 Guys, welcome to SPM Buzz. My good name is Ms. Ketinchie. This is Buzz. It's Tarzan right here. I am hanging out with the legendary super choreographer, super judge, Edu, the coach. Hi, Edu. How are you doing? I'm doing fine. How are you? I'm doing great. It's been a long time. I haven't seen you around. What have you been up to? I've been around. I've been around in and out of the country. Kidogo, putting a few pieces together here and there. Working behind the scenes, because sometimes it's important. They say that's where the money is. Is that true? Yeah, of course. When you're working behind the scenes, that's where the money is. Because you get to eat it by yourself. In front of the scene, you share with a lot of people. Yeah, okay. It makes a lot of sense. Now, you know, Edu being a dance choreographer and a judge. Music is something you interact with a lot. And probably just inspiring the young kids. But we all know African parents, us growing up, dance was not something you were allowed to do. How come that you actually embraced dance at a very young age and you continue to? Ah, that is a very, very serious topic. But my mom supported me, Sana, when it came to dance, even my big bro. So I had the support. Yeah, but at some point, it was bumpy. But then I had to make that decision like, you know what? I want to keep dancing, so I danced. Then got an opportunity to also go to a dance school out of the country, which I did. That was later on. But you know, Kitambo, there was no school. There was nothing. In this country, there wasn't. Not like now. There was no social media where you can see, look at what people are doing, jump on those challenges that you see. Killer Siku, you know, the Amapiano style, the Niger guys, it wasn't there. So for me, it was just watching TV. You have to watch the music time and all these things. If they'll bring an MJ thing, you get to see what you see, you pick at that moment. So it was like this, quick. Yeah, but I got a lot of support from family members. Then moved, then here I am. The rest is just history. They actually say, you know, the parents and family start to accept you when it starts making money. That's very true, that's true. Because even my dad was like, in and in Nafanya, you know, my dad was an engineer. And you see those old dads, yeah? Eh, there was nothing like you. So he was like, what is this? Until later on, started looking at it like, eh, come back here to Nisiriya. You know, then I took off, went to Dubai, Hong Kong, Korea, stayed out there for quite some time. Then they was like, oh, I'm a ender because of this thing. So this is serious, yeah? So then now the support started coming in Polipole. Until now here I am doing choreography. I don't dance anymore. I only dance when I'm teaching. Only when I'm teaching. But I do a lot of directing shows and all that, you know, music video for artists. Trying to push them to also dance. Because for them to step up, they have to be able to shake their body and their, especially when it comes to concerts. You can't just sing and let the dancers do the work. You have to be part of it. Now I have to ask this, now that you've mentioned that, do you think you can actually succeed as an artist and get to the highest level when you're just a singer and not really a performer? Because I hear there's a difference. Yeah, you have to be a performer. At the end of the day, you have to be a performer, unless you don't want to do any live shows. If you don't want to do live shows, sour, you don't have to be a performer. Sing in the studio, release your songs, make money, YouTube and all these other stuff. But if you want to go on stage, perform for people who are paid to come and watch you, you have to be a performer. Being a performer is not just about dance. No, no, no, no, no. Many people confuse that. Being a performer, you be on stage and be able to handle your crowd. You know, use of your space. How do you put together your piece when you're performing? How do you work with your DJ, your band? You know, if you have vocal singers, backup singers, how do you work with them? As in, how do you bring the whole piece together? You know, at what point do you interact with your audience? Performance is a big subject. It's a big subject. Do you think in Kenya, or rather, what percentage would you give Kenyan artists to our performers? Zero to 100 percent, what percentage? The ones who perform well. The ones who perform well, one out of 100. Hey, there are some that are really good. I won't mention today, but around 85. Really? The ones who are good, yes. And you'll get to see them, the ones who are good. But the rest, we keep pushing. We keep pushing because, you know, it's all about preparation. What many artists run away from, even our artist is preparation. Guys don't prepare. You know your song, you have your DJ, you always think and believe that it turned