Edgar R. Batte
29 February 2008
column
Last year's Tusker Project Fame contest saw the Ugandan contestants, Melton Cephas Ibaale alias Rockamilley and Paul Ashley Lwanga Masajjage, walk out of the house empty handed after Kenya's Valarie Kimani won the competition.
However, all hope was not lost. A year down the road, the two representatives talk to us on how the project impacted on their lives and how they are faring.
After leaving the house, Melton went straight to studio, to record an 11-track album titled Don't Say Goodbye. With an album under his sleeve, it spells of a hopeful future for him in the local music industry where he wants to uniquely define himself into seemingly untapped genres like pop music, alternative rock and soul.
"I consider myself an artiste who knows best what to do and I respect that with the kind of genres I have specialised in, I will be a unique brand," Rockamilley, also a talented pianist and guitarist, states.
Paul Lwanga, the last Ugandan contestant to have left the house on the other hand, is yet to hit the studio to record his forthcoming16-track album that he expects to out mid this year.
Lwanga who has in the last one year done studio background vocals for a couple of renowned artistes and luminaries, first gave his shot at fame during the Coca-cola pop stars when the Blu*3 girl trio came into being and losing out in Mombasa was not going to set him back.
When he left TPF1, it wasn't his idea to record immediately. The challenge had taken its toll on him while in the house. He knew he needed sometime.
"While in the house, it had occurred to me that East African music had no identity and unlike South African music, whereby simply listening to a song, you would tell their music, we had no common sound," Lwanga, whose eviction from the house choked Uganda's chances.
It was an immediate calling into research his reason for taking time to work on his album. He has gone out to listen to a number of styles from around the region, both from back then and the current music thus the deductions of no identity for East African music.
He blames this mostly on digital influence on the music, which he thinks underlines the back-seat syndrome where artistes seem to be sucked more into digital production. Thus for him it will be more instrumentation, and less digital. He plans to work with Moses Radio who also took part in the Coca-cola pop star competitions back then, Qute Kaye and Maurice Kirya with whom he's written a number of songs for the album.
For the album, he is looking at employing production skills of Pragmo, Allan Okia of D-Record who's produced for the likes of Sweet Kid, Toolman and Rocky Giant as well as Mike Ouma, a guitarist and producer.
However, these are guys you won't meet at the big shows. Rockamilley for instance, believes it will be a matter of time before a considerable crowd will give audience to his music. For now, he's garnered fans at private corporate functions, at weddings and has also performed for the president thanks to his Afro-pop song, The Revolutionary a feel-good song for freedom fighters.
On the Don't Say Goodbye (also title track) album are other songs like Believe me, Only you, When you Need me Again, A Cry in the Wilderness, The Letter, Ngayaya and Back to you which host humanitarian, love renditions and gospel songs.
A dental surgery graduate whose love for music has not allowed him practice as much, dedicates the album to his parents and people that have believed in him. That includes former host at the TPF Gaetano Kaggwa who was spellbound when Rockamilley performed Elvis Presley's Suspicious Minds live with a guitar.
"He said 'You have seen Michael Jackson turn from black to white but this time Elvis Presley has turned black'," Rockamilley, who's also Gospel Soul show presenter on WBS, recalls.
For a spin off into the Nairobi market, he is also looking at doing a musical collaboration with 2006 winner Valerie Kimani, soon.
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