DJs out to ‘rock the house’
Mtshali, Nyathi launch single from debut album ‘The Journey’ in Bay
HOUSE duo #MalumzonDecks were in the Bay last week promoting their latest single Monate from their first album The Journey.
Ekhurhuleni DJ Mandla “De Dj” Mtshali, 33, and Oscar “Deddie” Nyathi, 33, came together 15 months ago after noticing their sound and taste in music was similar and both were signed under the same label.
“We’ve been on this journey of #MalumzOnDecks for over a year now and so far it’s been fruitful and the response has been great,” Mtshali said.
#MalumzOnDecks said Monate was an indication of the Afro-House sound they were going for.
“We decided to take it back to Afro-House, the style Black Coffee was doing when he started out. The sound is powerful and most of our songs are in vernacular simply because we are African and we wanted to tap into our vernac,” the pair said.
“There are a lot of indigenous languages and we felt there was a gap and we wanted to focus on our own style of music because it’s difficult to go into a genre that’s already booming,” they said.
They met more than four years prior to joining forces. Mtshali already had music being played across national radio stations and Nyathi was an events coordinator prior to being a DJ.
The Journey is coming out at the end of the month. They already have three singles PartyZone, Ma Afrika and Monate which came out two months ago.
“We worked with a couple of newcomers, vocalists and on the last two tracks we worked with Nokwazi from Kalawa and Busi N who’s collaborated with DJ Mshega before,” Nyathi said.
Mtshali and Nyathi co-own OwnIT Muzik which will release the upcoming album.
Mtshali said house music at the moment did not have messages of support behind the lyrics – and that’s where there music was different.
“Our message is clear, most of our songs talk about love and we just finished shooting a music video for Ma Afrika which basically talks about xenophobia, women abuse and our audience and fans are diverse,” Mtshali said.
“We have fans who are mothers, fathers and the youth which shows that the content is not just for party music,” Nyathi said.