Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

Manteiga: We go by the names Spoek Mathambo, Aero Manyelo and Manteiga. I am the lead vocalist, Spoek and Aero are the producers. We are all 16 years old.

Spoek: Hi name is Spoek Mathambo, I am a producer and backup dancer in the group. 

Have any of you played in other bands?

Spoek: I have...I've been in groups like Sweat.X, Ramahutra, Slush Kids, Playdoe, Fantasma, Kitsuko...many groups.

Aero: I was in a group called BlackWhole.  

How is it that you started playing music? Spoek: Woooooah...we've been doing music forever. Since being little kids. Naturally. 

Have you had other previous members? Manteiga: We are a fluid collective, constantly collaborating with other musicians and vocalists. We don't consider ourselves to be a fixed band at all, so there are new 'members' working with us all the time.

Did you make music even when you were young? Spoek: Yeah, from really young. South Africa is a very musical world, so it's just natural there. 

Where are you from?

Spoek: I'm from Johannesburg, South Africa...that's what I would consider to be my hometown.  

Manteiga: We are all from South Africa. I have some roots in Mozambique. 

What year did the band form? Manteiga: Batuk formed in the beginning of 2015.

What's your style of genre?

Spoek: We work in quite a variety of styles influenced by soul, zouk, kuduro, house, poetry, rap.  

Manteiga: House music, Dance music, Tribal music, Good music.

What inspires you? Spoek: Anything and everything. I'm a really big fan of film. I know Manteiga loves theatre and art. 

How often and where do you reherse? Manteiga: We meet and wherever we are, we rehearse. We are each responsible our individual rehearsals so that when we get together we have polished products from all sides.

How have you developed since you started with the music? Spoek: When I started at 10 years old my interest was being a rapper and just doing that for fun and I never thought that I would become a performer, a producer, a song writer, a film maker, an art director, a designer...so since starting with music there's been a ton of development. 

Do you have other interests of work outside the band?

Manteiga: We all have interests outside of the band. I am a performance artist and theatre maker. I exhibit and produce works in galleries, theaters and spaces worldwide. I am very excited to work with Spoek and Aero for my  upcoming theatre production.

Spoek: My current interest is peaches and peach flavoured ice tea. 

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that?

Spoek: We work with a couple of different people for bookings...yeah, I think they can be helpful...but an inactive booking agent can be detremetal to an artist's career because they can sometimes block a booking from happening.  

Manteiga: We have a manager who deals with our International bookings. We are also signed to Primary in the UK. Having a booker makes things a lot easier.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Spoek: We release our own music, but are open to partnerships with people who we think we can work well with. 

What are your songs about? Manteiga: Many different things. Land, love, family,  war, sex, life.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Manteiga: I do most of the song writing, but Spoek is a genius writer so he helps me a lot. When we collaborate with other vocalists, they bring their own lyrics to the table.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Manteiga: There are no rules. We start in different ways each time. If theres a beat, we add lyrics...If there are lyrics, we add beats. 

Do you compose in a certain inviroment? Aero: We compose in all environments. We are currently on tour, so it's important to be able to work anywhere. 

Have you done any covers live? Manteiga: No, we only perform our own music and the remixes that were made for us.

What language do you sing in? Spoek: English, Portuguese, Zulu, Tsonga, Xhosa, Shangaan, Luganda,  Lingala... 

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Manteiga: We have had an audience of 20,000 people and an audience of 100 people.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Spoek: Probably between 15-30. 

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Spoek: We vary. 

Do you have a regular place you play live often? Manteiga: No...we are travelling around the world, spreading the sound. 

What was your first gig like? Spoek: It was fun and nerve wracking. It was cool, but I am glad that we are well past that phase. 

What was your latest gig? Manteiga: Our latest gig was in Porto, where we performed to an ocean of people. Up to 20,000 screaming, dancing, singing people! They loved the show! It was magical!

Have you had to cancel a gig? Manteiga: No

Where have you played live this year? Manteiga: We've played a number of shows in Cape Town, Zurich, Berlin, Geneva, Paris, Sion, Saintes, Lisbon, Porto...and we still have many cities and countries on our list.

Where do you plan to gig the coming year? Manteiga: Every corner of the world if possible.

Where can people buy your merchandise? Manteiga: We have our album for sale online.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? Spoek:  I usually just want people to hear the music...I don't care how they hear the music.  

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Spoek: The industry is always changing. The internet has irreversibly changed the industry for better and for worse. 

Do you have any role models or idols? Spoek: Not really, no. 

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Spoek: I find the creative climate in 2016 very inspiring...sometimes it's hard to process the hundreds of thousands of groups in the world. 

What have been your biggest obstacles? Spoek: Getting our music on radio has been a huge obstacle. 

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Spoek:  If music is what you want to do...make sure you love music and the art that you are making. If so, then don't focus on negative feedback...keep doing what you love and persevere. 

Do you have any new material? Spoek: We just released our debut album, Musica da Terra in May. get it here--> https://itun.es/za/XPyLbb

What are your web sites?

FACEBOOK:   https://www.facebook.com/batukcollective/

INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/batuk_sa/

How can people reach you?  Manteiga: Via Facebook or Instagram. But for bookings [email protected]

What are your plans for the future? Spoek: We want to make music, film and theatre works expressing a fresh new Africa!!