Sampa the Great has confirmed in an interview that new music will be released early next year.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, the artist – real name Sampa Tembo – said she has been working on new tracks after heading home to Zambia during the pandemic. One new track, ‘Never Forget’, is a tribute to Zamrock, a genre originating in the ’70s that blends African rhythms with elements of garage or psychedelic rock. She has also been spending time with Emmanuel Jagari Chanda, frontman of Zamrock band WITCH.
“It’s so beautiful to know that these sounds are there, the sounds our parents listened to,” Tembo said of the song.
“[My sister Mwanje] wrote the chorus herself. And then my cousin starts singing. It’s literally this thing when we are all in the studio, we are all riffing off each other, and we are all related to each other.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Tembo explained how she planned to return home within the next decade, but the pandemic fast-tracked it. Since returning, she says her creativity has flowed.
“We are doing three songs a day. I was like – ‘what’s going on? Is this good?'”
Tembo’s last record was her 2019 debut album ‘The Return’, which went on to earn her a second Australian Music Prize and three ARIA Awards including Best Female Artist.
This year, Tembo has performed an NPR Tiny Desk concert from Zambia, collaborated with KYE on the single ‘Gold’, and featured on a posthumous track from Tony Allen, ‘Stumbling Down’.