Get familiar with Trailblazing South African musician Moonchild Sanelly, with this VIPER Presents interview…

What five words define your sound?

Authentic, futuristic, liberating, freeing and necessary. 

Tell me something unique about creative process

Whenever I go into the studio to write a song with anybody or even just by myself, without thinking about it I always picture the crowd singing along to the music for the first time they hear it. So my hooks are always inclusive, no matter where you’re from in the world, it’s this picture I always have, of the crowd seeing and hearing me perform the track for the first time.II always envision the crowd. I just want us to be one!

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

I think ‘In My Kitchen’, because it’s hot and it kind of sets the tone. It’s energetic, it’s got everything. I’m just a bad b*tch, which just sets the tone of what I stand for. It’s a bad b*tch anthem! But it’s so hard to choose, honestly.

What inspired you to make that song?

I think I was literally inspired to make this song by me being a bad bitch. Also being able to be humble within all of that… I’m a bad b*tch because I make the cookie, I make the sausage, I make the sausage in the kitchen. It’s my rules, my rules, my rules, yet I still stay humble but not in my kitchen.

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?

With this project there’s definitely a lot of vulnerability that exists because of the fact that there’s a lot of situations that I definitely didn’t pay attention to, because I was focused on the goal and there’s a level of safety now that you can hear in my music. 

I was able to be vulnerable, as someone who ran away from home, looking in the mirror and having that conversation, even though I’m hard and a bad b*tch, just having that honest conversation with myself, whether I supported my family or not, the moral of the story is I’m scared of falling, I’m scared of losing. I know my family is looking.

What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?

Oh my god! The best experience I have had on stage is when people are literally singing along to records that aren’t even out yet. It is the most humbling thing to see, it’s so wild, I can’t get used to it, I appreciate it so much, it’s just like seeing the love in real life.

What is your favourite song to perform?

Although it’s not out yet, I would say ‘Falling’, because it speaks to so many people, whether your situation is positive or negative. It instils such a positive message in a way that embraces vulnerability, reality and living in your power.

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?

I’m not sure which artists per se, but I did grow up listening to South African icon Brenda Fassie, Spice Girls, Destiny’s Child,  Dr Dre, Eminem, I grew up listening to music. I always knew I was going to be doing art, it wasn’t specifically being an artist, but it was the freedom I had in my house, where art was seen but wasn’t treated like a hobby. As a kid I grew up in front of the camera, as a dancer, model and choreographer, it was one of those things where I grew up doing talent shows at 4 years old, music was literally in my house, there was no escaping it. Music and art is respected where I come from, so I was always going to shine. I was allowed to express myself and have that freedom. Knowing my purpose is literally because I lived around music, I even had a keyboard as a kid, so I would say it all started in my house.

What’s the meaning of your name?

I’m from the Xhosa tribe in South Africa, my mum had powers, like she could see stuff, she had the gift, you could call it clairvoyant, but in Xhosa it’s like Inyanga  she was a healer. Inyanga in Xhosa is the moon and it’s also the same word for a healer because I’m the child of a healer, I went with Moonchild instead of healer’s child.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

If I wasn’t making music? I studied fashion design, I’m a fashion designer, I’d be doing art somewhere, I love the way the mind works, I love making change and psychology is one of my favourite things, I love figuring out the mind. I would have found a different signature in whatever situation I’d express, driven by the psychology of wanting to evoke the liberated spirit, joy and freedom, while remembering your power.

What’s success to you?

Success to me is living your wildest dreams and not having to have a side job to survive because you treat your art as a hobby. Success to me is my life right now, I am living my wildest dreams and it only gets better. Success to me is what provides you joy and you being great at that, the money will come. Success to me is my true authentic self, not feeling like its a job to wake up because of a big check that looks like success to someone else. But being ready to wake up before your alarm goes off because you’re so excited, and it doesn’t feel like a job to work overtime in your element and where your dreams are… That is success to me.

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?

I actually never changed direction, I’ve always been intentional. A moment in my life that stamped what I actually stood for is during the period of feeling liberated, I was feeling liberated through my poetry, through everything I’ve ever done, that’s a consistent theme in my life because that’s who I am, there’s no change there’s just growth.

Where can people keep in touch with you?

People can find me on all my social media platforms at Moonchild Sanelly and the best place would be my website Moonchildsanelly.com. That’s where everyone can find me. I hope you enjoy the music with the album coming out soon. I’m super excited, thanks for having me!

Photo by Grace Pickering