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Shekhinah: Rose Gold isn't really about me


Cape Town - We recently had the opportunity to watch Shekhinah and her band do their thing live at the Red Bull Studios for a 5FM live session.

Performing songs from her new album, Rose Gold, Shekhinah and her super-talented band made it all look so easy. Belting out the catchy Suited, Different and Please Mr off the new album, Shekhinah proved why she’s on everyone’s lips right now.

After the performance, we got to sit down with the local singer to chat about the new album.

@rbstudioscpt for a live set by the talented Shekhinah on @5fm

A post shared by Channel24 (@channel24_sa) on

This is what Shekhinah revealed during our chat:

On the titled and sound of the album:

So the title just basically comes from the saying, seeing life through rose gold shades. Uhm, and it was inspired by a piece of music played by Scales and then I thought of rose gold, and I knew that rose gold was something that’s pink and just perfect and like you know, this gold colour. From there I realised that I wanted everything in my life to be rose gold. So I thought that I would name the album Rose Gold.

Rose Gold isn’t really about Shekhinah, it’s about a combination of sounds. The sound of the album is just a combination of everybody’s sound, you know. It’s not really something that is my genre, it’s everybody that contributes to the album. It’s like Sketchy Bongo on track one, it’s his vibe with me. And on track two the sound is the boys’ vibe with me. And the rest of the songs are also theirs, but like you know what I mean, it’s a combination of everybody’s sound that ends up becoming Rose Gold, you know? 

On how the song magic happens:

I write all the music. But obviously the music has to be inspired by the sound, which is the instrument. And then I have two producers that kind of lived at my house for six months. And their girlfriends hated them, but I appreciate that y’all, I really do appreciate that. Ja, so basically two producers in one house, one flat, two producers and a vocalist and writer. So the three of us, we just all play our parts, I just sing and write the music and they just record the vocals and produce the music, making the songs. Like some of the songs they sat with for weeks and weeks and weeks and didn’t know what to do, uhm, so it was a very long process. 

On how long it took to create the album:

In January, that was when we got all our deadlines from Sony. I think Please Mister I wrote in third year, a couple of the songs I wrote in third year, which was 2016. So a couple of the songs were written in 2016 and then it was kind of easy to start afresh with making the album in January. Sony kind of said, we need the single by March, we need the album by August… No pressure at all! And it was really tough, because everybody has other things to do.

On what inspired the songs:

People, everybody, relationships, uhm mostly, because we’re young you know. Still trying to find that special somebody… so it’s mostly inspired by love and how we feel and a lot of women empowerment, obviously, because I write… uhm, ja, love, women empowerment.

On what would make someone perfectly suited:

Someone that is… ooh how can I say this now…. That’s such a great question by the way! Damn! It’s too much… Someone that’s a loving person, just a person that can love, that’s all, would be suited for me.

On the most challenging part:

Decisions I guess. Like saying yes or no. And letting the song go, like putting it in a folder and saying that it’s done. It was very difficult. There was a day when were like, it’s fine take that song out! Cut it out! Take that song out! Take that song out! There were like a couple of songs that had to bounce, because they weren’t finished. The album was supposed to be 16 tracks and now it’s like 11. 

On what’s next:

We’ll be everywhere, all over South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland. We got a few cool things and then we will be here, in Joburg at the end of the year. 

For more info on gigs and music like Shekhinah's Facebook page or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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