 Okay, this is one thing before even getting started with the interview like can you just give it up for the visuals? I mean The video is so therapeutic, but then I get to ping-a-pong TV and I just go heal It's so peaceful any I don't even know anyway, like I told you before we took that break now today's guest Now where do I even start? I told you he's an award-winning singer a song writer And he's also a self-taught percussionist He's a guitarist how's a bachelor's degree in communication and you know the craziest thing He turned down a chance actually a scholarship chance at Buckley To work on his music in Kenya and ladies and gentlemen if you still don't know who I'm talking about Give it up for I Do great, huh? You're doing great like so humble. Thank you so much for coming through You know the runner it's not easy to get people to leave their houses and just like go for interviews and stuff So super humble thing, you know just coming through. All right. So first things first are you are in the music? Okay, it's industry of business. You know the ad I was told there's a difference. So are you in the business or the industry? I'm definitely Because I think when you think of it as a business That's how you make a living that how you met a living from music because other people by the way you've met those people who ask you like So apart from music, what else do you do because they know? Like music doesn't say it doesn't seem like you have to have something else. Yeah Those kids know wrong So is music really what you just wanted to do from day one you're just like your mom dad I mean just take me to music school. I'll focus in school. You're just like I want to do music Was that the case for you because we hear people when I someone ends up in my niki what not two months? My parents told me I was just like humming How did that happen? I wrote my first song when I was 28 Right, so I've always in fact that I think the inspiring part of my story is I always tell people that my late bloomer Yeah, and that if you think is you think then there's never too late to start something. It's never too late So up until I was 28 really up until actually up until 2000 and Let's see 2011. I had never had aspirations of being a musician. I'd never considered myself to be a musician I'm the first in my family to pursue music or both sides, you know So there was no way for my parents to even know what someone is supposed to look like Who can be a potential potential musician? Yeah, all right, and and just still on that speaking of parents you turning down bucky I bet they were on your neck. They're like, are you crazy? This music thing. This is the chance of a lifetime. Like what are you doing? What they on your neck like that? Oh, are they just okay with it? Like it's your life You know, like okay, so this guy's at first it was like, okay, this is a hobby then he's hustled enough now He's gotten accepted into this prestigious university. Yeah, and then it's like, okay, cool All right, we're happy with that because education is key Then I'm just like, yeah, mom dad about that. I'm just not feeling it I'm Do you know, African parents are like that when you all fail or you do something they don't like They're like, no, they're like, you're your mom's son They're like, oh, I'm to Taco. Yeah, but when you do something great, they're like, you see, that is my son You see? That's what you guys know Yeah, that can be like that It's all right. No, but Built a lot of character I tell a lot of people that whatever you do you're always going to get opposition a lot of times It's from people that you care about people who aren't they're doing they're doing out of love, you know That's the crazy thing. Yeah, they feel like they're protecting you and trying to take care of you And that's the best way for them to show how that's how you know, they care, right? Okay, so After that like now this being a rock show, right and you're here. I stay too shiny some guys out there I don't even know you have some rock songs. Most of us really describe you as an Afro pop Artist is that right or how can you describe your sound? So one of the hardest things is the answer to that question How do you describe your sound? Yeah, and for a long time I was really trying to figure out, okay Okay, what's what's my son was my son, but I've actually finally settled on something. Yeah, I do alternative pop rock Right I like that because Jenna was talking to the DJ and I was like, okay, so I'm having to show you always like dude Listen to that guy which aspect of listen to you nicely, but after going through your songs You are just bombing out is like, ah, this is our fellow pop rock Yeah, yeah So I was like, yeah, it's easy. Yeah, all time. It's easy. Yeah. Yeah I'm trying to get pop rock. Is that how it is? Pop or alternative pop rock Yeah, and the craziest thing about this is that actually in this industry people have always, okay They've not been able to place me but what a lot of people don't know is that my roots are all rock Literally In high school, my favorite song was that sweater song by Weezer Bro, I went to Kampo. Yeah, I was in a place called Vancouver, which is the west coast of Canada and just listening to the Sounds of that region. Of course, there's also that Seattle sound. We're still going, you know, I was listening to We were always married for so much more Shout out to Sam Roberts, there's an amazing Canadian band called Sam Roberts. If you guys have never listened to them, they're amazing Sam Roberts That's on our segment I don't think they're really hard though, you know Yeah, it's more, yeah, it's probably more like, yeah, like soft rock Yeah, yeah, I think I've obviously listened to some of them Now, Titu, another thing I understand, you're an authentic singer and by authentic I mean that You listen to him, he actually understands music because he's also an instrumentalist. We talked about he's a guitarist He's a percussionist, so other than just writing music and singing, he actually understands the art of music So there's that you put in the work and you put in the effort and more like most of our rock artists right here in Kenya Yeah, they do a lot, they do a lot You know, all of them play other instruments, aside from just singing So you put on all that work, you're being authentic to yourself But then, do you ever feel