Black Coffee

When Nathi moved to Mthatha in 1988 he met another guy who collected music – "mostly South African disco and pop. This was in the days of cassettes, and every time he had a new one he would come and get me to dance. That was his test; if I liked the music and danced to it he would say it must be good."

While growing up in the quiet surroundings of Mthatha, Nathi would balance the rural reality of milking the farm's cows every morning before school with Big City dreams of becoming a DJ. At night he would sit down and draw his "dream room", which consisted of a pair of 1200s and a mixer, and fantasise about being friends with the "world's greatest superstars". Getting out of the oppressive township system, which was set up to keep black South Africans away from the cities, increasingly became a priority.

When his school introduced a music class he was first in line, getting involved in choirs and acapella groups (he sang baritone). On February 11 1990, the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Nathi was celebrating outside with his community when tragedy struck in the shape of a speeding minivan that ploughed into the crowd. One person was killed instantly, and several were injured, including Nathi, who lost the use of his left arm; it's still damaged today, which is why he keeps his left hand in his jeans pocket.

Undeterred, Nathi continued developing his passion for music alongside a parallel interest in art and illustration. When he finished high school he was torn between studying fine art in Jo'burg or music in Durban. His mum helped him fill in forms for several courses, and he was eventually accepted into the music school where he studied jazz with a major in voice.

"It's funny," he smiles, scratching at his beard, "a few months after I was accepted I was looking in some drawers at home and found the forms for the other schools. I guess my mum never submitted them as she was worried about how I would survive alone in a city like Jo'burg. But Durban was a great course. I learned everything from film scoring to jingle writing there, and even though I was just nineteen, I got to direct my own band."

Along with fellow music students Mnqobi Mdabe and Thandukwazi Demor Sikhosana, Nathi formed his first band, SHANA – Simply Hot And Naturally African – an outfit that blended electronic grooves with r'n'b and traditional African sounds. Nathi's official role in the band was DJ and occasional songwriter, but it was his resourcefulness that proved even more influential.

Frustrated by the rule that students at the music school weren't allowed to use the in-house studio for two years, he managed to copy the key one day and snuck in with his bandmates at weekends to rehearse and record songs. "I remember the first day I got in," he grins. "It was 7am and I can still recall the smell of the studio very clearly. I had never worked with a computer before so I had to work out how to turn it all on, then how to load up the programs..." The school must have known what was going on, he says, but turned a blind eye. By the time the first year was over, the senior music lecturer would call Nathi if there was a problem in the studio; he had become the unofficial technician.