Peter Mawanga and Trevor Bystrom Announce New EP 'Mawanga & Bystrom'

Today, Malawi's Peter Mawanga and Florida's Trevor Bystrom announced their new EP Mawanga & Bystrom will be released on September 1. For the duration of their unlikely friendship, the two singer-songwriters, who met over Facebook, have never been on the same continent let alone in the same room together. And yet, despite the ocean between them, the duo has managed to emerge from COVID-19 lockdowns with a collaborative EP as delightful as it is unexpected, one that fuses American and Malawian culture into an adventurous, inventive, and deeply moving testament to our shared humanity.

Along with the announcement, Mawanga and Bystrom shared their debut single "Some Day," which AfroPop Worldwide described as a, "sweet shuffling, Afropop conversation."

"Music is the universal language," says Mawanga. "We live in a global village these days, and songs have no borders or boundaries."

Mawanga & Bystrom is proof of that. Recorded remotely at Bystrom's studio in Holmes Beach, Florida, and Mawanga's studio in the East African nation of Malawi, the six-track EP is a celebration of connection and unity, mixing traditional Malawian rhythms and instruments-like the nsansi (thumb piano), visekese (shakers), and valimba (xylophone)-with contemporary American folk and rock music to craft a sound that's at once foreign and familiar, joyful and meditative, playful and profound.

"Peter comes from a completely different world than me," says Bystrom, "and he's lived a completely different life. But as we found ourselves going through quarantine together and learning about each other's experiences and families and cultures, we realized just how much we actually had in common."

So when Mawanga got a Facebook message out of the blue from Bystrom, who'd come across his music online and suggested they try collaborating, he was intrigued, to say the least.

"I started listening to his songs on YouTube and I was blown away," recalls Mawanga. "I asked him to send me what he was working on at the moment, and he shared a song called 'Some Day.' As soon as I heard it, I knew that I could add some Nyanja vibes."

At Mawanga's request, Bystrom stripped the track down to its most basic elements, leaving room for Mawanga and some of his local bandmates to recontextualize the arrangement with instruments and rhythms inspired by the traditional music played up and down the shores of Lake Malawi. The result was an utterly exhilarating Afropop gem all about perseverance and resilience, one that exceeded both artists' initial expectations, and when COVID lockdowns hit soon after and forced Mawanga and Bystrom off the road indefinitely, they decided to continue their intercontinental collaboration.

"I sent Peter a few more song ideas of mine, and he sent me a few ideas of his, and we just got to work," says Bystrom. "He wrote verses on my songs, I wrote verses on his songs, and we ended up with something that was a true 50/50 split."

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, Mawanga and Bystrom managed to find ways to connect, to create, to spread joy and love. They hope to meet in person and perhaps even perform live together someday soon, but in the meantime, they're already inextricably bound through song and, just as importantly, forever united in their friendship.

Listen here:

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