I started The Writers series back in April 2019 as my way of showing my love to some of the songwriters I respect in black music. From one writer to another kind of writer. What I hadn’t anticipated was how often the creating process in general and the lyrics in particular would be a reflection of society. Conversations with Msaki, Zingah, Zoe Modiga, Moozlie, Zaki Ibrahim and more have been like holding up a mirror.

And I am grateful.

This year, I had planned to start the second season with a visual element to the series but adding coronavirus to my own procrastination is a recipe for disaster. So things didn’t go as I had envisioned.

In the meantime, I listened to dumama + kechou’s dope debut album, buffering juju, and knew I had to interview the nomadic future folk duo.

During our chat, I realised that this was actually a The Writers episode, despite my not planning for it to go that way. dumama comes up with the words, themes and some skeletons of the songs and kechou co-composes with such care and creativity around those skeletons. So I have decided this is a The Writers episode and I have some visuals for you. So this is now The Writers season 2, episode 1. 

See how the Universe works?

We spoke about how a Berlin visit turned into “an extension of [their] creationship” and inspiration from Credo Mutwa. We also delved into how language gives different meaning to lyrics, having multiple versions of songs, the fear of being irrelevant, instruments as additional band members, generational baggage and paying homage to the women who came before us.

I hope you enjoy this episode and if you do, please subscribe to my YouTube channel.