Wussup BbyGurl: Teen muso Niël Botha (16) debuts with album

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GEORGE NEWS - The power of young love, passionate and tender at the age of sweet sixteen. Nine songs wrapped neatly in a single album, hazed in psychedelic pink and blue.

Grade 11 learner Niël Botha from Glenwood House is still on cloud nine after the release of his very first album, BbyGurl, on 11 September, on Apple Music and Spotify.

A music video of one of the songs, Dear Lily, was released on YouTube today, Wednesday 20 September.

The young musician wrote and recorded the lyrics and music of all nine songs himself, in his home studio in his parents' garage. He built his studio with money he earned from gigs.

"He sings all the songs himself and plays all instruments (piano, guitar and bass guitar). He also handled the digital processing," said his mom, Drini Botha.

Niël's friend and band member Dylan van Schalkwyk was instrumental in the release of Botha's first album.

"Niël wanted to include Dylan in his first music video, because Dylan had a big part in encouraging Niel to perform at school," said Botha. Dylan is an actor in the music video Dear Lily.

BbyGurl

The album name BbyGurl is also the name of the two-man-band consisting of Botha and Van Schalkwyk. "The album contains the songs I wrote during the time when Dylan and I performed at gigs," said Niël.

"I will say if it wasn't for Dylan I never would have released the BbyGurl album, because he was the guy that made me take the first step when we first performed at Glenwood in assembly. I would never have gotten on stage if I hadn't met him."

Musical bones

Niël has been singing for the last two years, and took piano in primary school. "But, I never really liked taking music formally or following a lot of rules," said Niël. "I started playing guitar and bass about a year ago. When I sat down behind the piano again in lockdown, it was very nice for me to be able to play the piano freely without boundaries or rules."

Niël's mom, Drini Botha, is a renowned pianist. Asked whether it helped him to have a musical mom, Niël said: "I will say, no, it doesn't help. Even if you think you have the best music teacher in your house, you will never be able to learn anything from your mother because it always leads to a fight."

Drini said Niël's album is all his own doing. "As a music teacher mom, I wish I could say that I helped him a lot with the music, but I can't take any credit for this album. Niël plays by ear (doesn't want to learn to read notes), but the exposure to music in our house was of course inevitable.

"As a music mom, I didn't want to interfere and limit him with rules, because I could see that he had to follow a different route with his personality. I wanted to see what he was doing with his creativity without interference from me. He did take music in primary school, but decided that he would rather play by ear and experiment with music in his own way."

Niël's quote: "Wussup BbyGurl. I love music - follow me everywhere @nielbotha_music"

Songs: Livin' On, We're so Young, Something I Could Dream Of, Dear Lily, Hold Me Closer, I Wish I Told You, Still Love You, As the Earth Burns Down, Meteor.