22 Aug 2019

Musicians use music for a variety of reasons.

They use it to unite people, celebrate, relieve stress as well as to lighten the mood.

Local artiste, Kabelo Tiro AKA Skavenja uses music to preach love.

The Afro soul artiste said in an interview recently that he uses his music to spread love.

His latest single Ke a mo ithatela, is all about love. He said he embraces love and his wish was for people to embrace it too.

“I had to come up with a fresh song that will encourage people to fall in love more out there. I embrace love. I wish people can love each other more. That is why I sing about love most of the time because love is rare to find nowadays.

I just had to remind people through music that love is precious,” he said, explaining how Ke a mo ithatela as well as his other songs came to be.

Ke a mo ithatela, which was recorded at EmJoe Records, was produced by EmJoe whose real names are Nicholas Morupisi and written by Skavenja himself. The hit, he said was well received by music lovers.

“The response to this song is marvelous,” he said.

Skavenja explained that Ke amo ithatela was his second single after dropping awesome hits in the past.

He has released albums, which became hits since 2006. Such albums include Nango Skavenja (2006), Maratong (2010), Morweetsana (2015) and Semakaleng EP (2018).

He has previously dropped a single called Stress free, which featured Names. He urged his fans to keep supporting him to enable him to continue producing awesome music for them.

“I’m grateful for the current support. I want to encourage them to keep on buying my work so that I can keep on giving them the best of my art.

Their support will enable me to go to another level. If they don’t buy my music, they’ll be killing my art,” he said. He went on to add that he also needed the support of his fans so that he could even start collaborating with other artistes from other countries.

 Locally, he explained, he had collaborated with artistes such as Lizibo, Smah, Dj Anthem and others. Skavenja further explained that collaborations were great for the artistes as they attract more followers.

“Working with other artistes is a welcome development in the music industry because it gives you more followers. It exposes you to people who were not into you or who did not know you.

 For instance, if I make a song with an artiste of a different genre, the people who were following that person, who did not know me or my genre will now know me because of collaboration,” he explained. Skavenja is not passionate about music only, but he is also a designer.

 He explained that he fell in love with designing way back when he was still in school studying Home Economics.

He later on opened a fashion workshop called Ska-Wat Designs and he has a brand called Monyopi Wear.

He explained that the workshop had been running for over 10 years and that it was doing well. The Monyopi Wear includes caps, bennies, t-shirts, tracksuits. He added that he was currently working on making dresses.

As an experienced musician, Skavenja advised the upcoming artistes as well as those who wish to venture into the entertainment industry to value education as the entertainment industry was not easy.

He said they needed to be able to understand the contracts that they would be signing adding that they need to be business minded, and therefore they should avoid rushing into the industry and skipping school.

He further advised them to avoid drugs and alcohol abuse, stressing that the entertainment industry required focus and being humble so as to work well with others. “Music industry is a beautiful thing when you do what’s right.

You should be sober so that you can be able to think straight, so that when you read contracts you can be able to see what you are signing for. Do the right thing so that you do not upset your clients in the corporate as well as in the commercial world.

Stay humble and obedient because talent on its own is not enough. What matters the most is how you conduct yourself and how you present yourself out to people,” he said. ENDS