Meet YUCCA, a 23-year-old singer and songwriter hailing from Johannesburg. Her lifelong love for music began with her early aspirations of becoming an entertainer, which led her to participate in theater and talent shows throughout her school years. In December 2020, YUCCA made her musical debut with the release of “Toxic.” Beyond her music, she has a deep passion for beauty, dance, fashion, and creative photoshoots.
YUCCA’s first EP, “Everything’s Changed,” released in 2022, captures a year of profound personal transformation, including loss, toxic relationships, and the discovery of an unbreakable tribe of friends and family. Her music blends R&B, Trap, and Soul influences, drawing inspiration from artists like Summer Walker, Ashanti, Beyonce, Lizzo, and Nina Simone. The EP pays tribute to her late father, grandfather, and grandmother, with tracks like “My Love (I Miss You)” and “Lovely Night.” This EP marks just the beginning of YUCCA’s promising artistic journey.
We had an insightful chat with YUCCA; delve into her story and discover more by reading on!
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your journey in music began?
[YUCCA]: My name is Yucca and my music journey started when I was in primary school. That’s when I first started loving music and that’s when I first realized that I wanted to be a musician and singer. But I started recording music in high school when I was 15 or 16 years old, and that’s when I realized that I actually wanted to create music not that I just loved it, but that it was something that I wanted to turn into my career and I had a passion for the writing process, the recording process, and really everything about it performing as well.
What drew you to the world of entertainment and made you want to become a singer and songwriter?
[YUCCA]: A lot of my family members were in the entertainment industry, not particularly in music but in the entertainment industry, so I knew that I wanted to entertain people and that I wanted to do something creative. My mother used to play music every morning, on our way to school and I just loved music and I fell in love with other musicians and then I started you know researching how to write a song, what kind of songs are good songs different genres things like that just getting into it and finding all the information so that I knew what I was doing so the thing that drew me to it is that I love to entertain people, I love creative things, I was also very passionate about theatre and acting in my high school years so entertaining people has always been something I enjoyed doing.
You mentioned participating in theater and talent shows during your school life. How do you think those experiences have influenced your approach to music?
[YUCCA]: The way that theatre and Acting have influenced my music is mostly in terms of my performance because I know how to perform. I know how to keep the crowd engaged and how to elevate your natural personality you can’t just be your everyday self you need to bring it to that higher-level version of yourself, a more flamboyant or extreme version of yourself, and that the show never stops whether you get a word wrong a step wrong, the show must go on so that’s how doing theatre really influenced my approach to performance especially the value of rehearsing and always being prepared.
Your first single, “Toxic,” was released in December 2020. Can you share the inspiration behind that song and what it means to you?
[YUCCA]: The influence behind toxic was the end of a relationship that I had with one of my friends. It was about a decade long, and she was my best friend at the time, and it was just about how the relationship was really toxic for me, but I still really loved her and I still wanted to be friends with her at the time it’s not like that now but that’s what the song is about. It’s just about how a lot of the time a relationship is really bad for us but we love someone so much or we’re attached to them so we still want it even though we know that it’s bad for us.
Your EP, “Everything’s Changed,” is a reflection of the different changes you experienced in your life. Can you elaborate on the themes and emotions explored in the EP?
[YUCCA]: The EP is about how drastically my life changed over about a year, or maybe a year and a half before the EP came out the ways in which things changed was that I was in a long-term relationship it came to an end and three very close people in my life passed away, and it was the first time that I experienced death in such a personal way, so that’s what I speak about on the song do better it’s about how I could’ve done better than the relationship that I was in, and my love I miss you is about the death of my grandmother and how I initially struggled with her loss and then also it’s about the positive changes as well. How I grew as a person and how I became closer to my Tribe my friends and my family lovely night is about all the beautiful times that I’ve spent with my friends. All the beautiful times my friends showed up for me and I showed up for them, begging was about just like a nice night out with like your crush and you know you that flirty feeling and you’re feeling fine and sexy so with some of the positive moments and it’s some of the sadder moments I wouldn’t call it negative more like challenging moments that really made me who I am now and how I got through Them
How would you describe your sound and musical style? Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
[YUCCA]: I would describe my sound if we’re going to describe the music that I have already released as alternative R&B and jazz for what’s to come. I want to say that I’m so diverse musically there’s so much that my vocals have to offer my production team has to offer, and I’m always wanting to go outside of my box and make myself uncomfortable. So with the new music coming up it’s gonna be giving pop Afro beats romantic piano those are the vibes. The new music is gonna be nothing like the existing music I am still a new artist I’m constantly exploring and finding my sound but my sound is going to be very unique to me nobody is gonna be like me nobody is like me and it’s gonna be a particular niche with its own unique flair with its own style. We’re creating new genres and creating outside of the box.