the pressure to like just do music, just to fit in? Do you ever feel that pressure because like, you know, you're doing, you're working hard You're putting in the effort, you're doing more than some people And then they just come in with that hit song and now everybody knows their name and who they are But then you look at their music, you're like, yo, wait I do much more, I do much more So do you feel like you being true to yourself and doing what you love, do you ever feel the pressure to just like Change what you're doing, to do something different that is mainstream, just cause you wanna sell Do you ever feel that? I feel it every day Every single day, let me just be honest, I feel it every single day And I always joke with people that when you see me here like a musician, literally I quit music like every week I was actually going to ask that, yeah, you know Every week I quit music, I'm just like, forget this, you know you're going to burn your music But you know, what always keeps me going with the kind of music that I create and the authenticity attached to it Is that almost every day there's someone who reaches out to me and tells me how my music has touched them And they're talking some real deep stuff like I was going through depression and there was this song that I was listening to and it would cheer me I was in this rough place and I'd feel inspired by Africa's sun and be like, no, no, I can't forget this, I'm Africa's sun That is the stuff that always brings me back, you know When you're a niche musician, you can sometimes feel bad, you're like, okay, why am I not getting YouTube views? Why am I not getting this kind of support for ABCD 1, 2, 3 And you know comparison is a real thing But I think what keeps me grounded is to think of like, you know, the beautiful fans The fans Literally have names, you know, sometimes we talk about fans like they're magic They're not human beings, you know They're talking for us because it's just that one person with those two girls Yeah, the people you admire You understand that life Yeah, true, true, true, true And also on everything, now you know, actually that's one in two questions First of all, how has COVID affected you personally as an artist? And question number two, before COVID, I was following you closely We've met last year actually for the first time Yeah, at the Rock Awards, yeah He also presented, yeah Oh, at the awards? Yeah, what? That's where we met I know bro, we did I think he probably remembers me He probably remembers me because maybe I hosted it, that's why So, that's where we met And during that time, I started following you closely And I realized you have this thing called Journey to a Thousand And it was really picking up So tell us about Journey to a Thousand For those guys who are not following you closely And then did it stop because of COVID? Is that one of the ways it has affected you as an artist? Or what's happening? So Journey to a Thousand was a concert series That I started based on a problem that I identified in the Kenyan music scene Which was this I noticed that there are a few celebs Not too many, but there are some celebs But that they don't really have a real fan base And what I mean by that is I know people who can get 300,000 views on a YouTube video But cannot bring 50 people to a show Aha, still Do you understand what I'm saying? Okay, just still on that, let me just cut you short You'll see an artist, a Kenyan artist, or even just a celeb Two million followers, they go live And 30 people 30 people, 33 Ken Desana You know You guys are so funny But you know, we have to accept that reality before we can change it It's a sad reality And what that means is that I realize that celebrity is distance Distance, though, doesn't pay the bills Human beings pay the bills, especially when you're a creative So then I began to realize, okay, wait a minute I need to build my following especially live So I was like, all right, I'm gonna do four concerts in 2020 You hear how I was talking before this year, man So I was like, I'm gonna do four concerts in 2020 With the hopes of getting 1,000 people at the Alchemist by November Ooh, that was possible Yeah, because we did the first edition and 300 people came through It was amazing Then corona happened And edition two was cancelled I mean, this is real stuff, man These are real livelihoods that have been affected You know, it's crazy Imagine Yeah Look at that Right Now, the reason Tatoo is here actually, guys He has an EP out If you haven't checked it out, I don't know what you're doing with your life But you have to be checking that out He's gonna be taking us where we can find that But let's talk about your EP Like the reason why I actually had to talk about that Because it featured some rock songs that I really, really like Actually on the EP I like two really nice songs The first one was you don't know That one, I was just like jamming to it It actually spoke to me The video, the visuals, I was just checking it out I'm like, I can relate to this At that point of my life, I was just like, I can relate to this So tell us about the EP and And why you Finally decided to do that sound The rock sound that can be actually identified as rock Great question So the EP came about I was deep in Season 3 of Breaking Bad Ah, yeah I had never watched it and so I've been just You know, catching up on it And then I saw a lot of similarities between Breaking Bad and the monotony And all that kind of stuff And the kinds of things that I was experiencing Desert sort of environment Kind of thing and I was like, okay You know, I began to All of a sudden a sound began to kind of craft itself inside of my mind But really the catalyst was I did a, I used to do A live two times a week called The Titu and Tugi show And so on the second one on Thursday Is the songwriting session Called Writer's Block And so I experimented with this model of Literally starting a song from scratch And then the audience helps me write the song So I remember I was messing around on the guitar before the show And I got the right chord progression for Don't Know Me At All And then literally guys helped me Write it and as I was writing it I began to realize, wait a minute What I'm doing right now is I've changed my songwriting approach Normally I write for other people So that they're encouraged I wrote this album for me