Marius Botha
Grew up in Sea View, a Durban suburb where all African people around him including Musicians called him “Mfana Ka Zinti”. “Music brought me peace ever since’, Marius says.
After studying at UKZN, Marius worked at Durban’s Coastal Music, where he got inspired to build his own guitars and assemble his own sound systems, which is still in good use today.
Marius is known amongst his peers as The Guitar Doctor because of his business that included Guitar building, design & repairs. Now he successfully runs The Headroom Studio, a favorite Recording & Production facility in Durban.
https://theheadroom.co.za/
https://www.facebook.com/thehead.room1/
Marius led two of Durban’s favorite bands, “The Honkeys” and “Home Cooking”, were bands that showcased South African sounds, promoting a cohesive culture and the use of IsiZulu. During the dark days of apartheid, it was a tough journey for an Afrikaans boy to be in a band that mixed all cultures where most songs were sung in isiZulu. People loved it but the authorities and some communities were not pleased.
Having studied bass under Marc Duby and Joe Delew, Botha spent 8 years as a “Utensil” in Syd Kitchen’s band called Syd Kitchen and The Utensils.
In 2012, Marius co-produced and co- engineered a Musical, a true South African story of forgiveness and resilience, titled, “Back in Kitomena”. A story about forced removals that happened in Kitomena (Umkhumbane) in 1959. Dr. Madala Kunene was only 12 years old, at the time. Later he met and recognized Mr. Koos Botha, Marius’s father, as the man who demolished his family cottage back then. See attached show poster with all Musicians and actors who collaborated.
In 2016 Marius decided to move from Bass to Guitar. Creativity flowed, new compositions emerged and the need for an outlet became paramount. Marius coproduced Madala Kunene’s latest Album titled 1959. He went on to co-write and produced Lu Dlamini’s Ulimilami in 2016 and the 2020 Single Emzantsi
Marius is a lead member of a collaboration band called The Truth Junkies, a band that features some of Durban’s great talent i.e. Riley Giandhari, Ntobeko Shandu, Lu Dlamini and Nick Pitman. The Truth Junkies were obvious choices by Marius himself to help him realize the noises of our city, cries of our nation that has been haunting him all his youth, calling for a rich and tasteful Durban mixed Masala.
