy for me to use my journals to write music that spoke about all the trauma I was healing from. I feared for my niece and how she would grow up in this toxic world and penned ‘Ilizwe Lethu’ to encourage people to care about the kids. ‘Peace to the world’ was more of me taking responsibility for all the ways I hurt people from my past and ‘Ndizak’bonisa’ was me standing up for myself against bullies and naysayers. S/O to Musa Zwane for composing the music, as well as Hugh Davison for the production.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I love collaborations to be honest. My first EP ‘Konscious Aktivity’ was 80% a solo mission and I enjoyed the space at the time to hear my thoughts and remain grounded. But being around musicians who have strengths that are different from mine, makes me so excited. Cosmic Fire EP is an example of an epic collaboration with Original Swimming Party and Thor Rixon, while Ndizak’bonisa was much more solo. Musa composed the music while I was in another room and I had a strong idea for how I wanted the music to come out.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?  

I would hope that my work as both a musician, filmmaker and person inspires critical thinking, healing and intentionality. Nina Simone has a quote that I have applied to my work and it still rings true, “You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.”

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Well, losing both parents at 8 years old has made me question things. When I make music, I am pulling from those feelings and for years I have been learning to accept this loss and I know the only way I will find peace is through the music.

There seems to be increasing interest in a functional, “rational” and scientific approach to music. How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

I dig the connection of technology to music. It’s understandable when innovations like a bionic arm is created to sync with a music app or software – that’s ill. I don’t mess with the rational, functional approach though, mainly because for me, music is such an intuitive thing. I don’t know any other approach.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Haha, imagine if creating music felt like brushing your teeth! I wouldn’t like it here. I wouldn’t be able to create an adlib when I cook (although adding layers and layers of spices and things, kinda matches the many layers of music) but I wouldn’t be able to pour out my feelings, stories and overall energy through mundane tasks. Music just hits different, that’s why we listen to music to get us in the mood to do those tasks anyway.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

My voice is unique. There’s nothing like it, just like there’s no one in the planet who has my aura and has lived my life. That’s the great thing about me and that’s how I am able to transmit such magical, spiritual, diverse and deep messages.