Collaborating sees artists 'seeking the light'

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The versatile Petronel Baard, a well known cabaret diva, regularly experiments with various genres, but ever since her young days in Johannesburg, she has always aspired to working in the deep house/trance genre.

Little did she know an opportunity was on the cards for her.

In 2018 she came across Gavin Jay and DJ Keyz through a mutual friend, Walter Blaq from Crystal Blaq Entertainment and the founder of the culture forum, MOCCA (Mossel Bay Creative Cultures Association), where Petronel is currently very involved.

Blaq, as well as the group, was part of the Soul Festival 2018 hosted in Mossel Bay.

Here, artists shared a multi-cultured stage with Riku Lätti and Friends on Die Wasgoedlyn.

Performances at the Soul Festival were recorded – a show of almost seven hours long. A documentary was put together by filmmaker, Efpe Senekal, who would eventually film Seek The Light, a collaboration of Baard and Gavin Jay.

Since that festival, Petronel wanted to work more closely with these artists, for it to form part of her theatre development efforts.

During August 2019, Petronel paid Gavin Jay and DJ Keyza a visit in KwaNonqaba, Mossel Bay, and Seek The Light was born. The song was released on Worker's Day, 1 May 2020.

“The song is about poverty and social class division. It boasts a house/trance style, something totally different to what I am used to. Gavin Jay is a phenomenal rap artist and our voices complement each other, which makes for a very interesting end result,” Baard says.

“I was blown away on that sunny afternoon when the producer, DJ Keyz, showcased what he had done with Gavin Jay’s music. I improvised five or six layers of my own classical style music over the modern music. We just played around, but because of my classical training, the words, 'seek the light', just came to me.

"During that moment, the lyrics referred to what I saw around me - strength and pride, despite poverty. We have to seek the light and accept and understand one another’s reality - something that became very clear now, during Covid-19."

Gavin Jay added his rap and a genre of deep house/trance, mixed with hip hop, was born. The five or six layers which Baard then recorded over this, ultimately became the song, written by the artists and recorded, mixed and produced by DJ Keyz.

"Every day you live and die ... every day you try and try ... every day you die and try and die ... seek the light".

Watch the video which was put together by Rapid Digital SA, which used both home and internet videos: https://youtu.be/RtPNlGMfnRs.

Gavin Jay