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Loyiso

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On his third solo album, Loyiso Bala spreads his musical hand, without losing sight of the style of music that has turned him into one of South Africa’s best-loved artists.

Titled Blow Your Mind, the album comes with R&B still firmly emblazoned on its 13 tracks but this time around, Bala is matching his prowess in this genre with an ease in urban pop that will take the recording into the hearts of a multiplicity of music fans.

Achieving the latter was, in many ways, the guiding principle of Blow Your Mind. “With my earlier material,” says Bala, “I was able to gain airplay on a diversity of radio stations and so I wanted to give that more emphasis with this album. I like having a broad base of fans and feel confident in many different music styles.”

That Bala has such easy traction in so many genres is testament to his eclectic music taste and his early background in performing, the latter beginning with homespun shows with his family in Uitenhage, before moving through his school career at the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir and St Stithians College, and all the way up to being the youngest conductor of the National Youth Choir in 2000. There can’t be many R&B artists, for instance, whose favourite track growing up was Radiohead’s Karma Police.

“On my first album I really thought this is it – that I had it and was at the top of my game,” he says. “But looking back I can see that it was just the first step and that I had a journey to take – one that would force me to focus on songwriting, production, and finding my own style.”

Ask him what’s change in the intervening years and Loyiso is crystal clear. “I’ve been exploring as many other creative avenues as possible – it can be dangerous to stay in a comfort zone so I’ve tried to extend myself. I have really found out who I am and I am ready to reflect that in my music.”

Bala wrote the music for the TV show Tsha Tsha, for which he received a South African Film and Television Award, and composed scores for Sesame Street. In addition, he has been kept busy with his Bala Brothers work and his collaborations with many other artists.