Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse is
one of the country's best-loved and most respected musicians; more than just a
musician or an artist, he is a legend. The
Beat sat down with Sipho to discuss his involvement with the rerecording of
the Generations theme music, his opinion on his least favourite character in
the soap, his remix CD and his thoughts on Mental Awareness Month.
Hey Sipho! How you
doing? Very well thank you ,We just performed last week at the Macufe
Festival in Bloemfontein so we have been busy with shows and studies and now in
the next couple of weeks I need to get
my UNISA assignments of so we can write my exams
You were recently
involved with the recording of the SABC1 soap Generations' theme music. How did
this came about? That is an amazing story ,I was approached by Trevor ,when
he was in Johannesburg ,He and Mfundi go back many years as friends and I am also a family friend of Mfundi and when
he came to the studio Trevor heard me saying Bra Mike and he had this confused
look on his face and I remarked that Mfundi and
I both went to school together too, as I call it the mighty Orlando West
High school in Soweto ,so we were friends before Mfundi even dreamed up
Generations. The recording took place over 4 hours in Johannesburg .It was and
is a massive honour to work with Trevor. He had written and composed the entire
piece of music and all I did was play the sax part which goes through the song.
Trevor remarked to me that I have a distinctive way of playing the sax and this
brought across the feel he wanted to portray for the new theme going forward. All
I remember was blowing like mad take after to take to get the perfect take ,
but I did not realize was that Trevor has over 15 different takes for the
producers to add into the show as each episode ends with a different mood ,Trevor
has captured that already .
How did you met
Trevor Jones? I have known about Trevor and his work and whited at a
distance to extraordinary music he has produced for movie blockbusters , but
never actually met ,until March this year at Music Exchange - in Cape Town at
the City Hall. We hugged like long lost family members perhaps it is because we
share a similar upbringing the District 6 kid and the Soweto Born and breed
person . What brought us together was a music program that will change lives
and teach the next generation music exchange. I must admit that I am in awe of Trevor's work .Bear in mind
each film can have over 50 -60 pieces of music in them so Trevor's catalogue is
over 6000 pieces of music strong . That is just remarkable!
What elements did you
bring to the new theme music? I brought the sax parts to the theme music, which
Trevor asked me to play.
Are you a fan of the
soap? I know what is going on
because friends tell me ,but I just
can't watch the show regularly as i always seem to be busy early evening ,with
my kids or family commitments or traveling to events .
If so, who are your
favourite and most hated characters on the soap? Let’s rather keep that too
myself. It will open a can of worms
October is the
International Mental Awareness Month. Firstly, what does this mean to you and
what message would you like to convey to South Africans struggling with a
mental illness? We need to educate people about these problems especially
the youth so that we can learn to guide kids on how to overcome the
difficulties and we as adults need to look out for symptoms ,i have a great
friend who is bi polar and he blows hot and cold ,but when he takes his tablets
he is 100% and sometimes when I see him
he goes off on a tangent and then i know he has not taken his medication and we
work through why he has not taken it for the day .
Coming back to your
music. What is next in line for Sipho? Maybe a new CD? I have remix of Jive
Soweto coming out end Oct and then next year we would really like to do a DVD talking about my music history .
What is the one thing
that fans will find hard to believe about you? Next year will be 30 years
since I recorded that song that has been so good to me "Burnout" - Can
you believe that ?
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