Tondi Rams To Release Debut Project ‘Tales of the Heart (Live Acoustic EP)’

Tondi Rams, born Rotondwa Ifalashu Fulufhelo Rambani, is releasing his long awaited debut EP on July 28. Since releasing his first single ‘Caroline’ in 2016, the singer-songwriter has released a total of 10 singles including three new releases from the upcoming EP and the much loved single ‘Rush’ featuring Una Rams.

The rising artist of R&B soul and Acoustic Pop/ Folk Pop has spent years honing his craft and discovering his identity as a music artist. This new project is a ‘coming out’ of sort, as the singer-songwriter introduces himself to the world with his raw, unfiltered and heartfelt EP.

Recorded live at Young Rebel Recording Studio, with only his acoustic guitar, voice, self-written songs, and an audience of 13 people, Tondi Rams offers a raw and vulnerable project that serves to inspire faith, hope and love. Tales of the heart is a collection of stories and experiences that let listeners peer into the singer-songwriter’s heart and life.

The first three songs are based on the themes of faith and hope, and the last three are based on love, from heartbreak to celebrating a beautiful love. The EP journeys through feelings of depression, hopelessness, hope, heartbreak to finding love. In his words, “What better way to introduce myself as an artist than through a raw, stripped down project with songs that allow listeners to get to know and identify with me without all the production elements that could cloud the essence of my identity as a singer-songwriter?”.

When asked why he chose to go with a live recording rather than a studio project for his debut EP he says, “It’s a long story, but to cut it short, this was not supposed to be my debut project, but God works in amazing ways! I have a studio EP I’ve been working on with a producer friend of mine since last year and it sounds amazing! However, things weren’t moving as fast as I wanted them to. This year around March during a time when I was feeling a bit frustrated about the progress of the EP, I stumbled into a recording studio, which looked like an intimate performance space, looking for a music shop to buy a cable, and it turned out they hosted open mics so they invited me to sing at the next one. I went and performed, won a free ‘tiny desk’ kind of recording, and in thinking about what I’d perform, I thought to myself, "Why not perform songs that I haven’t released and record an EP instead of performing the old singles I’ve already released?” 

And in thinking about the songs for the EP, I knew I wanted to share my story and songs that are dear to me, hence I gravitated towards the idea of recording them live in their purest form knowing that I might make mistakes or have some flat notes here and there, which I did haha! However, I love how beauty is imperfect, and vulnerability doesn’t present itself in perfection.”

Pre-add ‘Tales of the Heart (Live Acoustic EP)’ here.