Langa Mavuso chats about getting his heart broken, vulnerability & healing

Singer-songwriter Langa Mavuso has opened up about the importance of baring it all to his fans through his music.

Many artists might attest to music being a process of catharsis for them and Langa has been using it as an outlet to express his feelings and life's experiences. 

“I try to embrace all the truths of my life so that I can reflect experiences that people go through, because I don't think that my experiences are unique ... some parts of them are unique to me,” he tells TshisaLIVE. 

The Sama and Feather Award-nominated album Langa, launched in September last year, was birthed from going through heartbreak and Langa says he plans to continue being just as vulnerable with his next album.

“I'm excited to even start working on the second album ... I'm going through a break-up, so this next album might be about a break-up or a make-up, we don't know, but we'll see,” he chuckles.

Speaking of the lessons he had learnt from his previous break-up, Langa said: “Sometimes it is the best thing that could happen. Sometimes we want to distract ourselves from dealing with the things that we're dealing with and that doesn't work. It's important to sit in the pain, to feel it, to grieve whatever you've lost. Dealing with something that is stressful requires a rebirth of sense. It takes time. The healing process is painful and ugly. Eventually you have a rebirth of a kind ... I've learnt that things take time,” the musician said.

The Basha Uhuru festival event taking place from October 28-30, is Langa's first headline event since the country moved to level one of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and he's excited to get to perform his hit songs Sunday Blues and Mvula, which recently went gold.

“Those records reaching that status is so special to me because it comes from such a vulnerable place, where I was really going through a tough time. I felt I had lost myself for a bit and then I came back to myself and grounded myself again. 

“Sharing on that allows me to connect with people, because the moment we become vulnerable, is the moment that we allow ourselves to receive from the next person ... this work has allowed me to do that and I'm excited to start travelling and performing with it with an intimate live audience,” he said.

Now that the world is gradually opening up and getting back to normal, Langa plans to do a national tour in the next two months where he'll be travelling to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, Mpumalanga, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

“I'm so exited to be doing this ... to have the band join me on stage to perform the music that people have been intensely receiving.”