Because I was going through some stuff And that's the crazy thing that If you actually are authentic about how you're feeling That resonates with people True to yourself, you're really to yourself You wrote it for yourself but at the same time They are actually other people you're representing So that's really good You're just for other people but you're also Thinking about yourself Now you've featured other artists before Like some artists even in the mainstream The likes of Mayonde Shout out to Mayonde actually Now in the boxing Do you have anyone in particular You would want to work with Or you just open to working with anyone And do you even have favourites Do you even have favourites in the scene You know, I do I do One thing that has kind of bugged me Over the years is that Rock bands in Kenya have short life spans So there's bands that I love Like Robin Mustache Had a band called Claymore Project With George, I think Yeah exactly Bro, you know I listened to some of their stuff I love it And then there was that other video where it's like It's in a room and it's spinning Yeah exactly But I'm happy to say actually Me and Rich have already begun a conversation Yeah You heard it here first That's why you hear this first Exactly, so keep your eyes open There's going to be something coming That's going to be amazing Apart from you talk of Tugi Tugi is a rocker Tugi is still a rocker You had an argument some time back And you came and they ditched us Now it's a lot of hard about him That's really interesting I mean actually the cool thing with Tugi He's one of the best guitarists in this country When it comes to rock The problem is that for him, artists aren't writing rock material One of the things that I'm trying to do bro Is I would love to bring rock back into Kenya Yeah, we're still like Kimeto brothers They come back All of them And they'll rock us Another thing people don't know Maybe some of you know Teti is actually well travelled Born here Went to I don't know which country Zambia, Zambia And he's been everywhere He's literally Look at him taking all the credit But here's the thing How can you compare Like different countries you've been to How can you even compare that to Kenya Is there any relation Is there a rainbow in any way Are we far behind Do we have some catching up to do And maybe you can even name the countries You've been to You're not supposed to name a church So I moved around a lot Because of my dad's work When I was growing up He worked for an NGO called World Vision And so he deposed it like in Zambia Zambia, what, Mauritania All this kind of stuff But you know like honestly I'm not sure but I love I love Nairobi, I love Kenya What I love is that Kenya is such a young country It's got such a creative energy Like our strength isn't even really Incorporate stuff, like it is all in the Creativity that we have And we're also open minded Please understand that when Nigerians are releasing music They are targeting Nairobi Kenya within campaigns I don't know if you guys know that We have a reputation, maybe apart from Cape Town, Nairobi has a reputation It's one of the most eclectic cities In Africa really And so I love it here and I'm so grateful That I had the opportunity actually To launch my career right back Right in Kenya, yeah I'm so grateful, I love my country so much Awesome, and of all those countries You've been in different venues You've done two eyes event You've won awards, you've accomplished a lot So what can you say has been your Highlights really, like our First of all, what's been your favorite Venue to perform at and what's been the Highlight for you in your short Career, because it was like Tambosana, he started at 28 And he's like 32 or 38 guys, so 5 years, alright So you're 5 years, but You've done a lot in 5 years, right? He's done a lot Right, so what's been your favorite venue Favorite venue and Highlights so far, yeah Favorite venue for me My favorite venue is Choices Barichirod Choi, let me tell you Bro, Choi I used to love it I wouldn't even leave my house with anyone I would go myself I would leave Riruta Drive all the way to Inda, Barichirod And just the vibe was Walk down that corridor and there's all those Grades Bro, and then it was small The way he's saying it You know, he's performed at so many venues I thought he's going to be You know that festival And then he says Choices I'm like, who are you even It was a vibe, it had such history I really loved the Alchemist Alchemist has been a home for me For a long time Shout out to Peng and the whole team But one of my favorite moments Literally was that journey to 1000 First show, because people don't understand How hard it is to put on your own show And Bro, when you're there on stage And people are singing your songs Every single one of them is there because of you Not because of Koroga Festival Not because of blankets and wine That was such a powerful moment But you've performed at so many venues And we are so proud of him And we went more rock music And you have Mach He actually has Mach out I'm going to be getting one by the way I'm going to be getting at least one T-shirt So tell us about your merchandise Where is it available And your music as well Great, so my music is available wherever it is That you listen to music Everywhere If you are a band camp person It's over there, it's on YouTube It's on boom play, it's on Spotify Apple Music Shout out to everyone using VPNs Apple Music SoundCloud And for merchandise I like to keep everything I do personal So for merchandise I would just love for people to DM me And say, hey, I'd like a T-shirt I'll give you my number, he'll send me your money And I'll send you the T-shirt Simple as that This is actually a Kenyan rock band T-shirt They're called Seeds of Datura And we just want to wear More local stuff Shout out to Wine Doovie Before we wear this We need to support our own Thank you so much for coming We have to play your song The one with the son The Africa son And Empower And the way he made it on Empower I still don't know But you're making us proud You know Empower There were just like 100 artists From Kenya and he made it So that was some Really, really, it's a rock thing He knows music But thank you so much for coming through It's been fun, so we're going to go play your song Then come back and play you guys Our top five at five, right?