'Jika' is just the beginning of it

16 August 2013 - 09:20 By Andile Ndlovu
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Image: Times Media

Eighteen months ago, Joao "J'Something" Fonseca walked into record label Soul Candi's office in tears. The lead vocalist of Mi Casa wanted to give up.

The musical trio's success happened at the speed of light - J'Something, Sipho Mphahlaza and Moshe Kgasoane hadn't even heard of each other a few years ago. Since getting together they have won four South African Music Awards, released a platinum debut album, and performed at one of US President Barack Obama's inaugural balls.

This week they released their sophomore album, Su Casa.

"A lot of people think it's glamorous, and that it is amazing because it's a dream come true. But sometimes it's hard because you no longer have personal space," J'Something said earlier this week.

"We did seven gigs in a day last September. That was crazy. When I cried, I felt emotionally blank."

Despite their busy schedule, the trio found time to record Su Casa , a 15-track album launched at a party in Sandton at midnight last night.

J'Something, along with his two media-shy band-mates Dr Duda (Mphahlaza), who is the producer, mixer, engineer and plays the alto saxophone, and trumpeter Mo-T (Kgasoane), invested in a mobile studio to record.

The band hopes to take a break between this and a third album. J'Something is adamant that nine other tracks (in addition to lead single Jika ) are potential singles, which would stretch the longevity of the album to "at least three or four years".

The band is heading out on an African tour. They will visit Kenya, Swaziland, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria and Uganda between now and November.

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