It isn’t everyday that one bumps into an athlete that not only has a knack for music but also a passion for notes and creating sound.
When Drum did at Nike’s 10-year Tech Fleece celebration in Sandton, this musical athlete stood out. He is not a DJ, a performer or a rapper but a musical instrumentalist.
While others consider themselves musical athletes, he considers himself an athletic musician because “the stress is on being a musician more than it is on being an athlete”.
As Onkgopotse Motsei, he is humble and shy but as Toroh o Wano, he is more outgoing and better describes himself as a social butterfly.
From as young as eight years old, the sports and athletics bug bit him and he played football. Although he was largely influenced by his father who’s a big football fan, he enjoyed being on the field so much that he also began playing cricket, hockey and basketball which took him as far as provincial level.
For his peers, this would have just been enough to go by. But not for Onkgopotse.
Three years later around 2010, he tapped into his artistic self and started playing drums.
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“I started playing drums in primary school. I had a lovely teacher called Justin, he was inspirational, and his energy was just infectious.”
It was from this early experience with being taught music that he distinctively knew what a good teacher was.
“A good teacher just wants to inspire you and push you as much as he can, to get you more curious and inquisitive to get you to go dig up whatever you need to dig up on your own,” he adds.
Unlike all the other things he had done by the time he was 11 years old, “[Music] is the one thing my parents never asked me to do,” he tells Drum.
Because of this, both his parents - who are in the entertainment industry - picked up on his hard work and effort directed towards music.
Although they were skeptical of it all at first, they eventually supported his musical dreams.
“I picked up quite a lot of musical instruments along the way. Two years [after playing drums], I started playing the guitar. In 2017, I started playing keys then a year later, I started playing the saxophone which I’m being trained for at Wits University.”
After matric, the Joburg-born musician took gap year to figure out which of his talents he’d pursue even though it was almost a no-brainer that music would win the race.
“I think they were just hesitant because they wanted to make sure that I’m sure about my decision. They don’t want a situation where you decide on something and you end up halfway through it, not following through with it. They questioned how sure I am, and I reassured them that I’m certain. I remember even telling my mom that I haven’t been so sure about something in a long time, so it was an easy conversation with them,” he recalls what was expected to be a difficult conversation about his future.
After the gap year, he studied sound engineering and is now studying towards his second degree in music.
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“Ever since then, it’s been a snowball effect and things have been piling up on each other. Music is definitely in the fore front now,” he says.
Even so, he still plays touch rugby on Sundays and football on Wednesday in an effort to strike a balance between his two worlds.
“At the end of the day, we are human, and we’re only given this one body to live in throughout our lives and so we need to take as much care of it as possible so that it can do what it needs to do to the best of its ability for as long as possible.”
The 24-year-old wishes to sustain this balance which sees him listening to either Hip Hop or Jazz when at gym or training.
In the next ten years, he plans to write, compose and produce music that people haven’t been exposed to before.
