13 Nov 2014

When his age mates ventured into other vigorous genres of music like kwaito, house and hip hop music, Kago Thaelo found it fit to have his foot into a more sober genre, which he prefers to call Zion gospel. 

In an interview recently, Thaelo who is originally from Tati Siding said he drew his inspiration to sing gospel music from people’s bad experiences.

“I usually observe what other people go through and it is usually their bad experiences like divorce and passion killings that inspire my lyrics because the aim is to give them hope,” said Thaelo.  The 27-year-old artist said he believed that doing gospel music was his calling, which was discovered in 2010.

“I used to have dreams about myself singing gospel songs and I would get visions of what to sing about, that is how I got to release my first album in 2010,” he said. Thaelo said his album, which was titled God will make a way put him on the map as people got to know him through. 

The 10 track album included songs such as Atamelang go Jehova, which he wrote to encourage people to turn to the Lord in the midst of trials and tribulations. 

Another song in the album is Re baeti, which he said was to encourage people to be strong when they face death situations because death is inevitable. 

Other songs among others include Re tshaba mang go mo rosisa, Ga le mpotsa tshepo yaaka and the title track God will make a way. He said the title track, which has a video earned him public recognition as it was frequently played in the Botswana Television (Btv) programme,  Melodi ya Kgalaletso.

This year, Thaelo released another album in April, which he titled Re kopantswe ke Morena Jesu in which he collaborated with Mantshwabisi group. He usually performs during festivals and weddings and notes that the passion he has for what he does is what drives him.

“The most important thing for me is to spread the Word of God, making money is secondary,” he said.  Thaelo said it has not been an easy journey as he encountered challenges along the way, amongst them being insufficient funds during the production of his album.

He said another challenge was one of studio where he could not find the right people to record his kind of music. “I wanted to work with people who would do what I wanted, not what they wanted because this music came to me in visions. It was a calling,” he said.

As a message to the youth who would like to venture into the music industry, Thaelo said they should know that patience is required and they should have passion for music. ENDS