Rising Stars: Meet Praxilla Music

Today we’d like to introduce you to Praxilla Music.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Praxilla describes itself as “a human heart in collaboration with artificial intelligence.” It’s a digital artist project that you created and produce, covering songwriting, production and performance. The name has two parts: “Prax” stands for practice and building skill through dedication, and “Illa” stands for excellence and mastery. Together they mean greatness earned through consistent effort. It also shares its name with Praxilla of Sicyon, a female lyric poet from ancient Greece.

29 Nov 2024: Cater Me (debut single)
5 Dec: How Will I Know
7 Dec: On the Menu
11 Dec: My Best Investment
12 Dec: Shining Star
13 Dec: Heart vs Mind
18 Dec: The Declaration
19 Dec: Oooh Ah (a dance track)
20 Dec: Fire and Cities
27 Dec: Even a Brush Needs a Good Brush

The debut album: First Chapter (20 Dec 2024)
The album has 11 tracks and collects the whole run of singles, Cater Me and How Will I Know included.

2025: a new direction
Dear Woman (15 Feb 2025) is the latest release. It’s filed as R&B/Soul, while the earlier releases are pop and dance, so it marks a shift in sound. Praxilla is live on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and YouTube (@PraxillaMusic).

Eighteen and a half years old before she passed, The name was Versace, nicknamed Cici, a white cat was Romagna Sasabone’s shadow and her best friend. She was there through the tours, the studio nights and the quiet mornings in Cape Town. She curled up beside the piano while songs were being written, sat on scattered lyric sheets, and saw many chapters of her life. When she passed away, the house went silent in a way no music could fill.

Romagna had spent her life turning feeling into sound. She had sung on MTV stages, mentored countless artists and released three albums of her own. But this grief was different. It didn’t fit into the songs she already knew how to write. So she did what she had always taught her students to do: she practiced. Every day she sat down with her loss and turned it into something new.

That is how Praxilla was born.

The name holds her story. **”Prax”** is practice: showing up every day, even when it hurts. **”Illa”** is excellence, the mastery that comes from that devotion. Praxilla is a human heart in collaboration with artificial intelligence, a new kind of artist created to carry what one voice alone could not.

And she looks like the love that inspired her. Praxilla is half white cat, half woman. Soft white fur frames one side of her face, with a pale, watchful eye and a delicate ear that hears everything. The other side is a woman: warm, expressive, graceful. She is both the friend who was lost and the woman who loved her, joined in one figure. She never quite leaves. She just changes shape.

Starting at the end of November 2024, the songs came one after another, almost faster than grief could hold them. *Cater Me* came first. Then *How Will I Know*, a question every grieving heart asks. *Heart vs Mind*, *Shining Star*, *Cities*, *Fire*, *The Declaration*: each single was a step through the loss. On 20 December 2024, they came together as the album ***First Chapter***. The title fits: it marks the end of one life shared and the beginning of another.

By the time *Dear Woman* arrived in February 2025, the sound had softened into soul. The grief hadn’t disappeared, but it had found a home.

Praxilla is Romagna’s way of saying what every animal lover knows: the ones we lose never really leave us. Sometimes they become the music.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it hasn’t been a smooth road. It has been a very honest one, though.

Praxilla came out of grief. I lost my white cat, my best friend of eighteen and a half years, and I had to create while my heart was broken. Some days, just sitting down to write or produce took everything I had. People didn’t always see that. They saw a new project, a concept, a costume. They didn’t always see that every song was me working through a loss.

The hardest part was acceptance, especially from the people closest to me. Family and friends who have known me for years as a singer, a producer and a teacher suddenly saw me as the white cat lady. Some of them laughed, some were confused, and some just didn’t understand why I would do something so unusual. To them it looked strange. To me it was the most personal thing I had ever made.

When I performed as Praxilla, I wore a costume made by Jalene Burger, who beautifully brought the half white cat, half woman to life. I had a live band behind me. On stage it felt amazing. It was real musicians, real emotion, and this character that carried my story. But people couldn’t get used to the idea. They didn’t know how to take it. Was it a joke? A gimmick? Was it me, or wasn’t it?

