lordkez’s music is that splash of colour when all else seems grey.

Written By Sizwe Shabalala

Every now and then, we are introduced to artists who offer something very unique to the music industry; something so undeniably good you can’t help but feel like they will be around for a long time. Here in South Africa, we can say this about a few artists who have come up in the last few years and one of those artists is Keziah Meyers, also known as lordkez. Born in Kimberley, now based in Johannesburg, the genre-fluid musician has been able to patiently build a strong foundation for her music, one which now allows her to operate on her own terms.

Living in the age of social media, we now have a lot more options when it comes to the content we consume and music is no different. If you are a consumer, you are spoiled for choice and of you are an artist, you have more avenues at your disposal to get your music out there. The downside to this is that sometimes your music can get lost in the noise of the oversaturated market. An artist such as lordkez, who is so intentional with how she approaches her art has the ability to create her own lane and shift the culture without having to compromise her artistic integrity. It has taken a lot of trial and error for her to reach this stage where she is now in control.

“Coming up, I wanted to do Fine Arts, fashion, teaching, and a whole bunch of other things but it wasn’t until I started making music and releasing it on Soundcloud that I felt so sure of what I really wanted to do with my life. The turning point was when my mom gave me the green light to really pursue this passion. She has always been very supportive. Even when I enrolled to study sound engineering only to dropout 6 months later, she supported me and always reaffirmed my dreams of becoming a recording artist. This is such a difficult industry to break into and just having her by my side every step of the way has made all the difference.”

When lordkez released her first EP on SoundCloud, she admits that it was during a time when she was still finding her feet but even then, you could tell that she was going to be a star. Even though she was still relatively unknown in 2017, and her music sort of got drowned out by the other “New Wave” independent artists who were dominating SoundCloud at the time, she was definitely on the right track. She was laying down the foundation for the artist who she would later become.

“Back then I was very unsure of myself and very introverted. In school I didn’t really have friends and so I would spend most of my time by myself reading books, writing poetry and lyrics. The way that I am today is because of my music. I was making music for myself and not for the consumers and without realising it, I started to build my confidence to the point where now I genuinely don’t care if people like my stuff or not. As long as I am content with the quality of music I am putting out, that is enough for me. Everything I say in my music now I say it with conviction because I am confident in my truth and nobody can take that away from me.”

Much like how global superstar The Weeknd is able to create characters for each era that serve as an extension to the musical narrative, lordkez has managed to take her listeners on a journey through her songs and her visuals. You could argue that she has some of the strongest aesthetics when it comes to South African artists. Granted, some of these characters she’s created for every project so far, were born out of a necessity to protect herself because it can be a daunting experience to bare your soul to the world through art.

“These characters help me separate lordkez and Keziah. I take parts of my own personal experiences and then use the characters to build compelling narratives to help tell the stories I want to share with my listeners. Revenge Season EP has undertones of darkness because that’s what I was dealing with at the time and then on Charcotta, as much as it was a very personal and spiritual chapter, it was me embracing the light. When you listen to the JUICEBOX EP, you can clearly hear that I was at a phase where I was just having fun with my friends. Now with my latest project “midsummer”, it is the rawest version of myself because I was able to go through the journey of growth and self-discovery on my previous projects to the point where, now I am able to be vulnerable in ways I haven’t really been able to be in the past.”

This vulnerability is not only referring to the topics she sings about but also about her finding the courage to explore other sonic avenues that she has never tapped into before. To box lordkez into one genre would be doing her a disservice because she has proven over the years that she is an artist that is on a continuous journey of expanding her sound. What is impressive about the way she approaches this evolution is that there hasn’t been a single release that has felt out of place — everything still feels very true to who she is as an artist, despite the constant switch ups. This is what keeps things exciting and interesting. This is what sets her apart from most of her peers.

Her most recent project, midsummer, is a project which was born from finding beauty behind the chaos and the madness. It is a collection of some of her most beautiful music made during the heat of all. On the song titled, “The Blews”, which serves as the centerpiece of the project, lordkez finds herself somewhere between heartbreak and healing, somewhere between desperate and divine, as she tries to find her way out of a destructive path. She describes that phase as a time when she was operating at a very low frequency until she finally managed to stand up and look at herself in the mirror and remind herself who she is. That’s why, even in the song, the energy changes midway and she steps into her rap-like persona delivered in the most confident manner.

“I was definitely going through the worst time when I was working on those songs. I have realized that I tend to make the happiest music whenever I am going through the saddest times and when I am happy, all I want to do is make sad music. That song is about embracing the darkness and turmoil in order to find the root cause of the pain and destruction. It is me doing internal work to help me understand why I feel the way I do and then finally reclaiming my power. There is power in vulnerability. It’s definitely one of my favourite songs.”

One of the things lordkez does well as a songwriter and performer is having the ability to help her listeners navigate their own traumas and truths. She is aware of just how powerful music can be as a tool for healing and that is why she is very intentional with the music she decides to put out into the public. Her fans are able to use her music as inspiration and guidance when navigating their own battles with things like mental health and relationships.

“When I make a song about death or heartbreak, it is me accepting the reality of it all and purging those feelings so that the next person can find some sort of healing as well so they feel less alone in what they are going through. Sometimes I feel like I am making songs for the woman I used to be in the sense that, growing up, I sometimes felt like there wasn’t enough representation for women who look like me in South Africa singing about the kind of experiences and issues I was dealing with at the time. Now when I go on stage, I am representing the woman I always wanted to be and it is healing and liberating.”

One of the standout songs on the midsummer project is a song that features an unexpected guest appearance from the heavy-hitter Maglera Doe Boy on the song “Glory” — a song which lordkez admits to be one of the most vulnerable songs for her on the project. This song details her experience of finding the courage to put her guard down and allowing herself to be fully consumed by love for the first time. In addition to the Maglera feature, the project also has guest verses from rising R&B star Nanette on “handmedowns” and the R&B/Pop goddess, Shekhinah on “belladonna” respectively.

“As an artist that is always evolving and growing, right now I am currently in the process of exploring my vocal range and working on carving a distinct sound. I want to get to a point to where I have a very recognisable sonic because even though my roots are in Soul and R&B and even Hip-Hop, I want to find a way to also bring in elements of nature and technology into the mix. I also want to explore more ambient sounds. Essentially, I want to tap into a new realm now and as I work on my debut album now, I feel like I am gradually achieving that.”

Whenever people describe artists who are usually catogarised in the Alternative side of music, you often hear them say these artists are good because they are going against the tides. However, the more you get acquainted with lordkez and her journey, you realise that for her, it’s not even about going against the flow but rather, it is about realising that the current industry waters aren’t even designed for an artist like herself to dominate, and it’s through this realisation that has given her the superpower to create something of her own that cannot be tainted by industry rules nor can it be replicated. She is one-of-one.