User talk:Kenneth Mugabi

KENNETH MUGABI’s UGANDAN ALBUM
Kenneth Mugabi PR – UGANDAN “My best song is always the one I have just written.” Treading in the footsteps of his Kadongo Kamu ancestors comes Kenneth Mugabi with his second album “Ugandan”. Kadongo Kamu is an old Ugandan style of music that falls somewhere between traditional African story-telling, blues and country & western. Characterised by hypnotic instrumentals and melodic vocals full of wordplay, Kadongo Kamu tells everyday stories with bittersweet humour and love. Ugandan is a succession of stories that resonate far beyond the borders of Uganda. Disguised as love songs, this is a narration of our existential dilemmas, the hopes of people everywhere in this rapidly-changing world. The threads running through Mugabi’s album are human universals, rendered in an unmistakably local language: personal transformation, loyalty, the importance of community and identity… - “Oliwa” (“Where are you?”) tells how a young man leaves his father’s security and comfort behind in order to become a man - “Nkakwanye ntya” (or “How to woo”) is a hypnotic buganda ballad, tutoring the listener on courtship with delicious insight on East African culture - “Nkwegomba” (“I admire you”) is a very personal admission of the transformative power of love “I’m trying to pull my elder’s ear, at the same time pull a teenager’s ear, using language and story-telling. The up-to-date sound I use pulls in the young audience. The themes of love pull in everybody. I do the opposite of inciting violence. At the end of the day, it is all about love.” He sees little difference between blues, reggae, soul and Kadongo Kamu. “It all comes from the same source, employs the same scales, explores the same ideas.” Citing influences from Lightning Hopkins, local reggae-dancehall and traditional Baganda culture, Kenneth sees his music as a unifying force. The collaborations he sought for the album are themselves a powerful statement of this intent: “Downtown and uptown are divided here. I did the collabo with downtown artist Maureen Nantume to unite with a totally different audience. For a Ugandan, it’s like putting heavy metal with opera, something like Bohemian Rhapsody.” As a live performer, Mugabi is shockingly emotional and expressive, almost like a stage actor. For him, there is no divide for him between acting, performing music and real life. “I am married to my art. It is the main relationship in my life, my marriage. I put everything into my music. I archive my emotions and feelings and put them into my songs. I never explain my songs before playing. If you listen carefully, you might not understand what I am saying, but you will read my emotions.” Kenneth Mugabi (talk) 17:41, 7 September 2019 (UTC)