I’ve met with a lot of artists this year, visuals artists, designers, photographers, producers, musicians, the list goes on. I’m sure you’ve met a fair share of them yourself, everybody is trying to express themselves through their craft, the stories told by these bunch of creatives often resonate with their audience, or it can often mean something completely different depending on who’s engaging it. I caught up with Cape Town-based doctor, singer and dancer, Yanga Madlala, to talk about his journey into the music space and how he became Yanga YaYa.

We were initially meant to meet at Clarke’s on Bree Street until he called me to change the location to Yours Truly on Kloof Street. I get there and I wait for him a bit, I give him a quick call just to tell him I’m there, he picks up and says, “I’m just crossing the road, I’ll be there now”. He later pops up at the entrance in a cool stone wash denim biker jacket, we start looking for a space to sit, we go upstairs, on the stairway, some dude says to him, “cool jacket dude”, he chuckles and says, “thanks man” as we keep going looking for somewhere to sit. It’s not a very busy day at Yours Truly, well yet. It’s just a casual Thursday afternoon with a bit of a breeze and some afternoon sun. We finally find a spot to sit and he orders us some drinks. Yanga has a very introverted aura and seems to keep to himself. He describes himself as, “a bit of a nomad”, he was born in Mthatha, “I lived there till I was seven, then I moved to Bloem for about a year, then I moved to Durban, KZN to my dad’s side”. Yanga lived in Durban from the fourth grade and throughout his tertiary years.

Underneath his jacket is a sky blue shirt that reads Dr Madlala, Yanga had just came from his day job, he’s a general practitioner. He currently works for an NGO called Society for Family Health, it focuses on HIV. Yanga oversees male medical circumcision (MMC), speaking on his day job and the NGO he works for, “it affords me time”, depending on the number of appointments he has in a day, he’s then able to focus on making music after work or anything else along the lines of his music career or leisure. “Like today, I wasn’t sure whether I could meet you before three but I didn’t wanna say, ‘yeah sharp we can meet before three’ but generally I’m usually done before two” speaking on his flexibility at work. Before he became a doctor, Yanga had always wanted to pursue a career in music and he tells me about the time he told his parents his desire to study music, “having the hard chat with my parents that I wanted to do music. Mom was not having it, dad… dad is more like me in the family, very quiet, keeps to himself. He didn’t have much to say, mom is the strong force” he says. He finally decided to do Medicine at UKZN because, “it had the shortest course, which was five years”. This is where he met current friend and music collaborator Muzi, during their time together in med school, they recorded songs like Desire and many which we might never hear.

A few times during our conversation, we had to constantly relocate and change our tables due to the afternoon sun. We finally found a better spot, at the same time people were slowly coming in, with smooth upbeat ambient music playing in the background, it got more vibey but still maintained a sense of intimacy, “this is my favourite spot in town” talking about Yours Truly. Yanga took some time integrating into Cape Town after moving from Durban in 2013, he moved as a medical intern to finish his degree, “I had never been to Cape Town before, I wanted to experience the idea that I had, which was very artsy and alternative and very laid back”, when he finally got to Cape Town, he realised that it was very different from Durban in terms of lifestyle. The experience for him felt very weird. Over time, the West Coast city started feeling like home, “now I’m addicted to the city, I can’t see myself living anywhere else in the country”. Things like him being able keep a low profile, as well as the opportunity in terms of media and art spaces suit his personality and plays into his strength. “There’s a certain anonymity and invisibility that I like”, adding onto what makes him love Cape Town.

Yanga has steadily been focusing on his music career, releasing Desire which he collaborated on with Muzi, he later shot a music video for, which was done by Aubrey Ndiweni at the Atlantis sand dunes. “Muzi wasn’t there, I surprised him [with the video]”, Yanga has really managed to make the most out of what he has available to him, “I’m such a firm believer now of using what you have, and just like use what you can, as long as you’re producing and you’re doing something. That’s what I love about the internet age, literally anyone can do something”, touching on the minimalism of his music videos and the simplicity of his sets. Yanga later worked with Aubrey for the visuals of **It Happens, his first official single off his EP Elements. He explains the single, “it started off as journal entry, my life was a bit of a mess relationship wise, with everyone. It seemed like every move you do upsets everyone and everyone is at you and you just feel like [the] scum of the Earth”. Yanga felt like the common denominator around the things that weren’t going right in his life, “I was basically writing a letter to my younger-self. A lot of people think its about a romantic relationship”. Yanga has followed that up with the release of Plutonium, which is the second official single off Elements. He played the song for me off his phone, the release was a day after our interview.

Aside from his music career, Yanga is an avid dancer and likes to frequently upload dance clips on his Instagram, “I”ve been dancing as a kid, even before the singing”. Yanga says that he has learnt everything through watching imitating acts like Michael Jackon and Janet Jackson,“it’s my party trick, that’s the one thing I’m confident about, ukudansa [dancing] is what I do”. He also grew up wanting to dance on TV, fast forward a few years later, he’s on Shekhinah’s Please Mr music video last year, speaking on how he ended up on the video, he knew Shekhinah from his university days back in Durban, “she hit me up on insta like ‘hi Yanga, it’s so short notice, I was wondering if you could… like be in my video and co-star with Manthe [Ribane]’, I was like yeah okay sharp. It was in December, something of like next week.” They shot the video on his birthday in Johannesburg, he incorporated his own dance moves since he felt uncomfortable just walking around and wandering in the video, he had his friend Trevor Stuurman to support him. “I was very anxious in how it came out”, talking about the video. Speaking on his future dance ideas, “If I could even have a performance at a gallery where there’s a violinist or a pianist, where I can showcase, basically a live showcase”.

Yanga is currently working on his EP which is produced by Muzi, the EP is titled Elements and features Elements of Yanga YaYa. You can catch up with him on social media @yangamadlala

Make sure to also read the article where Yanga describes the cover art for **It Happens.