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Presss starts afresh to reclaim the music spotlight

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Presss
Presss

PRESTON 'Presss' Sihlangu is back in the music industry to revive his career. Some might recognise him from the Coca Cola Pop Stars group, 101, which took the South African music scene by storm. Sadly, the group split and the members decided to focus on their individual careers. The father-of-three, who is recently divorced, took over the airwaves with a hit track Thojana Ya Thesele, and has proven that the game is still in his hands. The singer and songwriter released his latest offering with Afro-Pop soul called Evolution of Love, and people love it.

BIG MISTAKE 

Presss talks about his biggest challenges and regrets of signing to Arthur Mafokate at the recording label 999. “After I left the group to focus on my solo career, I came across a number of recording companies that wanted to give me a deal. The biggest mistake that I have ever made was signing with Arthur Mafokate,” says Presss. He says Arthur’s intention was to replace Ishmael with him after he (Ishmael) had left the recording company. Presss says this was unfair because Ishmael’s music was way different. “I wanted to do an R&B album but Arthur had a different idea which actually affected my craft. I released an album that I produced myself but it was biased because Arthur didn’t give it the right push, and didn’t even give it proper marketing,” he says.

LOSING EVERYTHING

He blames Arthur for not giving him an opportunity to explore his talent further. “I was angry at myself where I even lost focus. I lost everything to a point where I had to sell my car to be able to bury my mother,” he says. “I had to use public transport and I was mocked by people. Some would ask me what happened and with all of that I decided to quit music.” The singer says things were really bad and he decided to go back home.

PICKING UP THE PIECES

In 2009 his friend helped him out financially and luckily he owned a studio which he gave it to Press. “I started doing a lot of production to push a lot of local artists. My friend gave me a chance and told me when I am ready I must just do what I was really called for,” he says. Presss started recording in 2015 and admits that his three children made him reconsider going back to music. He says he decided to release a double album that had R&B and Afro Soul. “I decided not to sign with any recording label and did everything by myself. I had to sell the music from my car’s boot and it worked,” he says.

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