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African Folk Rock Chanteuse Once Again Lifts her Voice and Guitar
By Linda A. Annan 
Nothing about her Southern accent tells you this South African native, now Florida-based singer/songwriter is a folk rock artist. Well, not until you get a listen at the soft rocky sounds that emanate from the strings of her guitar. Several awards and much success with her old band, Henry Ate, have become trails of her musical career, but Karma- Ann Swanepoel, best known as KARMA, is not ready to slow down as she masters her eighth album set to be released in January 2008.
Tentatively the record has been dubbed “The Riddle” but Swanepoel states: “If my history of naming albums is anything to go by, I have changed the name of the album on the day that it was going to print.”
But the excitement of finalizing this latest creation is evident as she speaks. “ There's like an overriding theme in the songs. I think it tells a pretty accurate story of the new instances that have been introduced into my life from living in the States,” she says of the album's inspiration.
“It's a personal account of how I've experienced living in the U.S.,” she adds. “It's quite alike in that I come from a country that has been saturated by fear, in an environment where I was permanently afraid and I think one of the attractions to me coming to America was that I would feel safe. And in the four years that I've lived here I've felt anything but safe.”
Her move to the U.S. in 2003 initiated the formation of a new band comprising of herself (vocals and acoustic guitar), Daniel de la Fe (drums), Stephen Calderalo (bass), and Christian Wood (electric guitar).
But even with an ambiance of insecurities and dangers she admits her instances have significantly changed since moving to America – complimented with beautiful inspirations. “I've been able to travel, I've been able to meet so many more people and experienced so many more things in life that even traveling became one of the themes in one of the songs,” she laughs.
“ I can tell you I laugh a lot more, I think my actions have become less metaphoric and more direct,” she says.
Swapping to the subject of her forthcoming album, Swanepoel compares her present growth and creativity as an artist to her successful years in South Africa . “I wasn't allowed to step outside of what my first album had generated as my style,” she stress with the last word carrying an interesting Southern accent.
“The last album that I had and this one that I'm working on, I've really been able to write what I've wanted to. I took my time, I wrote as I felt it, I didn't have any deadlines. It took a lot of pressure off that I resented for being a signed artist in South Africa . I felt a disadvantage in that I wasn't just left alone to write, I was paid to write.”
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