Award-winning singer Donald, known for his sultry and passionate love songs, has challenged himself by jumping onto the Amapiano genre with his latest album Dreams that officially dropped, on Friday.
The ten-track album, heavily influenced by the new-age sound, is a mash of his own signature sound on the yanos, which he says almost creates a new sound entirely.
Although the star says the project was more about having fun and celebrating where he is in life, it doesn’t take away from his modus operandi of how he has always made his music - by looking inward for inspiration.
He features a handful of Amapiano artists like Lady Du, Boohle, Robot Boii, and international singer-actor Jussie Smollett who is known, popularly, for his role in the American hit series Empire.
“Jussie is on a song that actually puts the whole story together, which is the title track of the album. And while people find my music and everything that I do as entertainment, and sometimes even find jokes within it, but for me, it’s the real world.
Donald shares that his past albums were all oddly inspired by the same relationship that has been on-and-off for 10 years. “My music comes from a real place. I write about experiences.”
In this seventh instalment, like his past five albums, he says he brings forth the most vulnerable part of this journey with a certain woman.
“I can jokingly say that my entire career is inspired by one person, and with this album, I am expressing it a little bit further than the other five albums I had released,” adding that the first album was the only one not inspired by his love-affair.
“In 2006, I met a very special woman whom I fell extremely in love with, and for me. I honestly feel like that was the beginning of my life. That’s when I started feeling like, ‘Oh my gosh! Being alive, is beautiful’, and it was from the unfortunate experiences between me and her that have created this artist that everyone knows now.”
In 2014, he says, he started to have vivid dreams about the said lady which have never stopped to date and he has even sought therapy.
“And that is the only reason why the album is called Dreams or even why the song exists. The first line of the song says ‘If I showed you all of my dreams, would you still believe we are not meant to be’, my true feelings of what these dreams have been on me (sic) to date and the impact that this relationship has had on me.”
The singer, real name Donald Moatshe, 36, says although in his past interviews he never expressed the real stories and inspirations behind his music, he is laying all things bare in his latest album.
“This particular relationship has been very tough, very long with its own pockets of beautiful nuances, but also, almost every toxic - you know. Going in and out of each other’s lives and not being able to get it right. But has been my dream to find myself with this woman and be with her for the rest of my life. Although I am not really huge on the idea of marriage, I was willing to even make her my wife.”
The unpredictability of that relationship gave Mzansi hits such as Over the Moon, In denial, I Deserve, and Landela, among the plethora of songs that he has released, to date.
“That relationship has really affected my life in every possible way. Every direction I have taken, what I have decided to do about my life has really been all about it,” he says, adding that he has remained single for the past six years, straight, to deal with that relationship, but to also enjoy his life and his career. It is that phase in his life that has given birth to the album, Dreams.
“I have very little to prove as an artist right now. I think I have done so much already, whether people feel it’s been enough or not, but I’ve achieved things that I have never imagined and God has shown me a different level of life through the gift that he has blessed me with. I am in a good place and I really having fun. That’s why I can go into the studio and mess around with Amapiano without feeling like I am selling myself short or trying to prove something,” he adds.
Donald has already released two songs - Colours and Nkanyezi, from his latest album, which he says are being received well.
“I am proud of the work I have put out. I am proud of my own growth and how far I have come. I am very proud of my team for making my vision a reality, and although slightly nervous about sharing so much about myself, it really doesn’t help to hold anything back.”