“My Drum is Love” is a song about following your heart, spreading love, and the message of intentionally building a world that is beautiful for everyone. Dancing to the drum beat of love.
More info about “My Drum is Love”
The song and music video have spent almost a year in production from conception to a cross country collaboration between Cape Town, Soweto and Durban to birth the song and music video. The sound of “My Drum is Love” has been described as akin to Freshlyground and has its own undeniable South African pop flavor that just makes one want to spread LOVE, break down cultural barriers, uplift each other, ourselves and dance.
Produced by Willem Möller – who has worked with South African greats including James Phillips, Johannes Kerkorrel, Koos Kombuis and Blues Broers, and backed Rodriguez on his first tour of South Africa in 1998.
Written by Cami Scoundrel – activist/musician – She believes that creatives have a role in society and that role is to spread positive values, stories and morals, that work towards building a cohesive and peaceful society. This is her passion – building a healthy regenerative and sustainable self, community and earth.
She believes this song embodies these principles and is using the song and music video as a vehicle to launch a fund-raising campaign to uplift Mxolisi Primary School in Soweto. With the aim to carry on the campaign to other schools in South Africa – Because The Youth Are The Future.
“My Drum is Love” features Buyisiwe Njoko of The Sun Xa Experiment, who deliver “a spiritual ancestral sound that tells of stories of who we are as the global community without race, color or nation.”
Cami was jamming the song in the kitchen one morning while Sun Xa were on tour in December 2021 and staying in her house, Buyi started singing a response in Zulu while making breakfast for the band; they performed it that night at Mpire Music in Woodstock.
As Cami was leaving to work with a counter-poaching unit on the border of Limpopo and Botswana a few weeks later – the song was recorded with Willem Möller – motivated by The Feminists – Scoundrel’s band; featuring Derek Craig on drums, Mike Hardaker on lead guitar and Craig McKune on bass.
The recording was then sent to Scoundrel’s long time musical collaborator Matt Vend who recorded Njoko’s vocal lyrics while she was in KwaZulu-Natal. Buyi was flown down to Cape Town from Soweto and the music video was shot DIY in Cami’s spare room by Jaqcui van Staden who is the eye behind many iconic images of South African musicians including Blk Jks, Karen Zoid and Wonderboom.
But just releasing the video or the song is not enough for Scoundrel and Njoko whose roots are firmly grounded in healing and activism
“We want to use this song to raise funds to uplift as many schools as possible, starting with Mxolisi Primary in Soweto – where Buyi is a teacher and her Sun Xa Experiment bandmates have started a food garden.” Scoundrel explains, “and then carry on the project with a second school in Limpopo, that the International Coalition of Ranger Protection (ICORP) works with.”
The upliftment program will involve a weekend festival of creativity and practicality working with Grow Community Grow, SA Permaculture, ICORP, Flowers for Africa, Digging Thoughts and other facilitators – fixing toilets, windows, painting class rooms and the school’s outer facade, facilitating mural painting, permaculture, healing and creative workshops for the staff, students and parents to empower the community to empower themselves, and at the end of it all have a mini festival of music to celebrate and bring the community together further in their achievements.
They have a dream, that dream is for everyone to be dancing to the drum of love and join them in building a world where intention is true.
Donate to their Quicket fundraiser. All proceeds will go to uplifting and regenerating Mxolisi Primary and beyond.
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