We had the good fortune of connecting with Piwai and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Piwai, we’d love to hear more about your end-goal, professionally.
I don’t want to be a professional in the long run, I am building an empire, or so I think 🙂  so my goal is to do all the work now, while enjoying the fruits of growth and then fully enjoy the empire, while i have it run by some amazing professionals. My music is timeless and on the way to be a household name, Ja!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am still on my artistic journey! I hail from Wedza and Harare, Zimbabwe, where I grew up. It was a bit shunned upon to be a female musician, more so to play in bands. There was a stigma back then, so when I decided to be full on artist, singing, dancing and touring with bands and dance companies and wow even playing the mbira(known as the thumb piano in English), it was quite the coming out! Unfortunately western colonialist thinking had for years vilified the mbira instrument and i had to have a whole mental, historical journey and dealing with unaccepting or curious friends and family. I have fully accepted my identity and proud to fly high the beautiful music of southern African people. Growing up I longed to travel across Africa and so I began learning music via a TV program called URTNA, which show cased music from all over Africa. If you know this, you may guess how old I am! Anyhoo, I picked up various languages from songs I heard on URTNA and perfected the reading of a few languages via our local duo lingo cereal boxes!, In my mind that was the ultimate world travel and as I think about it i have sang in Shona, Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa, Lingala, Yoruba, Swahili, Ladina, Georgian, Spanish, French and English. Still working on few more. My traveling the world through song and learning language through music even became more poignant when I toured and performed with various bands after I moved to the US a few years go. To date i have played on a few major stages, performed alongside and opened up for big acts. My favorite part of this journey is being asked to play some supporting percussion on the 2016 Grammy Award winning album “Last Days Of Oakland” by Fantastic Negrito, who I met while walking home from work. His studio was a block from my old apartment. Now I am poised to wrapping up some releases of some new music, EPs and singles. I am excited to announce that I will be dropping the last volume of my African Turquoise album (Vol III-Complete Collection) and a few other collaborative songs. I am also excited to launch my new merch “Training Mode” which folks can get through www.piwaiofficial.com or nendoro.co

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live the Bay Area now and so I would hit up some amazing world and world class eateries in Oakland, Berkeley and Ell Cerrito and Albany, then do some wine tasking rooms in Oakland and up in Sonoma, and Paso Robles, Temecula. I would give on experiential beach excursion to Stinson beach, go to Saulsalito, then do a little bit of San Diego (Oceanside and La Jolla). Bay Area tacos are dime a dozen and wouldn’t mind hitting up a few for some lengua tacos! I am such a party pooper so for late night I would do my 5min “show my face” at Au Lounge and Zanzi Bar in Oakland and perhaps do a little Amapiano, Afrobeat and hang out with some of my favorite DJs, DJ K.La.V, DJ Claude The Black Bangando, DJ Elembe, DJ Xander and DJ Slim.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Cynthia Obleton, Sankofa Braiding. cinapobleton@yahoo.com

Website: www.piwaiofficial.com

Instagram: @piwaiofficial

Twitter: @piwaiofficial

Facebook: @piwaiofficial

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa8Xx8qzmC_Mqv2O9YCmUTA/about

Other: https://linktr.ee/nendoro https://linktr.ee/nendoro?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=b06e58c5-6b59-478f-a3c0-5a988f0cb74f

Image Credits
Photos: Patanaisha Alia Williams Ayamo Media Logo: Alexander Haabasland Book: Maximo Selfie

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.