On The Spot Light 'Zano'

 

Sho!Mag: Growing up, did you always have ambitions of being a musician? And why did you choose to be part of House Music?

Zano: I actually wanted to be a surgeon. Growing up in a black home where specific careers were pushed down our throats from a young age [e.g doctor, lawyer, teacher, policeman, etc]. I was channelled onto the medical path but ‘God had a different plan’. I was a late-music-bloomer. Only started taking it serious after I matriculated. I was introduced to House Music by ‘Shota and Black Coffee in 2004′ when I arrived in Pretoria to pursue studies in Jazz. The way they interpreted House Music was unlike anything I’d heard before and I immediately got hooked.

Sho!Mag: What would you list as your biggest break within the music industry and why?

Zano: Working with the late ‘Lebo Mathosa’, hands down! She was an institution. I got my foundation in the music industry through her teachings and observing her moves. She was incredible, a perfectionist, a beast with her craft. Everything else I’ve achieved so far came directly from my time with her as her backing vocalist, songwriter, producer, and vocal arranger.

Sho!Mag: Your biggest challenge in your musical journey. What would you say was your biggest challenge within the music industry and how did you conquer that challenge?

Zano: My biggest challenge was overcoming being naive about people in the entertainment industry. Everyone thinks they are in competition with each other and would do anything to squash the other guy or kick you out of the “race”. I conquered it by staying in my lane.

Sho!Mag: You are not stranger to making hits and that must take some inspiration to come up with such hits. What inspires you when you writing a song? Is the inspiration mostly the same for you?

Zano: I never set out to make a “hit”. Music is a message, I’m a vessel a messenger. My job is to take the message and deliver it the way I receive it in my spirit. I’m inspired by daily life, people’s struggles, politics, feminism, misogyny, love, hate – and everything in between – and my own personal struggles and triumphs. The inspiration never comes the same way but the result always has an impact.