Promoting and Supporting Talented
Entertainers
Sindi Nene
Bass
(2007)
During her second year Sindi became interested in jazz instruments and soon she dared herself to pick an instrument that was male dominated, Bass guitar; she then took it from foundation level together with piano and already she displayed phenomenal skills in playing bass and started playing for a number of small bands and being hired to be a session musician and through playing with a lot of live bands she soon developed the skill to play drums and vocals and became a multi-instrumentalist. Sindi then started composing and arranging her original jazz pieces with complex time signatures but cross mixing them with commercial pop lyrics, soon after that she began composing music and playing bass for a new all-female Jazz band Heels Over Head while studying, she was one of the original members the band started with and played with them for a few years. The band gained popularity in KwaZuluNatal as they started travelling & performing all over the country and they went on to record their first studio album titled ‘Could It Be’ in mid to late 2010 which featured 4 songs which were exclusively composed and arranged by Sindi this included the album’s hit title track ‘Could It Be’. The album was recorded in studio using live instrumentation and Sindi played bass, it went on to be a success and got nominated for a SAMA in the ‘Best Contemporary Jazz’ category in 2011.
Mnet South African Idols (2010)
In 2010 Sindi decided to audition for Mnet Idols at a conference centre inside Gateway mall in Durban, she got picked immediately after singing a few lines from Beyonce’ssong ‘Halo’, she was asked to take off her blond wig by Gareth Cliff and when she took it off she still had blond hair underneath, that moment went viral online and blond became her signature hair colour from there onwards. Kurt Darren went onto take Sindi’swig and wore it on television, the idols host Proverb also wore the wig while presenting. During her time participating on Idols she became famously known as the tiny blond girl with a huge voice and she was one of the nation’s favourites, most talked about and was widely praised and even received standing ovations by the judges, Mara Louw, Randall Ibrahim and Gareth Cliff; her spectacular performances and stage command gained her praise from a lot of South African music critics, she went on to become the 3rd finalist behind Lloyd Celeand the winner Elvis Blue. Idols was her vehicle to success within the entertainment industry and to date she has worked with some of the pioneers of the South African entertainment industry and is establishing her footprint within the circles.
Universal Music, INFINITE, The Wild (2011 –Present)
Soon after her exit on Idols VI, Sindi received numerous recording
deal offers but gave first preference to internationally acclaimed
label Universal Music due to Idols franchise ties, after a number
of discussions and meetings about her contract agreement given to
her by the label for her consideration she eventually signed to
them in February 2011 for a lucrative 5 album deal, her signing was
overseen by then label director DharamSewraj.
Infinite
Immediately after signing to the label, Sindi began working on her debut album INFINITE with producer Wakes; a maximum number of 12 songs were produced as preproduction work for the album which ended up being approved as full production and went on to be in the official album track list. Most of the writing and composition work in the album was done by Sindi and Wakes and it was mostly in studio with the two of them as the creative minds behind the entire projects. Wakes would not want to involve any other producers, musicians or artists in the making of the project as he felt that the project was very close to his heart and saw it as an opportunity to make a name for him in the South African music industry. The style, sound and mood of the album was very influenced by Afropop, kwaitoand jazz which were styles that came from both Sindi and Wakes based on their individual music experiences. Her first single from the album titled ‘NguweWedwa’ was then sampled to radio stations across the country. The single became a radio sensation on most national and provincial urban music radio stations and it began topping the charts as it reached the Top 5 on GagasiFM Top 40 (#1), KayaFMTop 40 (#3) and Metro FM Top 40 (#4); It also charted on a lot of other stations such as community stations, campus radio and internet radio. After the completion of the recording of the album, Lifetime Achievement Award winner LindelaniMkhizewas appointed as Sindi’sA&R.