She can hear the trees sing

Amanda Mo is gearing up to make the big time. Buhle Mbonambi finds out what revs her engine

AMANDA Mo will not be having red wine and hot chocolate this winter. “It’s weird,” she tells me in the early evening on Monday at the Hilton Hotel. “I mean, I don’t mind taking a risk now and then, but they have to be calculated and lean towards me getting some sort of favourable return. Red wine and hot chocolate is not that for me. It sounds like a weird mix.”

I asked her this because she ordered a hot chocolate and with it being winter, I wondered if she was a food trend follower. Turns out she is not. What she does follow, though, is everything that has to do with preserving the environment.

“I’m an environmental manager and we are the people who check if companies and entities are compliant when it comes to preserving the environment. If you are building a road, for example, we have to check how the ecosystem will be affected.”

It leads us to speaking about the price of food. “It’s things like us not taking care of the environment that led to this. For example, bees are now endangered and we now don’t have natural pollination. It’s things we don’t even notice, but everything we do has an effect on the environment.”

She is clearly passionate about the environment, but even that couldn’t override her main obsession: music.

Amanda has pursued a career in music since high school in eswatini, where she was part of a girl group called Lipstick. “That was where I honed my songwriting skills. It led to my growth as a musician.”

I saw Amanda perform recently at Gagasi FM’S line-up for 2018/19 at Aewon Wolf’s warehouse in Durban.

She was the first performer and, as happens with new artists, got ignored. Not that it fazed her. “Those who mattered paid attention,” she said.

And people are paying attention to the Afro-soul singer, whose song, Uwami, is on the music charts and on high rotation on radio stations.

Uwami is a beautiful, mellow R&B song that will be enjoyed by those who appreciate the genre.

“It’s a celebration of life, of falling in love and celebrating it,” she has said of it.

After the success of Sands, another musician from eswatini, it makes sense that Amanda Mo would also come over.

It’s also indicative of South Africans being more receptive to musicians from the continent.

“The South African entertainment industry is huge, so of course we all want to make it here. It’s like a natural progression – after making it in your country, you make a plan to succeed in South Africa.”

Of the reception to her music, Amanda said she was surprised people liked her songs. “It’s not that I’m not producing great music, but it’s a great feeling when you see and hear people love your song and bop their heads to it. It’s scary coming to a new territory and getting people to like your sound. It just makes all the hard work I put in worth it.”

She is one of the performers at the Vodacom Durban July and will be entertaining guests at the Gagasi FM Red Star Experience Village.

“It’s my first time at the July and I’ve heard that many artists launched careers there, so I’m excited but also a bit nervous.”

She prefers performing with a live band. “It’s more authentic and I believe it’s where you prove your musicality and show people what you can do on stage. I just hope that I will leave an impression on the July.”

She is still planning her performance for the day and not yet sure what to wear. So I suggest three outfits: one for her arrival, the second for her performance and a third for when she’s finished and is mingling with guests, then moves on to the after-party.

“So I have to look like a star?” she asks. Yes, I say.

“Oh that sounds like a plan. I’ll have to speak to my designer then.”