Moh serves up soul food
‘Soft Life’, ‘Phakade Lami’ star draws packed audience at Guild
Phakade Lami has been dubbed the nation’s contemporary love anthem, having notched up more than one million Youtube streams and since its release catapulting 22-year-old Nomfondo Moh to instant stardom.
On June 24, Moh performed her popular singles to a packed audience at the Guild Theatre.
Ahead of her performance Moh sat down with GO! & Express to discuss her career, creativity and future aspirations.
The charismatic, gracious and humble Moh reveals that initially her success in the last two years had unnerved her but what kept her grounded was her bottomless love for people and the impact this has on her music. “Most of my songs are love songs because I try so much to make music that people relate to and everyone relates to feeling strongly about the people in their lives that they love.
“I am a people’s person and I always consider things from other people’s point of view.
“I put myself in other people’s shoes to see how they view life and what they may be going through, thinking and feeling.”
Observation of others, coupled with a compulsive need to write is the foundation of Moh’s creative expression, as she can always be found with a notebook in hand taking inventory of the people around her.
She is inspired by the everyday and the rituals that make up the human experience, from relationships to death, to family and financial freedom; she can be found working this out through her writing.
She says: “I am more of a spiritual person and that makes it easy for me to reach people’s emotions through my music because every time I make music, my aim is to give people soul food and I feel like this is the only way I can connect with my audience.
“Giving myself away to an audience like this gives me strength, and if I am away from the music and from people for too long, I feel empty.
“Seeing people happy because of my music gives me hope that I need to do this more because when people are happy I am happy.”
Unemployment and dwindling opportunities for the youth is a concern that troubles her and finds expression in her popular single Soft Life.
“People are graduating but they don’t know what they are going to do next because there’s no jobs for them,” she explains.
“In that song there is an emphasis on the phrase ‘knocking’ because the aim is for people to open the doors of opportunities to the youth.”
Moh remarks of Buffalo City: “I felt the love before I even reached East London and for that reason I will be performing almost all my songs because the fans in East London have been so kind to me online.
“I am so excited for tonight and so grateful to be supported like this. I have been looking forward to it and I can’t wait to share my soul with them.”