Music - John Ellis
Durban born and raised singer and songwriter, John Ellis, released his fifth full-length studio album, Native, on 27 April after an extended absence from the music scene. He formed his first band, Tree63 in 1997, and fronted it as it toured the world from its base in Nashville in the United States. After a few years of living there, he returned home in 2008 and went solo in 2010, but has not written or released any new music for the past 7 years. John has a separate career as an English literature lecturer, which he has been doing in Durban, but he's literally just moved to Cape Town where his children live. We're talking to him about the single, Be When Done, which is off his latest album. He says blues music has it origins in West Africa. "Hundreds of years later, modern popular music is still dominated by the basic patterns of blues music, and I find it fascinating that it all began in Africa. “Native” is about identity: what might modern African, and especially South African, blues music possibly sound like?" John is also a published poet. Single Be When Done dropped in March on all platforms. check out the song on Spotify and iTunes See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.