Unassuming Maxwell’s all set for Mzansi visit
AS FAR as musical mononym royalty goes, Maxwell (pictured) might be the most drama-free of them all. Having set an alarm to ensure the soul singer is on time for our phone conversation, the artist who gave us hits like the Grammy-winning Pretty Wings is so laid back, he’s “cleaning out my humidifier and doing my laundry and I’m talking to you about life and what I’m doing now”.
Along with Raphael Saadiq, Nathi, Tamar Braxton, AKA, Diamond Platnumz, Flavour and more, Maxwell will perform at the BET Experience Africa on December 12.
The all-day event, which includes a sneaker exhibition and Genius Talks will take place at the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg. This is the same venue that hosted Maxwell on his last Mzansi tour.
That particular show has a special place in the Ascension artist’s heart as it happened when Nelson Mandela passed away.
He says: “Everything was pretty emotional. We tailor-made our show to celebrate his life and pay tribute to who he was as a human being. So I was taken aback by the beauty of how much love was felt for him. It was a touching moment for me.”
His career began in 1996 with Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite. He went on to bring out groundbreaking albums like Embrya (1998), Now (2001) and even an MTV Unplugged (1997). In 2009, he released BLACKsummers’night the first in a trilogy of albums. Then he went quiet.
Before I have the chance to ask him about whether blackSUMMERS’night and blacksummers’NIGHT were still coming, he offers up a reason for the self-imposed hiatus.
“I’ve had a very interesting journey with a lot of starts and stops,” he explains. “Then came the relationship and just this awesome connection with this girl and then there were pivotal losses in my family – my grandmother, my younger cousin. Every time I thought I was ready, something happened to impact what I was going to be able to say. But it’s definitely coming together.” The girl in question is rumoured to be Lithuanian model, Deimante Guobyte but that’s not the most interesting thing about the space Maxwell finds himself in.
During our lengthy chat, he comes across as hyper-aware of his mortality and leaving a legacy. While musing about this new album – featuring a song called Live By The Ocean which is “a very bluesy record that feels like that BB King-ish type of stuff ” – he constantly refers to being 42 years old.
He says: “It’s difficult to live up to people that I love – like Sade and Sam Cooke. And especially now that I’m 42, you want to be that good. I mean I know I’ll never be that great, because it just is what it is, but you want to be able to be good.”
Wait, but you’re Maxwell, bro!
“There’s just certain things I can’t write or say and certain things I have to say because I feel like the people in the younger generation don’t have a certain romantic grasp of lyrical content. So I feel the weight on my shoulder to fill that void, not only musically, but in a lyrical way.”
Songwriting is important to Maxwell. I ask him about one of his biggest tunes, Fortunate, written by R Kelly. “I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to writing because I feel like you should be writing your own songs,” he explains.
“‘How dare you sing other people’s songs when you should be speaking your truth?’ But it was R Kelly and I thought: ‘I’m going to do this.’ It’s funny, I would sing it differently now if I had to do it all over again because now I have a different way of thinking about my voice. But people still like it.”
He laughs out loud when I point out that his debut album will be two decades old next year. “Wooo! I hadn’t thought about that yet. I was just trying to hold on and stay young and vibrant and when you think the record you released when you were 22 is about to turn 20 years old, and you’re 42, it’s very funny. Thank you for knowing that. I didn’t even know that. But what’s really nice is there will be a new album out and maybe we can do something special around that.”