Tuelo, courtesy.

Tuelo didn’t imagine she’d have to travel to many countries—or take as long as she did—to make her first album, The Life of Margaret Cornelius. The singer-songwriter, originally from South Africa, began writing and recording while living in New York City, but soon after found herself back home, then throughout Europe and Turkey, and even filming music videos in Colombia. Finally, back in New York in January, she called the debut complete.

The Life of Margaret Cornelius is an eclectic endeavor. Tuelo captured the styles, lyricism and vibrant colors through a burgeoning creative musical energy, something she only really began seeing in herself when she first moved to New York.

“There’s been so many revisions. Since I’ve been living all over the world and because of the pandemic, it felt like this would never end,” she says. Tuelo had a vision of the final product more than a year ago, it just took time to get there.

The album is her take on what she calls protest or revival rock. It’s screeching, punctuated by guitars, Tuelo’s crisp vocals and resounding energy. It’s also a tribute to her familial matriarchs, and the ways these women shape and inform the virtues of future generations. She focuses heavily on the titular figure on “Saint Margaret,” released way back in 2017.  She praises the saint for allowing her, “To stand on your shoulders.”

When you hear her open her mouth to sing, it’s hard to believe she didn’t actually find her singing voice until she arrived in the United States. She hails from a rural home in the northwest province of Mafikeng, South Africa, right next to the border with Botswana. Her family lives on a farm and she and her siblings were raised during the fall of apartheid in the early ’90s.

Though music has always been a big part of her life, she believes the more temperate climate of New York is easier on her and what ultimately helped her find her singing style. Still, the influence of South African musical styles informs her craft. Often described as incorporating tonalities and polyrhythms from the country’s musical landscape, she explains this as singing in harmony, using one’s hands and feet to find rhythm and beats, and voice to imitate instruments.

“When you put it together in the right way, when you play a polyrhythm in a specific way, when you clap and play the drums in specific ways, it’s actually in motion,” she says. “It is in harmony.”

Two videos accompany the current album, for “Saint Margaret” and “Canary,” both following the character of Margaret Cornelius. A couple more are on the way. Filmed in Colombia, they star collaborator and co-producer Kevin Wenzel. While Tuelo herself does not appear in them, the visuals are still very attuned to her South African roots.

Tuelo emphasizes the impact music has on South African life.

“We sing a lot. It’s normal to sing; intensely,” she says. During apartheid, music became a means of survival, a bonding tactic for cultural community and was inseparable with anything else.

“Protesting is in harmony with dancing in South Africa. I feel like that keeps a movement going. You can’t just be angry, you have to have to be happy within it and have a level of breathing room,” she says, laughing, before adding that South Africans have are one of the most protest-inclined people. The music and harmony are how they maintain momentum.

Tuelo grew up in a large family that grew even larger with her parents’ community activism and charity. They wanted their children to understand others’ plights, engaging their children in community work and inviting people in need to stay at their home. Tuelo even recalls her father having his children read the papers every morning and report back of the world’s news.

She sees rock as a form of protest, truth-telling and vulnerability. She notes there’s often a hesitation to call her music “rock” or hear it as such. But nevertheless, it very much is.

“I think that movements need to continue for the world to be better,” she says. “Whether it’s your heart movement, your spiritual or activist journey or whatever, just keep it going.”

Despite taking her years to complete her debut, she ended up recording close to two albums’ worth of music in the process. The second has yet to take distinct shape, but she says it may be even more personal, informed by her own experience with apartheid.

“And I’ll write a love album; one day, when I fall in love,” she says, laughing. “I’ll just go all-out Adele on everyone.”

Follow Domenic Strazzabosco at Twitter.com/domenicstrazz and Instagram.com/domenicstrazz.