Sho Mag Afro House Magazine
Sióbhan Sió, sio-ROI, The Twilight child, King is a storyteller, who uses music, poetry, theatre, design and interpretation to tell her stories. Music came to her by accident. The Ennerdale native was asked to sing in choirs throughout her childhood but she was never given any leads. Writing was harder. She struggled writing and composing anything. At 16 when she wrote her first sound poem, at 17 her first song which “…was a complicated jumble of lyrics I had fit into a song I liked but couldn’t get a hold of because we couldn’t afford to buy music…” and she got the melody wrong.
She derives inspiration from the music itself, the world around her, books and often gravitates towards dark metaphors and images sighting pain as one of her greatest muses. Her style is a product of a love the music she was exposed to as a child. She has many musical aspirations, the top being to tour a full length jazz album with accomplished musicians.
She is one of the Founding members of, and lead vocalist for the house outfit called Project 5, now known as Project X who released their 5 track debut EP with Peng Africa in December 2014 titled Short Encounters, and their second EP Called Eclipse, was released on the 17 August 2014 under the label Marubini Entertainment. She has also written for Marubini MusiQ’s ‘Take a deep breath,’ EP released under UK based Label FOMPUK in 2013. She has also worked with Luka WeGoDeep on a various projects the first release by the duo called Next to you, with reworks by Jazzuelle, Mark Hand and Keys Snow, released in October 2014, with Next to you Part 2 released in May 2016 with Reworks by Charles Webster, Pablo Martinez and Sió.
As a consequence of her work on Next to you she was invited by the Soweto house duo Lilac Jeans to do a song called This love released in April 2015 to a warm international and local response, scouring her invitations to work on music with Julian Gomes, Charles Webster. Her collaboration with Divided Souls & Samuri, lead to North released in April 2016 to great reviews, and scouring the song a feature on the DEFECTED IN THE HOUSE IBIZA 2016 compilation.
She collaborated with Chicago based producer Gershon Jackson, director of OmniMusicSounds called How did we get here (Dj-Eclyps blacklight Afro mix)… and Naomi’s Song featuring Sió and Sheree Hicks, have also received warm responses from both local and international audiences, released for sale on all digital download sites. Her debut Ep called Under the Winter, is a moody mixture of experiments where she co-composed and co produced songs with Bongani ‘Steven b’ Mathebula, Earl ‘Mr Bob’ Edwards, of ‘Project X‘ and Chino Chaplin Nhlapho, which was released on the 14th September 2015.
She has performed live with Charles Webster at the CHURN BOTIQUE music festival to great reviews, subsequently scoring a collaboration with Kid Fonque who saw her perform at the festival and invited her to write and perform vocals on his up and coming album with UK based Producer Dee Malice who go by the alias rkls. That collaboration scored her another with Cuebur, Who produced her single 800 Minutes released on Soul Candi at the end of 2016.
She is thrilled to be part of the Late Dreamer, Album by Jullian Gomez where she is featured on a track Called 1000 Memories, out worldwide on the 30th September 2016. 2017 was a big year for Sió, bringing a string of releases including Hours go by by rkls, Chasing with Daev Martian out on the Beating Heart South Africa Series, I decide by SculpturedMusic, Criminal by Jaidene Veda and Pablo Martinez, Closer by Luka, Tokyo by Sio ft Omak out of Redbull Studios, as well as the 1000 Memories with an amazing remix package with remixes by Atjazz, Karisma, Fred Everything and Osunlade, Which also Won Record Of The Year at the first South African Dance Music Awards. It has also seen her score amazing collaborations with the likes of Magic Number, Atjazz, Daev Martian and Revolution. She also place 9th on the Traxsoure top 100 Vocalists of 2017.
2018 see Sio’s collaboration on A Dream Away with UPZ (from the UPZ album ‘Drop It’ on soWHAT Records) is currently toping charts alongside, with the Cuebur Remix doing well alongside The Osunlade remix of Words by AbysSoul and Sio. She considers herself a lyrical snob, making pains to write songs which look at things from a different angle. She is a story teller at heart, with the gift to craft them well and sings in an old style. Her unique voice is the ear turner that makes the listener want to indulge in her stories which have graced the ears of people around the world and inspired more art. She has a small by loyal following in underground music circles, who appreciate her ability to move between house, electronic, dance and soul music seamlessly.
She is currently working on various solo projects and collaborations with the above mentioned artists, and many more, in and out of the house music world. Sió’s music is available for download on ITUNES, Traxsource, Beatport, Juno and all reputable stores.
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