Aluwani Silas Thovhakale, born in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, is carefully described as an experimental musician known as the Hermit. He creates constantly changing sounds that blend different genres, keeping listeners curious about his next move. H’ & Them is a solo artist who doesn’t fit into any one category, with a unique and evolving style. Let’s explore the musical journey of this mysterious artist.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey into music.

I genuinely never know how to talk about myself or to answer the “Who is H’ & Them?” question each time I am faced with it, because to me all the little steps I have been taking in life have led to this one moment, to this one thing I now call H’ & Them. Because of church, I have played musical instruments since I was a kid- somewhere around 9 or 10 years old. I have been reading literature for around just the same time. I took the initiative to write when I was 13. That decision has since put me in places that moulded me and opened my world up to the reality I now exist in. I battle rapped. I cyphered. I slammed. One day I opened YouTube and learnt how to use Fruity Loops. I said I would make music. I made music.

I think it’s hard because it is only now that I am finally sitting down and figuring out who I am. Everything was almost all just impulsive and unrelated – or at least I used to think it was. All I know is that I have always loved literature and sound.

In 2018 I said I am H’ & Them and I haven’t stopped being that since then.

How has growing up in Thohoyandou, Limpopo influenced your music and creative process.

In 2020, I released my twin albums “InColour” and “Songs for Silas,” a month apart and got profiled by Mayuyuka Kaunda, who was writing for Texx and the City at the time. This was my first voyage into the Alternative, Indie-Folky, bruised heart, bruised vocals but cool rhymes over guitar thing I do sometimes to outlet that which demands release.

In the article, Mayuyuka refers to Thohoyandou as “Idyllic.”

After being thrown off because I didn’t know what the word meant, I later internalised it as meaning Beautiful in an undisturbed way. A landscape not butchered by too many skyscrapers. A place to walk barefoot in the sun. The motherland. Home. It has its modern developments, but I like the utopic depiction that frames it as a blank canvas because that’s what drives my being and my music — possibility. I live in a place where it is okay to try things with no expected outcome. I live in the experiment. Curiosity and trusting my ear are the most serious mandates in the process of making these records so many people seem to be gravitating lately.

I can’t see H’ & Them as being from anywhere else. Thohoyandou is all I know. I don’t even leave the province. Everything I need is here. Everyone I need is here. Everyone is from Thohoyandou: Everywhere is Thohoyandou. Or at least to me, Thohoyandou is everything.

Your music blends acoustic folk, spoken word, rap, and soul. How did you develop this unique style?

As cliche as it is, we are what we consume. I am all the music my ears have ever come across, and that is not limited to songs- by music I simply mean sound. I don’t understand the science behind it, but somewhere I discovered I could do it. I don’t ask how or why. I have never thought it was important that I know how I developed the skills I have, I simply trust whatever force it is that compels me to create and surrender myself to it. I am not in control, I never have been. My creative process is just me sitting and waiting for the music to come. I don’t think. I don’t expect a specific thing. I don’t brainstorm or trouble myself thinking about themes and concepts. I just sit and wait for the music to come to me. In a way I think the music is already all around me, I can hear it in everything, and all I have to do is translate it in human terms. Letta Mbulu never lied, it is in the air – The music is in the air, it’s all around us.

Sometimes when people ask me how I came up with a song I say “I make music so I sat and made a song. There need not be a reason behind it outside of that. I don’t need to have gone through anything or to want to send any message. I make songs, so I made a song. Sometimes it is because nothing happens that something does.“

Who are some of your biggest musical influences within and outside your genre?

Frank Ocean. Chance The Rapper (Acid Rap Chance. I stopped listening after that album). Hozier. James Blake. Mick Jenkins. Earl Sweatshirt. Isaiah Rashad. Okmalumkoolkat. Gidi Boy. Mizo Phyll. Makhadzi. Jazz The Man. Jaysteeze. Francis Blaz3. Given Da Chief. Mass The Difference. King Lutendo. Gusba Banana. Racha Kill.

Congratulations on your new release! Can you share with us the inspiration behind this body of work?

On my latest release ‘To Each A Robbery’, I can only but speak on the thing that sparked it, the rest happened because the machine had started running, and as aforementioned I simply just created and the outcome is as much a surprise to me as it is to you. Heck, sometimes I don’t even know what I’m writing about until I’m a few lines in.

It all started with ‘Masisi‘. Given Da Chief had recorded a verse on J-Cole’s ‘January 28th‘ beat for vibes and he sent it to me, I immediately knew I wasn’t letting that verse go down as a throwaway or a “vibes” thing because it spoke to me so powerfully. I then called Jaysteeze and told him it was time to start the machine. We then stole the vocals through extraction and Steeze chopped up the sample and we arranged everything into what is now the first verse on Masisi, everything after that is purely machine work.

This whole Masisi ordeal is the reason why the project is called ‘To Each A Robbery‘ because we stole that verse from Given and made it ours all because we somehow knew what it was worth. And I love that Given verse because it reminds me just how scared and confused I am when I navigate through my music. I am so scared and I don’t know what I am doing, but it is through faith and trust in the forces that guide and protect me, that I do it still and I do it with grace. And somehow it works out. God is beautiful like that.