out to, that I end up to come out and go. No, no, no, you prepare for each show that you get, each performance you prepare, and you have to invest your time when it comes to preparation. You have to work on your music. You have, you can't go and perform your music the way we listen to your music, Quaredo Kila Siku. What is the difference? The way we watch it on YouTube? No, no, no, you have to work on it. Put in breaks. When the breaks are there, what are you doing about it? You know, do you have dancers? Do you have moments, moments that people will listen and be like, why? Do you have a designer? What's your look on stage? You know, all these things, they add up when you come on stage. You just don't show up with a black jeans and a t-shirt and you want to do a 30 minute show. At some point it will be boring. Sometimes people, when you're watching a concert, there are people who want to listen to the music, there are people who want to see you, the artist, you know, they want to see that belt. If you check your belt, they will say, you know, they want to see things happening. The jacket, you throw it aside, put on another one. Those are things that add up when you're on stage. It's just something that all artists, they have to embrace that. They can't escape that, they can't. Anytime I'm working with any artist, that is what I put on the table first. What are we doing on stage? How do you capture people for like an hour? How do you capture people? Remember, they know your songs. How do you capture them with a performance? Because when you go on stage as an artist, you owe people something. They paid at the entrance. You're not the boss anymore. They're your boss. They've employed you. But artists miss that line. They tend to believe like, you know, I'm on stage, me mean you're not same, I mean you're superstar. But people are paid. What if they didn't pay? What if you came and you found like the space is empty? What would you do? So, those are your bosses. So you have to deliver. You owe them. Definitely a different perspective or not that you guys need to look into. Now Edu, let's talk about why we're here today. We're here because committee, community, festival talent is happening. How does it feel, you know, being part of this different kind of event, you know, judging it? Me, I love, I love, I love watching people grow. People starting from scratch all the way. Because even at Sarakasi, that is what we do. We do not take professional artists. We pick guys who are interested to learn. Then we teach them from scratch up to that professional level. So for me being here, this is what I'm seeing. I'm seeing guys who are still like, you know, they have that will to do it. They have that love. They want to do it better. They want to be good. They want to be great. And that's what I like seeing. So for me being here, it's unknown. I was told to come here. I didn't even ask anything. I just want to go there. I just want to see these guys. And I wish we can create time, maybe not today, but just to come back again. For me, I would like to come back again when they're rehearsing so that now we started from the scratch now. Now, because I've seen, I've recorded pieces that I'll go look again. I've taken notes, but we'll come back again. I'll arrange with these guys over here with the crime scene power guys and come back here again and just now try to get guys to level up Kabisa Malina Takikana. So that the time they'll step out there, they are artists. And by the way, do you know, you can even record music here and still get paid and make money while you're in here. You can, you can, yeah, yeah, yeah. You make your money. Even dancers, you can do a lot of stuff. So I want to come back here. Okay, now let me ask you because you've been in the industry since the days of Sakata, you know, coming through to the TPF. And now we have the era of TikTok where we have like, you know, if you're a dancer, you have your phone, you can record and dance. How do you feel the industry is going on especially when it comes to dance? That question, when TikTok dancers listen to me speak, sometimes they look at me like, where were you? You're old. You know, what happens with TikTok? TikTok is good. It's good. So once the phone, record, post, you get viewers, you know, your name is out there. It's good. It's doing very good. It's putting guys out there. Our time, there was nothing like that. You would work extra hard for people to even know your name. You know, it was like next to impossible. Mission impossible. You see, for now, TikTok, you just burst moves to simple moves and you're out there. It is good for dancers. It is good for any artist, even an upcoming artist. Even if you're not a dancer, TikTok, you can burst move and you can get million views and million followers, you know. What I tell dancers is, do not let that get into your head. You still need to wake