Album dedicated to Sereetsi’s father
GOSEGO MOTSUMI
Tomeletso Sereetsi has titled his highly anticipated sophomore album Motoko. Mokoto which is the name of his father and a Serolong word which means ‘praising someone’, from ‘Go Toka’. The album which will be released end of April, pays homage to the guitarist’s father who allowed him to bring home the instrument which was an object of scorn, as Music was not highly regarded as a career back then.
“The guitar was highly taboo then. Guitarists were seen as good-for-nothings obsessed with alcoholism, and womanising and almost all of them were poor, had no homes, and they would hop from one drinking hole to the other paid with food and booze,” Sereetsi explained.
Like his debut, Four String Confessions, Motoko is produced by Sereetsi and Swedish drummer, producer and engineer Mikael Rosen. The album also raises everyday issues around people; happy love, tragic love, disruptors of normalcy, of love relationships as we know them like the dolls. Some songs call for a return to basics, the need to grow our own food, the need to ensure no one is left behind, socio-economically speaking, as we seek to advance our society. Others discourage laziness and encourage the able-bodied to stand up and win the future for themselves, their children and their communities.
Moreover, all the songs were written and arranged on the four-string guitar which remains the heart of the Sereetsi & The Natives’ sound. “I hope that the new music will stretch the rhythmic and melodic conversations set off in Four String confessions and win us more natives to the fold while retaining the ones who have been solidly behind us for the three or so years since the debut,” he opined.