Brace for Sonye’s solo return! From Tsika Msungwana to Lokolo
If the song ‘Tsika’ by Sonye was the kind of song that swept your feet in hangout joints, your favorite radio frequencies, homes or in any social gathering, then brace yourself for yet another blast; Lokolo.
‘Lokolo’ will be the first Solo project for the renowned singer/producer in over three years set for release on June 4.
As the title itself suggests, ‘Lokolo’ is fusion of local music from the streets with Sonye’s well known studio ingenuity.
“My inspiration of lokolo was drawn from musicians that play music in the streets just to survive. It is always a one-man band and their stories are funny and controversial. That is pure local Malawian stuff,” said Sonye through a press statement made available to Malawi News Agency (Mana).
According to Sonye, Lokolo is a continuation on the foundation set by the hit song Tsika.
“Tsika was an experiment that worked for everyone in the country and also got recognition outside the borders. I figured out that I had discovered a sound that we can call Malawian.
“So I decided to experiment with the fusion and concept of Tsika project in the new song. The aim was to see how to make traditional sounds more vibrant and massive. Just like that, Lokolo was made” says Sonye through the statement.
According to the established hit-maker, Lokolo is 100 percent a Malawian song and is all about dancing through local or traditional dance moves.
Through the statement, Sonye says he believes in making happy music for people. He added that Tsika was also inspired by the warmth of the people from Malawi.
“I managed to capture the warmth of Malawians as happy people no matter what situation we are in. Despite being called the poorest country in the world, we are still happy people,” he said.
Sonye said production of the song went to great extent in trying to make sure the song remained local. He boasted that the guitar used was an actual ethnic guitar in order to produce an actual ethnic sound, a feat he could not achieve if he had used an electric one.
“The song is amazing. We decided to keep it local and use a man-made box guitar. People will be amazed by the creative process that went into the song.
“Also a lot of great musicians contributed to it. For example, the song features female vocals from the amazing Lilia with her beautiful voice and guitars by Manyozo and Desire,” he said.
The celebrated musician has since encouraged fellow Malawians, especially the youth to make local things ‘cool’ as he says cool local material can be showcased on the international music scene.
Sonye started working on Lokolo in 2014 but only came back to the project sometime last year.
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