up. If it is jogging, go jogging, work extra, become a professional dancer. There's TikTok dancer and there's a professional dancer. Professional dancer is whereby, today, if you wake up one day and you find TikTok has been shut down, IG has been shut down, and all these other socials, yes, they are all down, you will still survive as a dancer, you know. And that depends. Did you work? Or you were just Bangaizaiing, you know. You have to work, you know, get your body lines, you know, dancers, you have lines. Get your body lines, get your technique, your dance technique well, master it. Then all the rest will just flow. So I always tell them, like, sometimes you see, you find dancers, they do TikTok and they forget the professional side of dancing. Where by now, you know, when you're put on stage to perform for an audience seated like this, you don't go do TikTok over there. You don't do that. You'll now be required to, like, sasa pigashutkuone, now dance. Now that is what I keep telling them. Be ready for all of that. Last question, Edu, your career involves consuming music. And we have seen the conversation that has been going on online that Kenyans are consuming Tanzanian music than Kenyan music. Why do you think that is happening? For music, I think it's just how we package ourselves, you know, packaging ourselves and also producers, music producers also... I think to work extra, they're doing good, but just to work a bit extra so that if somebody comes to you, and just an example, if somebody comes to you and you feel like they can't sing, it's okay for a producer to say it, to tell them that, man, say, Badoo, Badoo, you can't sing. You know, it's not just the money. Not that if I go to the studio today and I have 100K, you'll record anything I bring to you. You know, at times you have to also advise and tell the guy, and also the guys who are coming with the music also to open their mind so that they are given direction. Nigeria guys and whatever, those guys, they have also very good producers who try and lead them. It's not just you can sing and you come and record. And then packaging our music, our music videos, everything, you know, everything, this is a market. This is business. This is business. You have to package yourself well. If you leave your house and your hair is not well kept, your clothing is not well kept, you'll peter and nobody will notice you. If you leave your house and you've taken care of yourself, you package yourself well, you'll get a lot of attention out there. Same with music. Music, put yourself in there, package your music, make your music video stance. It looks good. Costumes for the dancers, the dressing, the location, video shoots, make it work. Then, of course, Kenyans will appreciate. Yeah? And you see, the problem is, yeah? The problem is, yeah? The minute people, when me as a musician, I do not do a good job with my first song, second, third, it becomes very difficult even when I do the fourth song well because people have already drifted. And you find people are now out there just trying to find, like, who's Davido? Ah, Davido meto Angoma Mumpia, Davido meto. So even if that song is not good, it's not big, it's Davido because of that package that he started with. Diamond today. When will you hear Aiyongo Maedamondikwende uko sasa? Because of packaging. So right now, he has freedom to even just play anything. That's why sometimes he's not even singing. It's just beats and he's just grooving, he's dancing, and he scores. And he scores. So for us also, it's just kiddo go to, the talent is there, tenacapsa, no question about it. But guys just need to, you know? And then our guys also, we need to open our minds so that we're able to receive that criticism properly. You know? So not that if we criticize you, when you say less, no, no, no, no. We need, you need to be criticized for you to be good. Otherwise, if we praise, praise, praise, then when you go out there, you don't have numbers. Then what's the point? Do you feel it's the experts who understand the show business that we don't have in Kenya? Or do you think it's the artists who are not really open to spending money on that because you have to spend money? So at times, most of the times, it's artists not being, you know, investing in their art. You know, they have to go and invest. You have to invest if you need to have 30 dancers, invest and have them there. If they're the ones who are going to lift that video, put them there. If you're going to get a director from all over, even if it's from out of the country, do it, invest and you will get there. Thank you so much. Thank you, Edu. We're going to let you go when they learn how to judge. Thank you. Thank you. All right, guys. That was a super dancer, choreographer, judge, Edu, the coach. Thank you so much for watching Buzz It's Taz. My good name is Miskit Hinchie. Until next time, keep it at SPM Buzz.