It was me. Probably more me than anything I had done before.

I’ve learned that when you create something new, people need time to catch up with it. Not everyone will understand the depth or the art behind it, and that’s okay. I didn’t make Praxilla to be understood right away. I made her to heal, and to honour a friend who was with me through the most important times of my life. The people who do get it, who have lost someone they loved and feel that in the music, make every difficult moment worth it.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a singer, songwriter and producer based in Cape Town, but my work has never fit into just one box.

Many people first knew me as the lead vocalist of the Dutch pop group R.O.O.O.M. We released our debut album *First Chapter* on EMI in 2007, performed on TMF and MTV, and toured the world. After that I made three Taekwon-Do Albums under the artist name Tae Kwon and went on to release some singles under different project names and also three solo albums under my real name: *The Valley*, *Songs for Days* and *Her Temple*. Today I create and produce my own artist projects, such as Romy Jay and Praxilla. Praxilla is a half white cat, half woman character. She is a human heart in collaboration with AI, and she was born out of losing my best friend, my white cat of eighteen and a half years. I also founded ME Academy in Cape Town, where I’ve mentored many artists and helped them find their voice and develop their craft.

Music is only one side of me. I’m a qualified martial arts and Qigong instructor, and I co-own Do Martial Arts Centre in Cape Town. I’ve coached many national and continental Taekwon-Do champions and trained many women working in the stunt and film industry. I’m also qualified in healing (CNT and Neuro Kinesiology), and I play guitar, piano, bass and drums.

**What I’m most proud of** is the people i have worked with. Seeing an artist I mentored step onto a stage with confidence, or a student win a championship, means more to me than any chart or TV appearance. I’m also very proud of Praxilla. Turning grief into an album, and having the courage to perform it in costume with a live band, even when people didn’t understand it, was one of the most honest things I’ve ever done.

**What sets me apart** is that I bring discipline, spirituality and healing into everything I create. Martial arts taught me that mastery comes from daily practice. Healing taught me that art should move something in people. I’ve been on both sides of the camera, on the world stage and in the classroom, so I understand the artist’s journey from every angle. And I’ve always stood up for the vulnerable, whether that’s children, animals or anyone who needs a voice. That’s what drives my work.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I think the next ten years will change music more than the last thirty did.

AI is going to be everywhere, and the heart will matter more than ever. Praxilla is a human heart in collaboration with AI, so I have been living this shift already. AI will make it possible for anyone to create a song in minutes. That means the world will be flooded with music, and the only thing that will cut through is truth. Tools don’t grieve, love or heal. People do. The artists who last will be the ones who use technology to carry a real story, not to replace it.

Artists will become worlds, not just voices. We’re moving toward characters, visual identities and experiences that live across music, video, fashion and performance. Praxilla, the half white cat, half woman, is part of that. I believe audiences will get more comfortable with artists who show up as something beyond themselves. People didn’t understand it at first, but I think in five years it will feel natural.

Live music will become even more precious. The more digital everything gets, the more people will hunger for real musicians in a real room. A live band, a costume, a shared moment: that’s something no algorithm can give you. I think live performance will become the heart of an artist’s value again.

Independence will keep growing. When I started, you needed a major label like EMI to be heard. Now I can release music straight to the world through my own label. More artists will own their music, their masters and their careers. But that also means they’ll need real mentorship, business skills and discipline, which is exactly why I believe in what we do at ME Academy.

Africa’s voice will get louder. South African and African sounds are already traveling the world, and that’s only going to grow. I’m proud to be creating from Cape Town at this moment, eventhough I was born in the Netherlands and from Moluccan/Italian descent.

And music will return to healing. I think more people will turn to music for emotional and spiritual wellbeing, not just entertainment. Praxilla was born from grief, and the response I get from people who have lost someone shows me there’s a real need for art that helps people feel and process. That’s the direction I’m most excited about.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://music.amazon.in/artists/B09M9D7PXH/praxilla
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/praxilla_music/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RomyJay.Fanpage/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PraxillaMusic
• Other: https://voyagela.com/interview/life-work-with-praxilla-music-artist-of-cape-town/