We were lucky to catch up with Malaika Shongwe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Malaika, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

This is an easy one for me but something I’ve pondered a lot in the recent years. Meeting other families and meeting people with different upbringings have made me ask myself, what is a good parent and what is the role of a parent in a Childs life. I think the most important thing is support. Supporting your child if not financially (if that’s not possible), ensuring that your child feels safe to ask for your guidance and support. Being an artist has only been made possible with my parents support, from them taking my dreams seriously and encouraging me to be myself and follow my own path, they also ensure that I got the education, connections and guidance I needed. I feel sometimes that parents try to protect there kids and make choices for them sometimes but you are your own person and you are going to be out in the world on your own at the end of the day. My parents have set a strong president that what ever my dream, goals in life are, they are people I can always turn to. I realise that’s rare, but creating then support and trust has kept us close, kept my family close and helped build my confidence that I am not alone as I brave this world as my own.

Malaika, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a songwriter at heart. I started writing songs when I left home to go to bordering school and didn’t have as many people around me to talk to about the inner workings of my mind. I started writing journal entries, that turned to poems and those poems, paired with my love of music, turned into songs. With that being said I’ve always had music flowing through me, I would sing myself to sleep when I was a child and at times when I couldn’t find the words, I found a melody. I always felt that music had a more sincere way of expressing, where talking would fail, music has the power to make one feel understood and heard without years of knowing you or even speaking the same language.
I’ve always been a deep thinker and feeler and wasn’t interested in dabbling with things soon that deeper plane and so it is my safe space and truth and I wanted to be apart of that for the rest of myself.

I started taking music lessons, learnt piano and guitar and this all helped be the canvas for heart to speak through song. I was so excited by what I was creating and what others were creating that I decided to really put my all into this craft that I studied songwriting at Berklee college of Music. As I learnt more of the theoretical sides of music it opened me up to more music and more possibilities but that came with its challenges too. I was small fish in this big pond of the music industry and world and that can create doubt. I started to question if what I was singing was good enough and if I was good enough to carry such a powerful canal of connection. And that’s just part of the artist journey. That questioning and doubt, which I battled with throughout college. But music. Music was always there to catch me. Music It’s always been about truth, venerability, expression, exploration and feeling good and as long as you’re being honest and true to yourself you can’t make “bad” music.

Now I find myself doing what we all need to in adulthood and that’s connect with that inner child, that innocence, that little girl that just wanted to say cause melodies came easier than words. I realised that this is healing balm to the world. That bravery to be yourself and be honest cause that’s what the world needs. Now I make music that is true for me and I like to work with people that are willing to sit with that and just create from a space of exploration and vulnerability like we did we were children and it’s fun.

I’ve started exploring music therapy by working with elders in my day job to use to power of music to uplift their spirit and create an environment of sharing and community. I write songs with friends I’ve met through school and alone, I play solo shows with just me and my guitar around Boston where I live at the moment. I also sing in bands with musician that brings people together. I’m in the processes of exploring all facets of music and how it heals and im excited about the journey.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Yes! there is. I was speaking to my roommate who is lawyer about this. She said she’d always heard that being an artist can be challenging but didn’t really understand why. The truth is, until or unless you are a famous or popular artist you get paid gig to gig but even then those famous artist earn money from media above and beyond, album sales and touring or you are signed to a label and earn a salary. Creatives are entrepreneurs, it’s like selling jewellery at a market place, you are only earning with there are people buying and that isn’t constant sometimes but bills still are. So it’s about finding the ways you make money in-between those gigs. In todays society there’s also the blessing and curse of technology and social media. Now anyone can release music through distortion websites but you don’t earn as much money from just selling records, so you also need to be a social media promoter to get your music out there. The industry today is so quick and saturated that promoting and media it’s almost a science now. With that all being said for most artists also need an optimal space to create. Whether that’s for your state of mind, finding a space and peaceful place to sit with your ideas to let them grown but also finding a space that will fit the equipment you need. Once you’ve found all these things and you can “put pen to paper,” there’s still the long and expensive process that is recording the music. That takes musicians, engineers, producers etc. and that’s just pre-production. And all of this costs money that you may not have until you’ve made the record and start seeing the money from touring and streaming. It’s kind of like that whole debate of ” you need work experience to find a job but you need a job to gain work experience.” So there’s a lot of moving parts that need to be in place to make a track but even with that you need time. To explore, write, practice and make the to record too and time is a resource that not everyone has much of today.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I would say for me, earning money as an artist can be difficult when you’re starting off. Since leaving college, which hasn’t even been a year ago, it’s hard to immediately earn money from only being an artist somethings. I’ve learnt for me that it’s okay to do more than just sonrgwrtitng or being a working artist. So I’m exploring the different sides of the music industry and art industry to I can make an income but things that enhance my vision, values and goals. So I’ve been expanding on, yes songwriting and singing with bands but I also have a day job where I do social work, working with elders in community. I also found that writing music for producers or djs that need a singer on their tracks is also a creative outlet that has an entrepreneurial and is another form of income. I also have a lot of friends that teach voice and guitar lessons and that’s a great way to practice your craft, give back to the community and earn a living.

So for me the pivot was less of a pivot and more of an expansion. Keeping an open mind to what you can do and also keeping that curiosity of other interests can be helpful as art also needs space to breath and sometimes having time doing something else can be the life experience you need to pour into your music.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @laika_gee
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaika-shongwe-00858a253/

Image Credits
These pictures were taken by my friends and family :)