Zakes Bantwini’s journey in music has seen him go through the most and at his hardest point he was pushed to make music for his survival. In an interview with TshisaLIVE he said it has all built up to the ambitious man he is today.
Zakes, whose latest album has been receiving international acclaim, said he was glad he got to a point where he wasn’t making music just to survive.
He explained that he also wasn’t looking to compete on small stages anymore.
“Right now, I can’t be satisfied with just being number one only in SA. I’ve already been number one here. I’ve been the talk of the town and had a song that people cross over into the new year with. I am no longer about competing in small circles on small stages, mine is to plant South African music in the world.”
He said with Love, Light and Music 2, he had more freedom and remembered a time where he didn’t have that luxury.
“This album is my third professional one but fourth album if I count the passion project I did when I still had L’vovo in my stable. But after a month of having that album done, I stopped distribution and promotion of that album. So when L’vovo left my stable, I went straight into survival mode. I knew the album would not do great, so I dropped it and made my other album because I needed to survive.”
The musician said in retrospect he was glad to have gone through that experience because he was a more mature person after that.
He added that marrying the love of his life helped stabilise his life a great deal. Zakes married Nandi Madida in an intimate ceremony in 2016 and the pair have since been blessed with a baby boy named Shaka.
“My family and I have the same mindset about a lot of things. As far as legacy is concerned, not only for our son Shaka but for SA, I hope that we learn to leave a truthful reflection of ourselves in the world. We wouldn’t want to have a legacy that isn’t really authentic to who we are.”
The Wasting My Time hitmaker explained that not only has love inspired his latest project, but providing the world with a soundtrack for the different kinds of love was his main aim.
