Samthing Soweto on taking a break to 'fix his mind' & making timeless music

Musician Samthing Soweto finds himself in a place where he is grateful he can be a version of himself who's brave and have that reflect in his music.

Speaking to TshisaLIVE after the release of his new single Amagents, the musician explained his thought process behind the single.

“When I wrote the song, I wanted to focus a lot on what I know and what I know is that I'm a father and I just wanted to write a song that would depict how a loving father or a father would speak to his daughter about men when she is of age and dating and how he would address that whole situation. And I thought this is how I would address it. That was my thinking behind the creative writing behind Amagents.”

The musician, whose real name is Samkelo Mdolomba, said fatherhood made him want to take care of himself more. 

“Fatherhood, to me,  means for me I have to really take care of myself so that I can be of help to my family, so its just one of those things where I started realising how important it is for me to take care of myself. In general I think to do a good job at anything, really even in fatherhood, you have to really protect and take care of yourself.”

He says the release of Amagents was all about perfect timing. 

“It was way overdue like I did this thing where I was trying to find information from my audience about which direction I should take because personally, I could do anything that I want and I had before. But at this moment, I think I was more focused on making sure that they are happy because we just came from a very confusing time and so I was also confused about a lot of things. So to kind of remedy my confusion I then looked to my audience on social media.” 

It's the audience interaction that fuelled his energy to release music, the attention and care he told TshisaLIVE was something precious he didn't take for granted. 

“I previewed five songs and then I started making promises about finishing and releasing the song, so they've been asking about the release and it took time because I was just working on the music and making sure the messaging is on point. On the song, I had a whole team working on this music and working on how to say the stuff that I wanted to say on the song. It was a lengthy process but it was worth it in the end because people love it. The timing was just perfect.”

Samthing Soweto has been away from the spotlight for a while, saying he taking a hiatus from music. 

“I did take a break, I had to fix my mind a bit. Doing what I do is very challenging ... its one of those things where if there are setbacks, that can literally affect your whole week, month and year. And so I had to get to a place where I can rise and push through that feeling.

“I just didn't like how I reacted to situations like issues and my initial response was to get away and protect myself, to hide. And now I think I'm adopting a process that requires me to be very much brave. And then move with that bravery and understand that I'm not always going to get it right and that's OK and to be vulnerable and have people see that not getting it right and understanding that's OK. I think I've kind of gone to a rhythm where I can be that version of myself who's brave and it will continue, and the response I've been getting is that people are proud of me.”

The musician is currently wrapping up his album and has a has a music tour Now or Never that's coming soon.

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