The Observer (Kampala)
Simon Musasizi
6 March 2008
Martin Angume's hit single; Guli Mu Gear has propelled him to the limelight after several years of keeping his candle burning behind bushes.
The song parades great instrumentals, sweet melody and a message for lovers. It has penetrated the soft cushions of our imagination by demonstrating how love too can work in gears.
Released last year, Guli Mu Gear has kept its stake on the charts and after a round of other singles, the once casual labourer is finally gaining public recognition and fairly competing in a language that is not his mother tongue.
If you have heard strains of 'ogwange guli mu gear nene...' on the FM radios or TV, then you know the song in question. When I set out to interview Angume, I did not know it would take a while before I could get his contact. For an entertainment writer, getting an artiste's number is the simplest job. But not for Angume! You need several days calling his boss, Kato Lubwama who can also only get it from his colleagues in Diamonds Production.
Not even the Pearl of Africa Music (PAM) Awards with over 1000 registered artistes have his contact in their data bank. But when we finally talk, he accepts an interview that very day at 6p.m. at Cooper Complex.
He is wearing faded jeans and a tight white T-shirt that delineates his burly body and bulging tummy. And as we walk through the Old Taxi Park for a convenient interview milieu at Astoria Hotel above the park, his fans can't keep off letting him know he is their celebrity.
"Mukoze sente ssebo!" says a young man reaching out for his hand, meaning you have made a lot of money. Another young lady taps a friend, "y'oyo" meaning he is the one.
Clad in white shoes with a black baseline, he elegantly commands respect. The tall and dark-skinned singer maintains a beautiful smile accentuated by a gap that introduces you to a jolly and welcoming Angume.
"People sometimes create their own meaning of something. When they hear Guli Mu Gear, they start to think of sex. And yet I meant too much love. How do you control it," he says as he slumps lazily on a white plastic chair at the hotel.
"Because gear number one usually never fails, you find yourself succeeding," he adds. Born in 1976 to Kakwa parents in Bugerere, Kayunga, Angume started music in primary four in the school's music, dance and drama club. A fifth child in a family of 11, he dropped out of school in primary five following his father's loss of his business in charcoal, because he was linked to rebel activities.
Life became hard as an invisible armour of problems closed in on a family that now depended on their mother, a vendor of food items in Bugerere. The singer decided to join his brother in Kampala.
Staying in Kamwokya, Angume made a living working as a casual labourer on trucks at Kalitusi, near Queens Way. He would earn from loading and offloading trucks with sand.
But because he came from a Christian family, he never worked on Saturdays. He would go to pray at the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church in Kamwokya.
Here, he revived his school talent of singing and sailed through quickly to become the choir trainer.
"We performed at different crusades and I was invited in different churches to train their choirs," Angume recalls. When the truck he used to load was sold, he decided to concentrate on church work, but soon he realised it wasn't paying. He would only receive transport, something that forced him to join secular music.
"Gospel artistes are not financially supported that's why more and more [artistes] are running away. God gave us these talents to utilise them to gain a living but gospel artistes are taken for granted," he notes.
One day, while at Top View bar where a band comprising of Rasta Eddie, Chance Nalubega, Ssali and many other artistes used to perform, his girlfriend requested him to perform for the audience.
"That time, I never thought I would join secular music. I told her, 'I can only do gospel music and yet we are in a bar'," Angume recalls.
The singer knew how to play a keyboard and when the organisers allowed him on stage, he wowed many revellers who gave him "a lot of money."
"I was overwhelmed. I never knew music was paying," he recalls.
A reveller who attended the show tipped him that Kato Lubwama was recruiting new members for his group, Diamonds Production after some members quit to form Eagles Production.
"I went to Bat Valley where I did the interviews and Kato Lubwama liked me so much that he called me the next Jimmy Katumba," Angume says.
Together with people like Travis Kazibwe a.k.a Dr.Tee and Betty Mpologoma whom he used to perform with at crusades, they formed a new Diamonds Production.
Angume and Mpologoma recorded Ekadde Lyange and Ensimbi, which were written by Dr. Tee. Angume also composed his first track, Jennifer and in 2000, the duo produced their maiden album, Kirimudungu with 6 tracks.
In 2001, Angume quit Diamonds Production to start his own group, Marbles Production with artistes like Phoebe Nassolo, Getrude Nalule, and Karim Nsubuga among others. But due to financial constraints, the group could not carry on and in 2003, it was shelved.
When Dr. Tee and Betty Mpologoma quit Diamonds Production, they teamed up to form Kuts Productions with other artistes such as Mariam Mulindwe, Joseph Mulindwe, Chris Wajjadi, Getrude Nalule and Nathan Bweranga.
"We started big but were later divided by people who praised us individually that we were better than others,"
In 2005, he decided to go solo. While in Kuts, he had done a solo project, Landlord, which had 6 tracks; Sebene, Ekirungo Ky'Omukwano. He had also worked on his second project with Mpologoma, Namudigu verses Tinkula.
When he rejoined Diamonds Production in 2006, his first track with the group, Tokyuka didn't receive much airplay following it up with the breakthrough Guli Mu Gear last year.
The six-track album has other songs like Nafunye Ono, Nalunze, Akafananyi, Kangende Nono, Mukama Nzinze.
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