Some of my biggest musical inspirations are definitely people like Brenda Fassie. I love everything about her music, her authenticity, performance style, Lebo Mathosa, Miriam Makeba, the vocals, the authenticity, bringing Africa to the world my International influences are people like Beyoncé, her vocal strength and her attention to detail is something I really admire, I am really working on my performance skills right now and creating music that I can really perform to. I want to be a performer, not just a singer. I look up to Rihanna because I studied a BCom so becoming an entrepreneur one day is a long-term goal of mine absolutely, as well as the fact that she’s a musical powerhouse with multiple bangers and multiple hits, and to this day, she hasn’t released music in so long, but she’s breaking records, she’s doing numbers consistently without even releasing music that speaks to her power as an entertainer and as a personality.
Looking ahead, what are your aspirations and goals as a musician? Where do you see yourself in the future?
[YUCCA]: In the future, I see myself with a huge support base that loves what I do and supports it because they respect the time the effort, and the love that’s put into the craft and they enjoy it in, the future I see myself making music that makes people feel things whether it’s happiness sadness, makes them want to dance, as long as people feel something when they hear me sing that’s one of my goals in the future, I see myself having a positive influence, being authentic, being genuine in everything that I do. I see myself living my dream life achieving every single accolade that came to be won when it comes to being a world-renowned musician and breaking records I know who I am, I know who I’m going to be, and that’s what I see for myself in the future being my dream woman.
Are there any particular artists or musicians you dream of collaborating with in the future?
[YUCCA]: I think I’m so zoned in right now finding myself as an artist, I haven’t overly thought about who I wanna collaborate with in the future, but I think anybody who’s music that I naturally gravitate to anybody who’s music I enjoy and any collaboration comes along that feels natural where we have a good chemistry and the music is beautiful and sexy you know.
What can fans expect from you in the near future? Are there any upcoming projects or performances they should look out for?
[YUCCA]: What people can expect in the near future is definitely new music 100% new music with a whole new vibe new content beautiful looks the vibes are immaculate. That’s what I’ll tell you everything is spectacular everything that’s in the works right now is just so different from what I’ve already put out. It’s a whole new version of me. It’s YUCCA going outside of the box. When it comes to performance it’s going to be a whole lot more dancing so be ready for that. There’s going to be a lot more performances just be ready. Keep an eye out.
Lastly, what does music mean to you personally, and how does it fulfill you as a career choice?
[YUCCA]: Music is my true love my deepest love and I know that sounds corny but it really is I open my eyes in the morning and I think of music and play music while I get ready while I shower while I do my hair while I do my makeup, I play music. I love to journal so when I’m writing in my journal I’m listening to music there’s music for everything, for sad moments, happy moments, fun moments, calm moments, peaceful music, music without any lyrics for when you just wanna be in your own thoughts, but you don’t wanna be in complete silence. It’s just a universal language there’s something for everybody everywhere. It’s such a spectacular thing you really create something out of nothing when you create a song and it makes me feel so alive. I love expressing myself through music. I love talking through music. I’m finding ways to be more vulnerable through my music and it makes me feel so fulfilled because that’s what I’ve always wanted. It makes me feel incredibly fulfilled to be chasing my dream.
Featured Image Source(s): Supplied
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