“I shouldn’t have to remember the first time I was called n***** as vividly as my first kiss,” says the outspoken Cold Specks
|||Helen Herimbi
The 10TH annual MTN Bushfire Music Festival has a wide variety of acts on offer this year. Taking place in Swaziland from May 27 to 29, the music festival has become a sought-after affair for people all over the world, much like Oppikoppi in South Africa and Sauti za Busara in Tanzania.
From AKA (South Africa) to Za! (Spain) as well as Songhoy Blues (Mali), the Nomadic Orchestra (SA), Vadou Game (Benin/France/ Togo) and more, the festival is a smorgasbord of entertainment. Also on this year’s line-up is the high priestess of doom-soul, Cold Specks.
The Canadian-based singer-songwriter, whose real name is Ladan Hussein, sings over really dark electronic beats and on the phone from her parents’ home in Toronto, she tells me she came up with the name for her genre.
“I actually came up with that title when I was really young,” she laughs, “As a joke initially. Writers took to that name and started using it as a serious description of the music. I thought it was really funny but now I do think it’s a good way of describing it because there are very soulful elements but there are also dark elements. So I think it makes sense.”
Her albums include 2012’s I Predict a Graceful Expulsion and 2014’s Neuroplasticity. On the former, a song called Winter Solstice is a beautiful introduction. She opens the song with “I saw your grandfather’s death on the news”, so I ask her if that was from a real-life incident.
“Several years ago, we recorded that song,” she explains. “That particular line was about a friend of mine who was going through some personal things that were quite hard for him. I was also going through some things that were hard for me. We would meet up and relate on these things. That whole first album is very sad. There’s a certain melancholy that’s attached to it. It’s all about being young and confused and hurt.”
The second album is more danceable with tracks like Bodies at Bay carrying heavy lyrics on lighter sounds. “The song is about the dissolution of a relationship. I was attempting to amuse myself during the writing process, instead of being sad,” she laughs.
Cold Specks says the album itself is “about the creative rewiring process”.
“I felt as though things have changed quite a lot. And my way of interpreting and playing music have changed quite a lot. That entire record relies heavily on music character points. It’s a complicated record and so I felt like a rewiring process had occurred and I felt as though Neuroplasticity was an appropriate title for that reason.”
This process has seen Cold Specks be more outspoken about her political and socio-political stance. For instance, last year, she released a video for A Season of Doubt. In a statement, she wrote: “I shouldn’t have to remember the first time I was called n***** as vividly as my first kiss”.
She pauses when I ask her to elaborate on why she wanted to address that. Then she says: “At the time, I was in America and I played a show. After the show, it was announced that the cop killers of Eric Garner would not be put in jail. I walked out onto a protest and I was so moved by everyone coming together for this cause. I thought it was such an important thing. In America, it’s absurd how backwards it is in terms of acceptance. I made the video because I felt so passionate about (the concept of) time. I’m so proud of it.”
She’s also proud that she gets to step onto African soil for the first time.
“I’m in Toronto, Canada visiting my parents,” she says. “They’re really excited that I’m coming. My family is from Somalia – my parents immigrated here in the 80s but I have never been to Africa. So they’re very excited for me to go and see where I come from and my roots. I’ve been working on a new album and so I’ll be playing some new songs for the first time. People can expect some really good times.”
Catch Cold Specks at the MTN Bushfire Festival in Swaziland from May 27 to 29. Tickets available at www.bush-fire.com