Destiny is a funny thing – we tend to believe it is a pre-conceivable, logical array of variables that just unfold before us – and we, in many ways, are just the participating observer along for the ride. For Kamohelo Khoaripe, his destiny surely began in Johannesburg – but it has since come to be realized nearly 10 000 km away in the city of Stockholm, Sweden. With an impressive career behind and ahead of him, Kamo is the frontman for electro quartet Off The Meds alongside Adrian Lux, Carli Löf, and Måns Glaeser, and as well as a notable solo musician and performer. A relationship led Kamo to move to Stockholm around 2014, and while he may have had some inner murmurings about music – it certainly hadn’t manifested outwardly yet – and not until a recording of Kamo freestyling was played in the early hours of a messy house party. Adrian, Carli and Måns couldn’t believe the flow coming from their friends’ being – and soon after, Kamo was in the studio (specifically, Studio Barnhus) with them, bringing Off The Meds into being. What makes their arrangement so spectacular is certainly the contrasted drowsiness and acceleration of sonic sound-scapes in their tracks, but perhaps more so intriguing is Kamo’s lyricism; verses written almost entirely in an amalgamated Zulu-Tsotsitaal-English – a kind of cultural experimental with little intent other than to harness the most expression from each member of the band.
Kamo is currently at home in Joburg, honing in on his own set of collaborations while preparing to release Off The Meds’ next EP – the first in two years since their debut, self-titled album in November 2020. In asking Kamo about finding music halfway across the world, he says; “Yeah, I was speaking to a friend of mine the other day about that. I think it was meant to happen this way, and that maybe being in a city that wasn’t my home allowed me to take more of a risk – I really got to venture into this with friends, through relationships made in each other’s homes post-rave or post-party – and I think when you move away from home, you already have to channel a lot of courage to make it happen.” A strange alchemy came out of the pandemic, in which our world was shocked to its core – but in a slightly “positive” way, it has meant a lot of personal re-assessment for creatives regarding their output, and on this Kamo adds, “I am in no rush, really. I have been able to make so much music in the last few years, and now being at home in Joburg, I am with family, friends – taking my time, and being able to relax. I am in a zen-state here in South Africa, because even though Joburg is wildly fast-paced – like the New York of Africa – it’s also my home of origin, so I can approach my time here however I want. I have two cities defining me and my style, Stockholm and Joburg, and I think both places serve different purposes, beyond comparison to each other.” I am curious to know the pace though – it seems quite unusual to spend the success of their album relatively quiet on the production front – and Kamo explains, “The industry in South Africa is modeled after the USA or UK, in which hype is maintained through constant output and pushing out work. It’s totally different in Sweden and most of Europe; we could take two years to go off on our individual paths, and yet work on the upcoming EP within a very comfortable timeline.’’When it comes to holding together a cross-continental music collaboration, Kamo says their experience as Off The Meds has been decidedly seamless, “I think our friendships are only really tested when it comes to choosing song names. It’s such a draw factor, and sort of like the crown you place on top of this snippet of work – so I think that’s when tensions rise, which is ironic as it appears as the easiest part.”
A crazy turn of events occurred last year during the Swedish Grammy’s – known simply as Grammis – in which they walked away with the award for the Electro/Dance category – Kamo says, “I couldn’t believe it. We won the award and yet nearly all the songs are in Zulu / Tsotsitaal – it’s so beautiful, because it is a reminder that music transcends boundaries. When we play live, people are singing along to my lyrics – and my language – and it’s as if they know what every word means. I think this is cultural sharing in the way it’s meant to be.”
For now, Kamo is in that liminal space of creating and releasing. Working on his DJ persona, Michael Dangerous, the pursuit is to ride this wave and share all the parts of himself that he can – no boxing in or reducing to one single thread of who he is – here at home, and beyond.
We are super honoured to offer a special playlist curated by Kamo for Connect Everything Collective – a mixture of his current state and taste, from South Africa to around the world. Put it on and kick back at this link here.
Written by: Holly Bell Beaton
