The Zuko want to bond with you

THEZUKOCollective launch their much-anticipated debut album, Relationtrips, at The Orbit Live Music and Bistro in Joburg on Sunday. The jazz-influenced fusion band is fronted by lead vocalist, Nozuko Mapoma ( pictured), after which the Collective, which is sometimes just called ZuCo, is named.

She told me this album that follows a well-received EP, Skuif, “has been a long journey in the making. I’ve got over 10 years of experience in the industry and some of the other band members are newer, but everyone has had a journey leading up to ZuCo. Our engineer is from Botswana so he’d have to take a trip down if we were recording. It took us a year-and-a-half to work on this album. We took our time putting everything together.”

And if songs like Take a Trip are anything to go by, the journey has been worth it. Comprising Sibusiso Chiloane (bass), Kenridge Rambau (rhythm guitar), Zweli Mthembu (lead guitar), Joshua Maluleka (drums and support vocals), Thandi Khoza (support vocals), Teboho Smith (saxophone) and Mapoma, the band also has a layered meaning to the play on words of the album’s title.

“You know how sometimes you can be interacting with someone and if you’re having an electrifying conversation – regardless of your relationship with that person you’re interacting with – it can take you on a trip,” Mapoma asks rhetorically.

“That connection takes you somewhere. It’s about relationships that the band members have with each other, about our relationships with God, life, family and the relationship we’re trying to establish with our audience. The album speaks a lot about where we are as a collective.”

As to what audiences can expect from the group that will be offering up their first album together on Sunday, Mapoma squeals just thinking about the answer to that question: “Oh my goodness. I really believe that every time we perform, we get better. It’s like we’re some Ninja Turtles. Or maybe Transformers,” she laughs.

“We have been pouring ourselves into this new album, hey. And into this launch. There is so much love in us as a collective. And because The Orbit allows you to sit down, it seems like the perfect venue for everyone to not only see us, but to really, really hear us.”

Catch the Zuko Collective at The Orbit in Braamfontein, Joburg, on Sunday at 6pm. Tickets are R120. Follow the band on social media to see where you can buy