Artist Profile: Pops Mohamed

I first met Pops Mohamed in Cape Town in 2006 when I hired him to play on my soundtrack for ‘Without The King’ - a doc about the kingdom of Swaziland, as it was known at the time. He played the bow, the mbira, the flute, and a few other things. But what I’d never seen a South African play before was a Kora which he brought and played brilliantly. However, what really stood out for me about Pops was what a great collaborator he was. It was as though the man disappeared into the music. The ego became engulfed by the art. And that is the legacy of Pops Mohamed. He is a musician without judgement and with an incredible curiosity. He has traversed more musical styles than possibly any musician I’ve ever met. And his impressive discography is ample witness to that. I was fortunate enough to be able to have filmed this wonderful conversation with Pops in March 2022 in Boksburg, which is adjacent to Benoni where Pops and I were both born and bred. This is a fascinating sit-down with one of South Africa’s most treasured musical icons that touches on all things music, culture, art and travel. 00:00 Intro Play In 00:25 Introduction 01:59 Beginnings - Dorkay House 02:29 The Shadows 03:49 Start exploring indigenous instruments 05:19 Influences 07:45 Kalahari and the San mouth bow 09:41 Performance 10:39 Zawose Kalimba 12:00 Mbira vs Kalimba 13:35 Karimba 14:54 Performance 16:29 This melody that I’m playing… 17:39 Performance continues 19:23 Explaining the tuning 20:08 The Kalimba 20:33 Performance Kalimba 24:10 What the song means 24:56 Pentatonic tuning 25:20 Performance 27:59 With only five notes - what the song means 29:05 Travelling 30:14 The Sanza 32:01 Performance 33:12 Kind of bluesy 34:58 I’ll give you a little lesson 35:35 Performance 36:52 The musical bow 39:00 Performance bow 40:51 How it got it’s name 42:06 Tuning 42:48 I’m making a new bow - the Swati bow 45:35 Performance 46:32 Fitting a machine head 47:14 Your career - Robert Trunz and the MELT label 50:16 My first albums - recording with the San in the Kalahari 52:32 Where the fusion comes from 53:50 Reaching a younger generation 55:17 Performance 57:22 Wrap up