Music from South Africa goes beyond Amapiano. Vibrant genres like Kwaito, Masakandi and Jazz reverberate on streets in Soweto, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
Since 2020, South African singer-songwriter & producer, Mars Baby, gets listeners to interrogate their emotions through his sound. First name Jesse and born in Cape Town, Mars’ younger years were molded first in South Africa then later on America’s East Coast.
Mars Baby’s parents were music lovers but didn’t actively make music or play any instrument. His mother is a Fulbright Scholar: a PhD. In the decade he lived in Maryland, Mars picked up the guitar, strumming and singing his way into a growing fanbase.
“I love music, but it took me a minute to see music as a long term career”, he explained. Keeping to his words, Mars carved out and fixed his gaze on his music career plans after enrolling at and graduating from the University of Cape Town. He studied Film and English.
“I always made music on the side”. His first record was about [name redacted]. On this song, Mars expressed his sentiments to a belle he crossed paths with.
Mars Baby’s passion for music never waned. He worked incessantly, sharpening his skills and producing for contemporaries. Leveraging on his knowledge in film, Mars curates his songs with great care. On his hit song “Cherry Bomb”, which featured South African music sensation, Shekhinah, the duo’s legato phrasing tells a romance story which follows a graceful arc of sound.
“Music is not an easy thing to do. Probably all musicians have those days where they want to quit… It takes a while to really make music to the level of the stuff you consume. That being said, I do feel successful”, Jesse shared.
In retrospect, Mars acknowledges that most of the songs he made earlier in his journey were not exceptional. These days, the singer works fulltime with the autonomy and resources to produce and release records he feels good about.
“Obviously, I would love to do this on a bigger scale.” Speaking passionately over a google meets video call, the artist expressed his love for the process of making music and how he gets better at it. “I try to be honest and vulnerable so people can relate and maybe process their feelings. That keeps me going”.
Mars’ music is therapeutic. The songwriter describes music as an emotional exercise and hopes his music leads his audience to self-reflect and self-inspect. On “Smoke”, a track off his 2022 EP, “Prodigal Son”, he confesses, “..When I ran away from home/Saw the pieces of my soul/On the pavement where I lay…”. In contrast to the words he sings, Mars is quite the cheerful lightskinned Afrikkaner.
On certain days, it does feel like an uphill battle for the musician. Mars performs live. He thinks the music industry can feel over-saturated as there are more new musicians every other Thursday. He finds that artists have a harder time securing niches and tightening fanbases, but the saturation democratizes music and increases accessibility, he countered.
Mars Baby has been hitting his strides as a storyteller and mood-setter. For his latest body of work, Handsome Luke & the Heartbreakers, Mars wants to connect with new music lovers, tap into newer experiences and tour South Africa. Handsome Luke is a moniker the producer created for himself. It encapsulates parts of living and working in the entertainment industry for the past 4 years, chasing fame and recognition – the rockstar he is. Heartbreakers are the personalities he has encountered along the way and the relationships he has sacrificed. In his future, Mars hopes he gets to work with Internet Girl: the South African boyband.
Listen to Handsome Luke & the heartbreakers on Apple Music and Spotify.
Written and Interviewd by Albert Akolly.
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