Cover Star Interview
South African Afro-House artist Sun-El Musician joins Nandi Madida via FaceTime on Apple Music to talk about his latest hit “I’ll Be There (For You)” feat. Mañana. He also discusses his new album being a second chapter, about Deborah Cox reaching out to him, and working with Nasty C.This Week’s Hottest New Tracks
Nandi Madida shares the hottest new African tracks of the moment. This week’s selection includes new tracks from ODUMODUBLVCK, Wande Coal & Qing Madi, Smallgod & Sarkodie feat. Joshua Baraka, Chilly & Tony Duardo, and Tony Dayimane.
Tune in and listen to the episode this Friday, February 13th on Apple Music at apple.co/_AfricaNow.
Sun-El Musician tells Apple Music about his new album being a second chapter
I just think about my journey and ‘Under the Sun’ is like my second chapter. The first chapter was El World, where I had signed artists and creatives. Now I’m just getting into this space where I’m doing my own thing and I’m finding my own vibe now whereas I don’t have so much to take care of, because there’s a lot of responsibility when you have people under your wing. It’s a lot of work. But I enjoyed the journey. Chapter one was super amazing, just seeing some of these guys becoming household names. It’s just great, but sometimes it can be tough.
Sun-El Musician tells Apple Music about Deborah Cox reaching out to him.
It is very true. What’s wild is she’s the one who reached out. You know, when I saw her DM, I was like, this is not real. She’s so warm, she actually reminds me of you. You guys got similar energy. She actually invited me to her show. She was doing a little tour here in South Africa, in Pretoria. She took me to the backstage and she was going crazy over the songs and making me listen to my songs. It was just a crazy, amazing moment because I grew up listening to her. I’m a huge fan. I love the song she did with Swedish House Mafia. I’m moving on the right track you know. It really felt good.
Sun-El Musician tells Apple Music about working with Mpho.Wav and Nurogroove
Those are my soldiers. Those are the guys that I’ve worked with, especially Nurogroove. He had kind of had to teach me a couple of things here and there. And then Mpho, what an incredible talent. Insane, insane producer, DJ now, which is super crazy for me to just witness him.
When he came in, he was playing keys and doing additional production, for him to just really learn and understand and just become who he is right now. These are some of the things that really make me proud to have done what I’ve done with the record label.
Sun-El Musician tells Apple Music about working with Nasty C
This is the most incredible story of my younger brother, Sandile, who connected with Nasty C’s brother. So they’re basically the guys who connected and then they were like, they should work together.
I’ve always trusted my brother, his A&R skills and production skills too, so that led up to Nasty C pulling through to my studio, which was crazy because we got to share so many cool stories about going to the US and not coming back with the product. So when we sat in the studio and we started talking about music and I played him that song with just one verse from Laurine, who’s originally from Cameroon but based in LA. |
