As the Mashujaa day celebrations get closer, Steve Murua a local artist whose talented ensemble (Murua Mziki All-Stars) will have the rare pleasure of having their song as the theme of Saturday’s national celebrations in Kakamega County, spoke to SDE on their journey, inspiration and strive to spice up the industry and enhance positivity in music.
Who is Steve Murua?
Murua is a 39-year- old IT professional who does music, changing the world with one tune at a time.
I am also an actor and director with an extensive background in the corporate world having studied Mathematics and Computer science in Campus. I have worked with Hewlett Packard and Oracle among others in a career spanning over a decade. My love
You are a collective of musicians?
Yes, the idea was born out of a talent search. We were looking for the big talent out there and wanted to give a chance to young people to showcase their gifts. We held auditions and received an overwhelming response of over 900 entries.
We finally settled on 20 finalists and asked Kenyans on social media to vote for the best act. While at it, the small ensemble came forward and said that there can only be one winner and decided to record a positive song and what came out was pure magic, a new anthem for the country.
What is the inspiration behind your collective?
The inspiration was simple, to do good music that will last generations. I am a musician myself and I said look, we can be a voice, help the upcoming generation with the skills we have gained over the years and inspire a wave of good vibes, shine a light on positivity and patriotism in Kenya.
The kind of music being churned out by our artists nowadays is cringe-worthy and we wanted to spin that around and I believe that the song delivered.
Your anthem will be the theme song on Saturday, Mashujaa day, how does that feel?
We have not received an invite to perform, but we are impressed by the response we have received so far. Being a theme is an achievement on its own. Kenyans are thirsty for clean, good music and our patriotic song has propelled us to new heights despite releasing it a few days ago. It will definitely last beyond the Mashujaa day celebrations and will be the greatest blessing to everyone involved.
Was it easy sampling Kenya’s national anthem?
I believe in good music. Having taken a break from music for a while, when I came back I decided that I was going to do music for the generations. We did not want to copy the anthem, we wanted to give it a new sound, produce something new and the artists in the video took it to heart.
The youth of today cannot ‘chonga rhumba’ hence the catchy beat and I would not be surprised to hear it in a club and see young people dancing to ‘Ee Mungu nguvu yetu’ as opposed to the traditional, common tune.
Our goal was to reach out to Kenyans, to spread a message of patriotism, a love for our great country and put good music out.
Any projects to expect soon apart from this?
Yes, by 2019 we will have two or more similar projects, we have an ensemble that won the contest and we will be working with them be it recording music or shooting videos. I am not the richest person out there but I believe that I have the capacity with the little I have to pull up one or two artists and make a mark in the world.
Check out the song below...
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