Already a superstar in South Africa, Lira is a looking to make it big in the US in 2012. Her introductory album for the US market, Rise Again, released on 31 January, contains tracks from her four platinum-selling albums in South Africa. She spoke to The Africa Report.
You've had a platinum-selling album in South Africa, why are you looking to the US?
It's just spreading my wings, just expanding my horizons. I've done so much here and I do have pockets of fans all over the world. I'm choosing the States as a focal point over the next few years.
How are things different in the US from in South Africa?
One of the biggest differences is that the States are so much bigger and the market is saturated in my opinion. There are so many artists, whereas in South Africa there's just a handful of us that are really making it big. So competition is of a very different scale. In the States, there's obviously greater competition. In the States, there's something unique that I have to offer from virtue of where I come from, but also the story that I have to share, from a South African point of view.
What got you into music?
I released my first album in 2003 through an independent label here in South Africa. There was a two-year gap. The album didn't do so well, but also I feel that the market wasn't ready at the time. I did a lot of growing as a person. This was like a time where female artists were emerging in the SA soul genre. It was really new at the time, there weren't so many artists doing that kind of thing.
By the time I released my 2006 album called Feel Good, I really got lots of success. My career just skyrocketed from there. I feel like there was a lot groundwork done in between. I'd become more comfortable with who I am and what I had to offer. I didn't want to fit into the mould as such, I was very determined to do what I feel came more naturally to me. I wanted to tell stories, I wanted to relay messages.
I have a huge female following. The songs are celebratory, they're empowering, inspirational. The song 'Feel Good' was featured in the Girlfriends (TV series) sound track in the States, and it also became the first South African video to be played on VH1 in the States. I was having lots of little successes over the years. It marked a big change for me in my career, and I think African female artists who are in the afro-soul genre.
Where does the inspiration for your lyrics come from?
I experienced a little bit of apartheid. I'm part of the transition. We're defining who we are as young South Africans. We've always been known as this country that experienced apartheid and I think our elders are these freedom fighters. Now that we're free, I feel like people say 'My god, what do you do when you are free? What do you do with the freedom?' There are lot of things that we've had to overcome.
I find that there's still some legacy issues with apartheid and people are just not sure where to take this journey. My feeling is we can take it wherever we please. It's the confidence of defining who you are. We have the freedom of saying this is who we are, who we want to become.
My music is inevitably influenced by a lot of American soul music, like Stevie Wonder, and Nina Simone. I remember clearly Nina Simone growing up, a lot of her music was around – even Aretha Franklin. Songs like 'One Day We'll All be Free'. Songs like that, I know were a great comfort to our elders during the apartheid period. At some moments, it seemed like it gave words and meaning and melody to what people were feeling, but could not articulate.
I just saw how music seemed to soften people. It made them gentler, it gave them an escape. I want to be able to do that with music. But our struggles now are different from our forefathers, because we're not struggling with a freedom of rights. It's a freedom of freeing the mind. Of just allowing yourself to express that which you are. When I sing about 'Feel Good', it's literally allowing yourself to enjoy the joys of life. Because sometimes people are so used to strife, that sometimes you act a certain way out of habit, where you have a better and higher a choice.
Is the record you're releasing in the US a new album?
We're referring it to Rise Again, but it's a combination of songs from the Feel Good album, and from the current album, Return to Love. Because mainly it's the introductory album. I already have fans that love this music and I didn't want to not give them that in their respective countries. So I felt it was good to include all the songs that people resonate with.
You've done tours in Zimbabwe and Botswana. Have you ever gone up further, to Kenya, Nigeria?
I've done Nigeria. I'd love to do Nigeria again, I had such an awesome time. I've done Benin, Accra in Ghana, I've done Zanzibar. I've done Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Angola.
Is the tendency for South African musicians to try and make it big in Europe and the US rather than do concerts within Africa?
It's been hard sometimes to find venues to match the same production quality of the shows. It's very compromising if an environment is not right sometimes. I found in Kenya it became insanely expensive, just in terms of – the venue wasn't quite right. In terms of production, you need a nice stage, you need nice sound. People pay good money to watch us do our thing, so we want to ensure they have good equipment, or at least a good production. Those have been some of the challenges that we've had, so sometimes we've had no choice but to latch onto festivals that already exist. But it's difficult to have a full on show. For me that's actually the ultimate dream at the moment, the next mission, is to go on an African tour.
When?
I think 2013. It's going to be quite hard. The music industry in Nigeria is currently run differently from the one in South Africa. Either you have to allow yourself to be pirated... those are some of the things that are causing problems in us being able to release an album, it being available throughout the continent. I don't think there's anything stopping us from having concerts. The only problem comes from setting up proper production. Some promoters just really skimp on production, which compromises the performance.
