Last year was a big a one for ‘Sió’, as she has brought us a string of releases which include ‘Hours go by’ by rkls, Chasing with Daev Martian, I decide by SculpturedMusic, Criminal by Jaidene Veda and Pablo Martinez, Closer by Luka, Tokyo by Sio ft Omak as well as the 1000 Memories with an amazing remix package with remixes by Atjazz, Karisma, Fred Everything, Osunlade and that went on to win ‘Record Of The Year’ at the first South African Dance Music Awards. To top all that off, Traxsoure placed her on ‘9th Spot For 2017 House Music Vocalists’. ‘On The SpotLight’ this week let us welcome ‘Sió’.
ShoMag: We would like to thank you for taking some time this ‘one on one’ with us. For the benefit of someone out there who might be wondering who is ‘Sió’. How would you introduce yourself to them?’?
Sió: Thank you very much for the awesome invitation. For a while now, when people ask me who I am my answer is ‘I am a storyteller, My songs say so…’
ShoMag: Where is ‘Sió’ is from and what would you say is your contribution within the ‘Music Industry’?
Sió: I am from a small township south of Johannesburg, South Africa called Ennerdale, often referred to as ‘The Dale’ by those who live here and ‘The Farm’, by people from ‘Eldos’.
‘I am a lyrical snob!!!!’ I don’t like working on anything if I can’t find a new way to tell it. I bring stories, that I hope are richly told, fresh and a little off the center. ‘I hope I tell them well, so when the listener takes the time to listen, I have given them something worthwhile to listen to’.
ShoMag: The music industry ‘can be a hard one to crack’. Where did your ‘musical journey’ start and was music something you always wanted to be a part of, how did you get into the music industry?
Sió: I am a late bloomer! ‘Everything switches on for me when the rest of the class is miles ahead’. I’ve was always been shy and I was always dabbling in something artistic. I used to sketch a lot as a child and I could do that by myself and share it without being there in person. I wanted to be a fashion designer and a couple of girls at school had me design a couple of dresses for them.
‘Music has always been around the house’, but my mother never seemed impressed about my singing that was up until I got a leading role at church and that changed her mind.
Writing was a lot more difficult. While most of my peers were rapping their own words, I was struggling to write a poem that didn’t have roses and violets. When I did crack my poetry I struggled writing songs till, ‘I suffered from insomnia for a good 9 months’ and I wrote a song it that had good flow, a steady melody that wasn’t all over the place and that open the doorway for the rest.
I got into music by way of a friend of mine who knew a guy who had made a beat, and his friend had just bought a studio mic and she told them I could write songs. We walked to his house and recorded ‘Love Mirrors by Project 5, and formed the group that day’. We have parted ways since then.
ShoMag: Throughout every journey, there are ‘highs and lows’. What would you say was your all time low within the music industry and what lessons did ‘Sió’ take out of that experience?
Sió: There are a couple of things, but I’ll speak of one. How secondary and almost ‘unimportant, forgettable and even editable the vocalist is to the producer of song’.
‘My name was completely excluded from a song nomination’, though I am credited on it as a feature, and more recently, how people just ignore that I am not featured on the song ‘A Dream Away’, but headlining it alongside the producer. Those two incidences have made me realize that ‘vocalists and especially female vocalists don’t get much respect from music lovers, even though we are the ones they sing along to. That is something that needs to change’.
ShoMag: On ‘upside’, what do you love so much about music and what has been your ‘ultimate high’ within the music industry so far?
Sió: I once was told that people don’t care about the lyrics and for me as a lyricist, poet, writer, storyteller that was a difficult pill to swallow. One of my greatest treats is when someone asks me to write out the lyrics to my songs, coz they are interested in knowing them. ‘I get an even bigger kick if a guy asks!!!!’ I thinks guys are more inclined to rap lyrics and production, ‘very rarely do I find guys interested in the lyrics of a female vocalist, so that makes my day and is definitely a High for me’.
ShoMag: You have had countless ‘chart topping releases’ which also include your debut EP ‘Under the Winter’. Where does ‘Sió’ draw inspiration for her ‘unique sound’?
Sió: Uniqueness comes from owning yourself and taking the pains to discover and rediscover yourself. ‘I often find inspiration for a song in the music itself’. The stories are drawn from life, my own and those who walk with me and those who walk beside me.
I try very hard to deviate from what I’ve done before. ‘When I feel a song is beginning to sound like something else’s I’ve done, or heard, I stop working on it’. I also don’t listen to music when I’m writing songs, so I don’t bite flows or lyrics that I didn’t come up with. For me it has to be new and come from me and the music. ‘And I read, A LOT!!!’
ShoMag: If I may say ‘last year was a memorable one’ for you in terms of releases, features and live performances. Is there any ‘particular highlight’ worth mentioning from that year?
Sió: ‘What a wow for me, there are a lot!!!!’ I have always dreamt of working with legends such as Atjazz and Osúnlade, and to have them work with my voice on the spectacular 1000 memories Dream remix package along with Fred Everything and Karisma is a dream come true for me , and I didn’t even know that was the plan! Then to have Osúnlade smack me upside the head with the ‘Words Remix’ made my year! It was also great to have 1000 Memories win record of the year of the 1st House Music Awards last year and I am thankful for being part of that.
ShoMag: On that ‘last year tip’, ‘traxsource’ announced you as their ‘Number 9 Vocalist For 2017’ and that is across the ‘Globe’. How did that feel seeing that you really did ‘put in some work’?
Sió: I was STUNNED!!!! What an honour!!! I didn’t even know people were listening. Just to be among all the amazing vocalists and storytellers on the globe. ‘Me, the girl from Ennerdale, the place people drive pass and pay no mind to, is Number 9 in the whole world’? It makes me very happy that people are listening.
ShoMag: ‘Big up’ on your recent chart topping collaboration titled ‘A Dream Away’ with ‘UPZ’. How did the collaboration come about?
Sió: The wonderful, talented and amazing Cueber had recorded me for a few songs on the rkls album and he also produced 800 minutes. He liked what I did and suggested me to UPZ.
ShoMag: What is instore for us this year from ‘Sió’, are there any musical projects you are currently working on for 2018?
Sió: There are collaborations with Rkls, Revolution, Magic Number, Charles Webster, Dwson, Fred Everything coming out this year. I am also working on a couple of projects with Luka, Daev Martian and Jullian Gomes in the future.
ShoMag: Any last words from ‘Sió’ and is there any message from you to your fans out there?
Sió: There are truths we all share, that should bring us closer to love, kindness, compassion and understanding. Our differences shouldn’t have as much power as they do. We all love music and no matter where you come from that’s a language we all understand. ‘In music, let us love’. Love ourselves enough to be true to who we are, love each other without judging what is different Be yourself, enthusiastically, authentically and recognise that ‘those who judge your difference, don’t have your courage’.
‘I stand on the shoulders of giants’! And I thank everyone who has seen something in me, who has guided, taught, recorded, directed, pushed me, written and composed with me in mind and in song. ‘I appreciate you more than I can express’.
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