images courtesy of Penya Records // Photography by Sven Torfinn
A Few years ago I was hosting a radio show on Sundays at Capital FM called The Lounge – with Leo and Chao. One fine day, Nana put together an interview and performance by a group of dudes called Stan and Benji. I often brushed off many local artists because many think they are larger than life, so often I am a little reserved about meeting new talent and stuff. The day we debuted Stan and Benji – I didn’t even get a chance to sample the product before we put the mic on.
But during the on air session when Chao and I let the mic’s rip so that these two dudes can sing and do their thing. I FELL OFF THE CHAIR. Literary. Stan could play the guitar, do amazing things with his mouth and all these funny acoustic eclectic sounds came out that left me in awe.
Today Stan is working on his Solo album – his debut album under Penya Records which is run and executive produced by Wawesh (Mr. Mjanja). I am glad Wawesh is back in Kenya for good – we need some different type of music mentality back home. Wawesh was able to facilitate artwork, song, acapella, and album within a week of request. I cant say how much this goes to change how we will be able to run and manage this music industry. We cant push material if its not available, if it takes ages to communicate with Kenya – and more importantly if the different music standards are not available. for that THANKS WAWESH.
This is my favorite track off the album that will be available for purchase on GetMziki and Amazon at a later point this year. But to all Afro soul lovers this is one of the few songs you need to start banging. I like the Swahili and English integration, but what I really like and admire the most is STANs voice – I will continue to bow down to this cat. I told Stan after his radio interview that he will be a STAR one day.. and i think STAN is not only on his way to becoming a superstar but he will probably be the official lead vocalist in Kenya if he continues steady at his pace… GOOD Luck my brother!!
listen to Gachungwa here:
[audio:http://files.getmziki.com/Gachungwa_-_Album_version.mp3]get a hold of the acapella:
get a hold of the instrumental (Wawesh production):
download the track here:
watch the video here:
