Q&A: meet Ms. Thandi, a genuine game changer

Sydney-sider Ms. Thandi has dropped an absolute cracker of a song in HUNNY. It is honestly one of the bests songs we’ve heard so far this year. It’s just so damn fun. The chorus is LIFE. Who doesn’t want to shake their booty all night long?

The newcomer has such a soft and beautiful tone of voice and sings with such creative flair.

Her debut track as a solo artist On The Table set the mood and got her off to a fire start. You can hear the old school influences in both tracks and they really get you excited for the neo-soul scene that seems to be emerging from Sydney.

The low key fashion icon dives into life in iso, describing performance via livestream to be such a different and honestly weird experience to not be able to see her audience. It’s a testament though to how resourceful we’ve all had to become in such strange times.

We had a chat with Ms. Thandi about new release HUNNY, her passion for music and what’s coming up later in the year for her.

Heres a little snippet of our chat:

For those who may not know you, who is Ms. Thandi?

I am she. I'm a Sydney based RnB/Soul artist who is addicted to love songs and escapism. In my music I honour Old Soul and in my life I am always late.

What drew you to the world of music?
I’ve been literally obsessed with music, both listening and creating, for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory is watching the first Australian Idol when I was 4 and telling myself that’s what I’m gonna do. My dad is a musician so I just grew up with such an appreciation for it. The first song I ever recorded was with him and some of my friends when I was about 7 (we won the school talent quest that year). So yeah from young I fell in love with creating music and how much freedom it gave me. I feel like I’ve just always understood it as my purpose.

Tell us about performing live and what it’s like, do you find it different performing via livestream?

Performing live is deffs my favourite part of being an artist. The stage has become somewhat of a home and safe space for me. I just love how live music can make people feel, I think it’s the most beautiful exchange of energy. I’m always so grateful to be apart of that.
My experiences with livestream have been… different. It’s pretty weird (and SCARY) to not be able to see my audience. I think it’s so awesome how everyone’s adapted to crisis and how much reach digital platforms have but I reeeeaalllly miss live performance. I must say I am keen to experiment with livestream platforms though.

We love your style, you’re so fashionable. What inspires you when creating your looks?

Thanks! I frkn love getting glammed up. I’m heaps inspired by 90s fashion, and I get a lot of inspiration from instagram. My best friend (and DJ) also helps style me for shows and shoots (@charlotte_edwige). I pretty much usually go for a cute balance of sexy-classy when putting an outfit together. I also work with hair stylist Laura Mazikana (@deeplyrootedhair) and makeup artist (@tinamattiartistry) for some of my looks - they so talented!

We LOVE the music video for HUNNY, such a genuine mood. Was it fun to create, what was the process like?

Thank you, and yep HUNNY is the biggest mood right now, I just wanna go out booty shaking with my girls!! That was so fun to create! It was my first music video, and I totally fell in love with the process. I had a pretty low key vision for the vid, I just wanted to capture genuine love between me and my girlfriends. I got @shylohhwolf on board to shoot and linked up with some of my favourite Sydney baddies. The second part was filmed at my 90s themed 21st party last year. So all that you see in the vid is real love.

Tell us more about HUNNY! We want to know where the song came from and what it’s about.

So I wrote this song after a trip to Berlin with my besties. We were all in a pretty shitty place mentally at the time, but we had the most amazing trip together going out, getting fucked up, dancing the night away, and just generally enjoying the temporary bliss. A couple of them had been living in Berlin so I hadn’t seen them in the longest time. It was really a special trip being reunited like that and I owe so much of my happiness to my sisters so I wrote this song to honour the love between us all.

Where’s your favourite place to listen to music and why?

My bedroom! I’m such a homebody and I love a good private dance party, or sad girl playlist session in my room (mood lighting is a must).

What’s the last thing you googled?

Nice hikes around Sydney to do. Need to wrap myself up in some nature ASAP.

Okay, so 1. What celebrity would you have over for dinner and 2. What are you cooking them?

At this exact moment in time, I’d have to say Jill Scott. I feel like she has a lot of wisdom to share. I’d cook toast, 2 scrambled eggs, and griiiiiiiits! (If you know, you know).

What’s your life motto?

To be fair I have a new life motto every other week but a huge life lesson that has remained totally relevant to me is to lean into fear. All my favourite successes have come from the times when something scared the shit out of me but I forced myself to do it anyways. So I’ve embraced fear as a motivator and it’s been the most liberating mindset.

Ms. Thandi couldn’t be more right about embracing fear and letting it become a source of motivation to help you succeed in life. We love her vibe and the energy she is putting out into the world right now and couldn’t be more excited to see how and where she takes her music in the future.

Check out Ms. Thandi’s track below or head to our Sunday’s R 4 The Soul 🎷playlist to hear more songs like this one.

By Samuel Seedsman.