By Joel Mwendwa
For years, Kenya has lagged behind in the expertise of music especially gospel music production that can compete and contend with the rest of the global music market. “We put out music but nobody listens because Kenyans consume foreigners’ product more than their own” they said. Many described it as though a dark cloud hung over the Kenyan Gospel music industry, but the narrative seems to be changing.
With the light starting to shine on Kenyan artists, there has been a surge of music projects and releases in the past three years. Not just product but international standard product that is gaining global recognition. Seems like the dark cloud is rising after all. With the rise of artists such as Kestin Mbogo, Mike Manoa, Njoki Munyi, Jaque Gachiri, just to name a few, global attention has begun to shift towards Kenya and her gospel industry.
You may ask, what could gospel artists in Kenya be doing differently now that they did not do before that is working for them? Well, I believe and according to my sources, the standard has generally been raised. The standard meaning, the work ethic and effort that goes into birthing a product that can be globally consumed has increased. What does that really look like?
Before, artists did not believe in investing money into their product or rather, there was no money to invest into their craft in terms of paying for services and acquisition of equipment (lighting, screens, backline which consists of all the instruments that are used in a live performance etc.) They did the bare minimum which sometimes meant going to a producer who had a studio in one of the rooms of their house who would bear the burden that should be shared at least among 10 people. The producer would be the one to play the keyboard, add the drums, play the guitar, maybe get one or two people to add background vocals and still be the one to do the post production of the songs, all in the name of budgeting and ensuring that they take the lion’s share of what the artist decided to pay.
Now that light has come and artists have been loosed from the shackles which so beheld them, projects now have teams that consist upwards of 20 people who could be volunteers or paid depending on their conviction or purpose in the team. “Doing a project now in form of a live recording to produce at least 6 songs requires a budget upwards of a million Kenyan shillings,” Minister PK said, “even though most of the times we do not have the money at hand, through wisdom we strategize partnerships and sponsorships that see the project through.” Reverend Julian Kyula, Senior Pastor of RUACH Assemblies has been a great champion of the Kenyan Gospel ministers. He encourages fellow preachers to support their gospel ministers terming it as a season of collaboration between the Priests and the Levites/ Psalmists. As a show of support, he sponsored a Live Recording for his church worship team, R- Worship who have now become trendsetters in the industry from their music releases which are earning global awards for their work.
This has been a turning point for the gospel industry as many now strive to do live recordings with the aim of glorifying God in excellence as well as having their product consumed internationally.
The fruit of all this labor is that now the ‘Kenyan Sound’ is being consumed internationally with songs like Natamani nikuone by Kestin Mbogo being loved and adopted by Tanzania, It is Finished by Njoki Munyi becoming a Nigerian special among many.
What a joy it is to be a witness as history is rewritten, seeing visions that some dreamt of long before come to life. The ‘Kenyan Sound’ is rising!