Pretoria - Although musician and producer Sehlagamele Edmo Makoti describes himself while growing up as a misplaced soul, he has found his silver lining in music.
At 19 Makoti, from a small village in Limpopo called Ga-Mphahlele, outside Polokwane, looks at himself as a friendly workaholic who is unique when it gets to sound.
Trading as Tim Makoti, he says he is misplaced because his type of music has been different second to none, but ambitiously he has what it takes.
“I have a very firm musical background. In my early childhood days I spent a lot of time behind closed doors playing with my late uncle’s music equipment.
“I knew nothing about what a DJ was, to be exact. I just found happiness in mixing songs and playing for my uncle’s friends. That’s where the love began. I started minimising the amount of playing time so I could continue impressing them with my mixing.
“After my uncle died, I was left with his equipment and became exposed to Fruity Loops, but still I knew nothing about what a musician was … it was all just love and happiness for me since I was enjoying learning,” he said.
Makoti, who started his music career in 2012, says while improving he realised that the music industry was tough to break into and opted to drive with his craft while getting an education.
“It is actually tough to make music. Throughout the learning I finally found my way and I can confidently say that I have what it takes, the world is yet to listen. The world will catch up with time,” he said.
Makoti said (after) starting his music career, he found some inspiration to improve from listening to sounds of other producers who were doing well, but in a different genre.
He says he exercises his versatility by producing some singles for his brother, McRekker, who he considers as one of the best hip hop artists to come out of the rural province.
But he says: “When it comes to music, I don’t think I have favourites because there are a lot of musicians doing a lot of beautiful music. I don’t have a top 10 or a top 5, I just listen to the beauty of house music. I don’t care whether it is underground or which label, as long as it is good I’ll play it.”
The challenge facing musicians according to Makoti was artificial Intelligence, because it has its pros and cons.
“Some of the challenges include supporters not purchasing music or streaming. Pirating of music has been a challenge from long ago as known. Musicians don’t actually get much from their creatives; sometimes they get nothing and that’s challenging most especially if they don’t get many bookings,” Makoti said.
“It has been long since I’ve been away from the stage and working sorely on my production which is doing very well at this point. On my next performance I think more of those will come after my EP release titled Jazz In 20 Something.”
Pretoria News