Bensoul opens up on musical journey, being raised by single mom

 Singer Bensoul. (Courtesy)

Sol Generation signee, Bensoul, recently opened up about his family and revealed that his father tried to discourage him from making music before abandoning them for refusing to change their religion. During an interview on Sol Generations YouTube channel, the talented instrumentalist explained that despite his father being a musician in his youth, he tried his best to stop him from indulging in the art.

“I was born and raised in Embu. I grew up in a slum called Dallas, where I was raised by a single mom. My dad left us. I have a big sister called Lucy, who basically raised me. My father was also a musician. He sang in the choir and played with a certain band. He tried to stop me from doing music, but music has been a part of me since I was three years old,” he said.

According to Bensoul’s mother, their child’s passion for music caused a lot of tension between her and the husband before he finally walked away. “My husband left us because he wanted me to convert to Islam. He said that if they did not convert to Islam, they would not be associated with him. Ben Sol learning music was a tussle between me and his father,” she said.

Following his dream

Bensoul’s urge for music grew even more, and as he explains, frequented his church and sat next to the instrumentalists to try and grasp one or two things, something that pleased his pastor immensely. “I would leave school and go to Full Gospel Churches of Kenya and sit next to the guitarist or the pianist and observe which cord he played the most and asked if I could try. Our church pastor was so happy about my calling to music. I remember there was a time he told me, even education would not elevate me as music as music would,” narrated Bensoul.

After completing his secondary education, the Lucy crooner was called to University, but as fate had it, he dropped out and began pursuing music. “I was called to the Technical University of Kenya to do Civil Engineering. I did it for three years and dropped out in my fourth year and said this wasn’t for me. There’s this day I attended Power 254 and saw three boys who were dressed so weirdly. I borrowed Kenchez guitar from H­_art The Band. They told me they wanted a bass player, and I saw it as an opportunity to keep me busy,” he said.

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“We saw that this guy had a lot of potentials, and we had struggled so much trying to look for a bass player and an instrumentalist,” said Mordecai, one of the members of H­_art The Band.

H­_art The Band, alongside Bensoul, moved in together in Kayole and wrote their first song Uliza Kiatu that got a lot of positive feedback Kenyans. The singer owes his musical success to God and hopes that He will continue to lead him in the direction He sees fit.