+questions. answers

joy denalane. singer. musician
soul of germany
+brook stephenson

Joy Denalane’s debut album Mamami begins slowly, sensually. Multi-lingual, her vocals sweep over the smooth introductory track in a variety of languages. In person though, it is a different experience. Talking over hazelnut toffee lattes in a Starbucks on 26 th and 6 th ave., Joy Denalane expressed both excitement and concern. English is not her primary language and this was her first English speaking interview. She didn’t have to worry. She spoke the king’s English free of regional dialect or inflection. There was no barrier to communication so what follows is a personal introduction to Joy Denalane- German singing sensation, daughter of South Africa and proud mother- for all those unaware.

Brook Stephenson: What moves you to create music?

Joy Denalane: I just love music. For instance, I have family. I have children. And I love my family. Family comes first but if you gave me a bag full of music and set me on an island alone, I would listen to the music everyday. Music means so much. When there is a song that really touches me, I want to listen to it over and over and over again and I want to find out about the person. I think you understand a person when you hear the person perform. Whether it is an instrument or if it is a singer, or if the person really has goals, you will get to know the person better if the person has truth. You know what I mean? That is something that really inspires me and I am very serious about it. Billy Holiday made a few songs -a lot of songs - but a few songs when you hear [them], you know her a little better.

BS: Your musical influences?

JD: Mainly it’s American Black Music - Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, Donnie Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, and a lot more. Of course South African folkloristic music- Hugh Masakela, he’s my uncle. South African folkloristic music is very inspired by jazz music and that’s the cool thing about it. When I hear the folkloristic South African music, I can relate to the black music from America.

BS: How has the combination of cultures (German and South African) affected the music you create?

JD: South Africa inspired my whole record. The concept of my record was to show the people in Germany that I live in between two worlds. My mother is white and my father is black. I grew up with both cultures because my father was there. I am very inspired by both cultures- the European culture and the South African culture. I just know a lot about South Africa – political situations, cultural situations through my father - and I’m a German girl. That’s something very rare and I wanted to state that in Germany because in Germany, we have a little Afro-German scene. In Germany, people see you and they say ‘Yeah you black’ and that’s what we are, but we are from different cultures. I am South African black; then you have Nigerians, Ghanaians and Americans. It was very important for me to make people understand that I am a South African black woman in Germany.

BS: How did growing up black and being ridiculed because of it then, through hip-hop’s explosion, being accepted affect you?

JD: In the end, hip-hop is the reason why I do music. ‘89 was the year everything happened and I was fourteen years old. Before that, wherever I was, I was the only black girl with the strange hair and the strange booty. People didn’t know that blackness [or] African-ness and they didn’t want anything to do with it. I was a very good student and I was a very self confident person. My parents were very good and they had much love for us children so we were very self confident kids. So they [Germans] didn’t accept me as a girl for instance. I was accepted as a person, but not as a girl. They didn’t think I was cute. Then hip-hop came and all of a sudden, all the black heroes I could relate to from hip-hop [came as well]. Rob Base, Salt-n-Pepa or Roxanne Shante - that made me even more self confident. I started listening to the music. Then R& B came over. I always knew I was not an emcee but I loved hip-hop so much when R&B came over, I slowly but surely found out that maybe, maybe I could sing. I started very late. The first time I had a mic in my hand I was nineteen. Never took lessons, nothing. I didn’t learn singing. I just do it. I do it the way I feel it. I didn’t go to any schools, maybe I should do that. I don’t want to say that I’m so good. I just want to say that everything I do really, really, really comes from here [the heart, the soul].

BS: When you completed your album and listened to it for the first time, thinking about the whole process of making it, what were some of the things you learned about yourself?

JD: I hate performing in the studio (laughing). I love live performance. I don’t like the studio work. You do not have a lot of space. You can’t work with your body. It’s hard for me to stand and feel and be inspired…to have soul.

(Thinking aloud) what did I learn about myself? When I listen to the album now, I think I like it but I would do better now. I’m haunted a little by myself. I want to become better and better and better. I think it’s a good piece and I think the concept is a very good concept. When it comes to the singing I think I could do something…better.

BS: You said earlier that it didn’t come out the way you planned it. How did you plan it?

JD: I wanted to have an album more of beats, just beats, beats. I had the chance to work with really good musicians and they were so committed. I had the chance to work with very good musicians and make good songs, compositions and I went with the musicians and wanted compositions on this album. Also it was a very long process. I met a lot of people. I lost my mother. I became a mother. It was a lot of stuff.

BS: Why did you do political songs?

JD: One song was a love song. It was a single in Germany. Then I did “Ghetto of Soweto” which is a very political song. It [didn’t] make sense to sing [that] song in German lyrics. I wanted to make you understand what the situation is. I’m half South African. This is my country. The situation is very bad and people know about the situation with aids and everything but I know a lot more. I am in the townships. These are my peoples. The stories are true stories. My auntie told me those stories. Then there is the other song “Heaven and Hell”, that’s a new song. I wrote it three weeks ago with a Native American. I wrote it on the Raekwon instrumental Heaven or Hell.

BS: In terms of the music, the beginning of an American buzz, what are you planning to do differently than what you did in Germany?

JD: Heaven or Hell for example. Work with American producers for an American sound. I still work with my husband who [is] my producer also to have my own sound. We are German and we have another way to deal with the music. We don’t have the gospel school. I don’t have all that culture. You grew up with that culture because it’s here. I don’t see how you do it in your soul kitchen. I just get the end result.

Brook Stephenson is the Literary Editor of nat creole. He has penned articles for various national publications including King Magazine, XXL, and Black Issues Book Review. Brook originally published this interview on the industry cosign website.