Pretoria - From the age of 11, acclaimed drummer, producer and songwriter Lungile Maduna had an ear for sound.
He has been on a mission to develop that through his passion for music.
Having played with the best artists across the world, the 36-year-old has defeated all the odds and is among beat musicians that are moving up the ranks to dominate the glaringly difficult and cluttered industry.
Maduna has now played on five continents and in more than 25 countries, touring Europe with Eddie Grant and UB40.
Here at home he has played with legendary couple Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu, songstress Thandiswa Maswai and Siphokazi, to name a few.
He seized the opportunity to practise his passion more than two decades ago – in 1999 – in church when the drummer did not pitch in time for the Sunday service. On that day, he played like a man, well, in his case, a child, possessed.
“I didn’t have the know-how at the time. But when we changed churches and the resident band drummer, who was very talented, but always late, I took the chance.
“In one of the Easter Sunday services he was late again and I saw the kit. I saw the sticks and worked up the courage to ask the piano player if I could play with him.
“I was 11 and he looked at me and asked if I could play. There was no time to explain so I immediately said yes,” Maduna said.
After getting the nod from the band leader, Maduna closed his eyes and played brilliantly.
“I sat on the kit for the very first time and started playing with my eyes closed and when I opened them I looked at the band leader. He was smiling and so was the congregation. From there, I never looked back!” he said.
Maduna was born in a humble family in Vosloorus and raised by his mother, without his father, who had died in a car accident in 1992.
“I was raised by a strong woman who had to do it all by herself. She had the burden of raising my younger brother who was always sick and myself. She was an unemployed young woman, and observing her inspired me to never look at what I lacked, but look at what I have or been blessed to have, it made me embrace a life of gratitude.”
The father of two has recently got married and tells how he shunned the profession of engineering for his love of music.
“I remember having a conversation with my friends in matric, who were convinced I was making the wrong decision by choosing music. I don’t know if it was, but it has surely been a beautiful journey for me.
“Most of them were going to do engineering and I was among the top achievers of my class and they were convinced I was wasting away by choosing music, but having performed on five continents and in over 25 countries I am more than happy that I chose music.”
Maduna said his favourite artist and mentor was Neyi Zimu, who taught him drumming in his earlier years and recorded with him while encouraging him to think about writing music.
The drummer admitted that the glamour of performing on world stages came with its own challenges.
“There was a time we went to Bayelsa State in Nigeria with Kwela Tebza for movie awards and we were stranded for about four days due to the Boko Haram-related unrests.
“That gig was so chaotic that I even missed an opportunity to work on a film piece that Caiphus Semenya was doing on for a Mandela movie.
“I have not taken any gigs to Nigeria since because of dodgy promoters,” he said.
Maduna has set his sights on recording a DVD with Brilliant Baloyi while he writes songs in his spare time.
Pretoria News