Lesole, company spread calm with 'Don't Panic'

Spira Tlhankane | Sunday April 5, 2020 10:37

 

With Botswana already on a 28-day extreme social distancing that started Friday, the song inspires the nation with the lyrics that encourage people stand up for themselves and beat the virus. It is a catchy song that has Tshepo Lesole’s soulful and poignant signature right from the onset. The latter is one of the best music producers in the country and it is no surprise that the production is of high quality. His golden voice resonates well with KTM choir also known as Diphalana, then Apostle Mokoena later comes in with a message preaching preventive measures for coronavirus. 

Tshepo Lesole revealed to Showtime that Apostle Mokoena, KTM and he were already planning to do an event on March 28 but as a result of COVID-19 government took a decision to halt all events. He said they held a meeting and decided to do something that will help sensitise people about the spread of coronavirus. “We did it as quickly as possible because we knew that the 100 plus rule of gathering (at the time) might change soon,” he said. 

Lesole said during the initial stages of recording the government changed to 10 from 100. “It was difficult but we quickly managed to record KTM and they are a big choir of 40 to 50 people. It was a challenge because of the numbers and we also wanted to be careful,” he said. He admitted that coming up with the song was easy because it was a combination of vocals from Apostle Mokoena, KTM choir and him. 

“KTM came up with the chorus of the song, I came up with the beat of the song and Apostle Mokoena came up with the message of the song generally,” he said. Lesole said the collabo came about when Apostle Mokoena came to Botswana around January, as he was busy trying to open his church’s branch. “I was one of the people he wanted to see. Apostle Mokoena wanted to do the event that was supposed to be held on March 28 to raise funds among others. We then decided to help the government so the song is basically about trusting God in this situation, and don’t panic,” he highlighted.

Lesole further told Showtime that they have already recorded a video of the song and it was even more of a challenge because the measures of 10 or plus social distancing were already implemented. “We had already started so Colours of Sound, which was already engaged for our cancelled event then pledged to do the set up of the video. Maitisong Theatre was also going to be part of this event so they also pledged the venue for the video shoot. We arranged to go shoot, but the challenge was that we could not all gather there at the same time so we improvised and used KTM’s past footage. I then shot the video alone on the stage. We also took videos of people washing their hands. The video is coming out soon,” he said. He also said that Duma FM was among the sponsors of the cancelled event. 

Lesole said the main aim was to keep people calm because they had noticed that a lot of fear was being spread instead of encouraging people to take care of themselves