Gospel singer Dunco divulges details on what inspires his music

                     The singer reveals that he wants to retire into music

I want to retire into music,” Dunco offers, as an explanation of where his life trajectory is heading.

“One day, I will quit my job and retire in music. That will be the ultimate fulfilment,” he explains.

He recalls a day when he was in a radio interview and a lady called in saying she had converted to Christianity after listening to his song.

“That day, I realised it is not about me, but God,” he recalls.

The talkative Dunco is an interviewer’s dream respondent, diving into every discussion with a determination to offer an explanation, even in subjects other artistes would cringe from talking about. But then he has been in the game for long, so he has no reputation to build or friends to appease.

“I can tell you for a fact, the top guys who created gospel cliques are doing more harm than good. These days, you have to be aligned to a certain clique for your music career to prosper,” says Dunco, whose real names are Duncan Gichuki Kiama.

“We (gospel artistes) came and took over the industry and we are faring worse than the people we are supposed to bring to God and the secular segment in terms of doing things wrong. Most people are now into gospel music for the money than worship or passion,” he adds.

Currently working as a retention manager at a firm within Nairobi’s CBD, Dunco started music quite early, winning awards in drama and music since Class Four in Elburgon, Molo. At Highway Secondary School, he was in a group called Quest with Kenzo and Q.

“At the time, our only competition was Kleptomanix in Nairobi School and Eskimos (which had Q-Tasi) from Dagoretti High. We did secular music but I would go back to church immediately school closed. I was doubling-up,” the artiste who is in the worship team in his church says.

After completing school in 2002, he turned professional as part of The Chiefs, together with Alvo. The duo is also part of Wernono Family, a gospel super-group consisting of Calebrity, Ng’ashville, Mr Lee, Rawny Ron, Shem, Gilly, Solid C and S.M.A.

He then went solo and got under the tutelage of Rufftone and Daddy Owen, benefitting from doing shows all over the country. His involvement with the two was to prove career changing, as Tobina, a track he did with Daddy Owen, won a MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) award.

“It was not a track we had expected to hit. It was not the favourite of the songs in Daddy Owen’s album. The Lingala rap I did was just me playing with French and Lingala words, not knowing I would be made to cram it for the performances,” said Dunco, now in his early 30s.

He would later do and release his first album, Atalaku, which is also his stage name. “I had done a lot of collabos that I cannot remember some of the songs and I was not comfortable just being known as King of Collabos. The album was my way of establishing myself as an artiste who could make it on his own,” said Dunco, whose ten-song album churned hits like Hafungi Macho, Ku Backslide, Trinity and Shock Absorber. 

Kenya is not an album market, he sadly says, adding that people prefer paying for singles on different platforms instead.

“For example, the last of the 300 copies I made of my album sold two years later,” explains Dunco.

With this knowledge, Dunco has recorded ten songs, which he plans to release as singles. Starting this month, he will be releasing the videos of Wololo and Msafiri. 

“Another lesson is that Kenyans are peculiar and the songs an artiste thinks are his best, might not be popular with the fans. They may like a song that did not seem cool to the artiste,” he adds.

He also challenges artistes to record songs in different studios to reduce a similar sound in the album.

He lost a friend to cancer and it made him more socially conscious. He started the Lenkai Cancer Foundation to concentrate on the affected families, passing a message of hope.

Dunco has been single for more than a year, claiming he is finding it hard to differentiate what the ladies see; Dunco the artiste or Duncan the person. Many ladies tend not to see his person. Dunco is adamant that he wants to settle soon into married life.

“I am old,” he says.