Karma: Comfort & Confusion

BY ULLA KELLY

Lucky America – for the past five years, it’s been home to one of South Africa’s finest singer/songwriter exports: Karma. A nightmare of a name to google thanks to Buddhism and hippies, let me quickly add that the Karma I’m talking about is Karma-Ann Swanepoel, formerly and famously of the South African band Henry Ate. They paid their proverbial dues in South Africa, had hits and albums and then Karma went off to the States to start touring hard and make a name for herself in the US. Anyone from outside the first world effectively needs to carve out their career twice in order to prove themselves and Karma’s doing just fine.

A fact that usually makes straight men and curved women very happy is that Karma is a lesbian. She doesn’t make a big thing of it herself and certainly doesn’t talk much about it in interviews, but she played London Pride this year and believes in equality. The reason I’m mentioning it here is that I’m one of those bent women who’s been cheerfully Bambi-eyed about Karma for many years. Also, I want you to get interested in her and go see her play, listen to her music online, join me in the stampede to get the new CD, “Papercuts” and fall in love with her voice and the words and the melodies she creates.

It’d also be very much worth your while to dig into the Henry Ate back catalogue, where songs like Hey Mister, Fat Lady and Just will hook into your brain and make you smile every time you find them in your head again. I’ve read Henry Ate described as pop and Karma described as folk, but those simple definitions don’t work for me, possibly because I have been far too biased a fan for so long. She has a very distinctive voice that is all her own.

This quote of yours, “I’ll listen to anything once…twice if I like it…three times if it makes me smile - forever if it breaks my heart!” - what kind of music is heartbreaking?
Probably the songs that sing themselves into your heart at times when your heart is listening - which is usually when you’re heart’s sore.

What’s your American fan base like?
Great - and it’s growing with every tour and every effort put in. My efforts in the States have all been tour based and therefore building an audience from the ground up - five years later I have managed to build a pretty solid fan base.

I believe you answer all your own fan mail every Friday - have you ended up with long-term correspondents?
Not really, I think I am lucky in that people seem - for the most part - to respect my privacy and once they get their answers they leave me to write more songs to confuse or comfort them further. There are the occasional “out of line” emails but they very rarely make it through to me.

Do you still get lots of fan mail from South Africa?
Yip - tons of it comes in. Facebook has also opened a door of opportunity for fans in South Africa to be kept up to date on what is going on this side of the world.

Is South Africa still home?
South Africa is the country that I come from and to that end will always be my home. At the same time America is where I live and work for the most part - it took me a long time to feel at home in America - and honestly I was very thankful when I started to feel more settled in here - I do consider America my home as well and am extremely grateful for the kindness and opportunities that I have received here.

What do you find attractive in a lover?
I like women who are beautiful, intelligent, kind, honest, and have a good sense of humor.

What are your views on celebrities and their sexuality i.e. privacy issues?
It really should be left up to the individual as to what they do and do not wish to discuss with the press. I don’t feel any sense of obligation to discuss my sexuality or private life with the press on a general basis and certainly steer clear of involving any friends or partner in these discussions when I choose to do the occasional interview. My personal view is that the only reason I am being interviewed is because I am a musician – so lets talk music!

What is your stand on the right to privacy in terms of media exposure, where do you draw the line on what fans are entitled to know and not know?
When someone says that fans are entitled to know is where I draw the line! This sense of entitlement is where things seem to go horribly wrong – I don’t feel I own my fans so why should they feel they own me and have the right to know anything and everything about me. My personal experience has been that – for the most part – my fans want to know about the songs, upcoming tour dates and new material I am working on – I have very rarely found them to be intrusive and entitled in any respect. I have and always will be an extremely private person – it’s just who I am and has little to nothing to do with my celebrity status - there are however many artists and public figures (I read US Weekly too) who choose - or don’t but seem to benefit greatly all the same - to further their careers through continuous and often shocking headlines in the press – that is their prerogative – for me personally I have the same view of the press as I do any other relationship – your freedom ends when it fucks with mine!

Now that gay marriage is legal in both SA and - until recently - was in California, would you ever consider it?
I don’t know – will have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

If you could change anything in your life, what would it be?
I trust that everything happens for a reason so I would be hesitant to change anything in the past, despite mistakes and regrets and I think I can honestly say that I am exactly where I need to be doing what I need to be doing today – so I wouldn’t change that either.

If you could change anything in the world, what would it be?
World poverty.

What does the future hold for you, musically?
I would like to further my skills as a writer and get more involved in writing songs for other artists. I am also working on several projects of my own at the moment that will hopefully see the light of day early 2009.

Where does your songwriting inspiration come from?
The world around me and the one inside my head. I have been writing since I was nine years old and not too much has changed about the process for me – I have obviously learned different techniques and styles etc. – hopefully even gotten better – but the process of writing and accessing the part of me that just allows words to flow out of me is the same. Often I am just commenting on where I am at, something I have witnessed, something I have felt, something someone has told me, something I have read or heard, something that bothers me, something that doesn’t etc. - you get the idea….

Do you edit much when you write songs?
With regards to the songs I write for me - not really – a word here and there. If I am not feeling it I am not feeling it – I write more in a process of flow. Getting involved in writing songs for others – especially when you don’t know who “other” is yet is a whole different ballgame!

What comes first: words or music?
It’s different with each song – sometime lyrics just jump into my head and I have to find a cool chord progression to fit and other times I have the chords and am strumming away and just start singing over them. Other times it comes to be simultaneously.

What does it feel like when you hear the song as a whole for the first time?
It’s the best feeling in the world – I love hearing my words and music come to life – and it’s even better if I can’t stop playing the song or get it out of my head – then I know that the song and I are at the start of a great relationship.

For more about Karma visit her online at http://www.theofficialkarmasite.com and http://www.myspace.com/karma.

Ulla Kelly is a South African writer and photographer with an interest in streets, people, and art. She has been published on various websites and in print magazines over the past decade or so. To view more of her work visit: http://excloset.wordpress.com.

Photos from http://www.theofficialkarmasite.com.

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