Meri Kenaz is an award winning female singer songwriter and guitarist. Her music is difficult to stereotype as it carries rich influence from not only a wide variety of genres, but seems to stem from somewhere deeper within. As CUE’s Isabel Rawlins puts it, "[her] voice comes close to capturing the passion and intensity of human nature. The power and passion of her playing does true justice to the incredible quality of her voice". She calls her authentic brand of Alternative acoustic music “Soul-Folk” and feels it’s the best way to try pinpoint the genre of her often spiritual and deeply rooted songs. She writes poetically, but her words are grounded, honest and sincere.
Her music has been likened to that of Tori Amos, Patti Smith, Ani DiFranco, and Leslie Rae Dowling among others. Yet she’s undoubtedly unique. Mike Loewe of Arstsblog.co.za calls her “Young, outrageously talented, sublimely thoughtful, an original original”.
Meri Kenaz was born in Pretoria, South Africa, but grew up in the small town of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. She’s strummed a variety of guitars while growing up, everything from a homemade oilcan guitar, to a half-size, classical, and eventually an acoustic guitar. She started performing music in and around her then hometown, Port Elizabeth after some opportunities came along while she was a radio presenter at Bay FM. After a year or so of the odd gig around the Eastern Cape, she decided the studio and road was her forte, and hasn’t sat still since.
She recorded her first album, In a Moment, in 2008 at Phat Lady Studios in Port Elizabeth. Since she’s been writing songs from a young age she had over 30 songs to choose from for the record and the album became an experiment in how to interpret and translate to disc the music that was, up to this point, so personal to her, and hardly played to audiences at all. The album was well received. “[She] shows great diversity on her independently released album In a Moment.” – Leon Muston (The Herald 20 February 2009, CD Review).
A year in Johannesburg, and many a show as well as two tours with internationally acclaimed Blues guitarist, Dan Patlansky, got her and her music well on its way.
Dan Patlansky introduced her to Peace of Eden studios in Knysna, and at the end of 2009 she started there with her next recordings with SAMA nominated producer, Howard Butcher. Apart from running an idyllic studio set-up in the Knysna forest, he also initiates the independent label, Homegrown Music. Branches is the first in a series of singles she plans to release in 2010 building up to her second album. Each EP contain three/four songs, some prints of original drawings done by Meri Kenaz and are hand packaged with additional original artwork printed on the cover. She toured Branches early in 2010 in a national tour with Dan Patlansky.
Since recording Branches, she’s gone from strength to strength. At the 2010 Grahamstown National Festival of Arts she was awarded a Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award for her performance. Other artists similarly recognised were Guy Buttery, who won Gold, and Nibs van der Spuy, also taking Silver alongside Meri.
She is currently recording the rest of her album, and releasing it bit for bit, showing the entire process of adding other instrumentations by first featuring one other musician on a few tracks and releasing it as a series of EP’s, before finally combining all the tracks and musicians for the final album. Particularly interesting is her choice to hand-package and number the EP’s, making each release feel like a personal gift to her audience.
Meri Kenaz explains her music is first and foremost very personal, and likens it to her diary. She’s been writing music for years before entering the professional world and industry but it seems this move has done anything but halt her creativity. If anything, her performances are getting ever more dynamic and inspired. Stay in the loop with her tours and new releases by keeping an eye on the website - www.merikenaz.com - or www.facebook.com/merikenaz.
