Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with SHALdo
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My dad driving me to pre-school is such a core memory. There are some specific songs I remember. Songs like, “Like a Bird” by Nelly Furtado and Macy Gray’s “I Try” are some songs I remember from those morning drives. Sade, Lighthouse Family, UB40, Oliver Mtukudzi and so much more. My dad’s own love for music is for sure my earliest memory with music.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I got into writing very young. Initially, I didn’t make much of this. I just enjoyed putting my thoughts on paper. Then it must’ve been around my early teens or just before, when I had my first live experience watching a poet sharing a Spoken Word piece. It was a guy named Bradley Odilo. He was phenomenal and the way he wrote and the way he spoke felt very familiar. It was at that moment that I was able to visualise something that I always had, but didn’t know how to approach. So I started writing more poems and started performing. Once I started performing, I knew I wanted to have my own full length Spoken Word project. As I evolved artistically, I found myself wanting to intersect Spoken Word and music. In the pursuit of that, I found myself making music. You could almost say making music was the accident that happened on my way to making an alternative Spoken Word project.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
I’d been wanting to release a full length body of work for a while. There are a lot of things about who I am that I wanted to address. An introduction, just to shed light on who SHALdo is. I talk a lot about experiences that have informed who I am and why I am. I wanted to approach it like a kind of autobiography, but that’s very daring for a debut. So even in the title, I wanted something that screams out my name without necessary having a self-titled project so I just thought, why not just call it, “Say My Name”. Artistically, I’m most defined in my writing. I’ve put in 10,000 hours into writing. There’s a lot of depth and thoughtfulness in my writing—a lot of lyricism and it deserves an audience. Unfortunately most people aren’t into poetry, unless they are into poetry. So I thought one way of fixing that challenge is to intersect poetry with music. People look for the bop, melody, jive and groove so I was in pursuit of such sonics to carry my already existing world of words.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
Creative! Different! Alive and evolving. I was saying to someone recently that I don’t like categorisation into genres because its limiting. We’re in an age now where a lot of music is genre bending so yea, I think I’m also genre bending. Just different. I pick from even some of the most seemingly trivial of influences. A huge part of my creativity is also curation, so I engage with art and culture just as much as I create it. In that collection, I challenge myself to create from the culmination of what I’ve gathered. This can be conversations. So it equally demands reflecting and observing. And because I’ve been adamant about leaning into my quirks, the creation has often been received as
“different.” To some, that’s good, to others it’s too odd to bother. For me, it’s honest and constantly evolving just we are all evolving.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music? People don’t care too much for the brilliant and technical things in writing. People care
about feeling! Evoke emotion. People resonate with feeling, no matter how it sounds. It’s encouraged me to be true and to embrace feeling, even when it’s too vulnerable or ugly.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process? My preferred DAW is GarageBand. It’s what I started on and it’s free, haha. I know
music producers might come at me for that. I used Ableton for a time and probably need to get back to that as well, because it’s got an amazing interface. I keep Bandlab on my phone to ideate. I use that to chop things up, record little ideas and write some quick notes. I like to share unreleased music with some of my closest friends and family, I call that process the feedback loop. It’s how I can test out music and there’s an app called Untitled which is brilliant for that. I can simply share the Untitled link to the music and I get to see when they play the music and how frequently they played the music. It’s interactive in that way. But yea, I’m happy with my GarageBand, otherwise I engage producers for a lot of the technical expertise I lack. My most important tools are my pen and notepad or just my Notes app on the phone.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Chance The Rapper. He’s latest album is so important. I’ll highly recommend a dear friend of mine and the best rapper I know called RayKaz. His latest project, “Those Around Me” is phenomenal. Namibian born and German based, Mushiva—he released his long awaited “Turbo Summation” which is amazing. I listen to so many indie artists. A lot of whom I’m blessed to be in contact with. I can do a whole list. Nyasha Munashe, Ishė, SAMBIRI, Mutsa; just to mention a few.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision? I’m an artist! Creative expression is to me what air is to lungs. I don’t know how I can possibly answer that, because I live it. I live it, man. I think the true question is how my faith informs my artistic vision. I can’t run away from artistry. I don’t overthink it. I create, like how I breathe. There’s more work in my editorial process, in deciding what I release and when I release. A lot of my life always bleeds through my work. I’m now just obsessing over how I express it. I care deeply about creating beautiful things right now. Pure things. Heavenly things. Thoughtful things. Raw things. Things worthy of placing in the hand of my God.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work? I hope we can wear our own skins so beautifully and confidently that we inspire the kids to be who they are! I’m not afraid to try something different if it means staying true to who I am. For the kids specifically, I hope they’re encouraged to search within
themselves for everything they could ever wish—they already have, they already are. Then of course, to look to God. Above all else, I hope my work can point to Jesus the risen Christ.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
I’m still learning. I’ll say this though, music is so powerful. It’s a universal language. It’s a language I’m learning. How to be cohesive. How to speak it with beauty. How to balance the depth of lyricism with the beauty of melody because it should also be enjoyable. I’m still learning.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
NPR Tiny Desk for sure! It’s massive, but it’s intimate. It’s live and its stripped down. I love it. It embodies a lot of what I value artistically, not only as someone who loves making music, but also as a reader, a writer and a lover of music.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why? I’m inspired by many artists that’s for sure, but I’d be a lot more interested in having a
conversation with them than collaborating, because of where I’m at in my journey. I’m not caught up on the celebrity of people. I don’t venerate people like some demigods. All art serves as mere tools or channels of expression. There are special and valuable things in life that go undocumented and that may sometimes not need to be expressed as works of art. Chief among those is relationships. I prefer to use the word “communion” because it emphasises on a deeper intimacy, understanding and embrace of each other. I’d love a conversation with Kendrick Lamar.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links) Spotify: SHALdo
IG: @_shaldo
I’m starting to write on Substack and people can follow me there as well. @nyashatapiwa
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
More music. It’s expensive making music. At least for me it is—at this stage of my journey. I look forward to having the means to create and fully realise my vision without the constraints of the wallet. And travel. Travelling is transformative for me. I want to travel. Learn sounds and music history of different places. Learn their instruments. Connect with artists and create.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way? I want to build community. I know that doesn’t answer your question, but along the way,
this is something I care deeply to develop with people who engage with my work. To do life together in that way.
