Adawnage Band Interview

The second interview on Scopegater is courtesy of a Christian band called Adawnage whom I’m sure most of you have heard of so without any further ado’ here it is. (I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!)

1.       Why the name Adawnage?

Adawnage is a fusion of three words A DAWN AGE, backed by Isaiah 43:19 which says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

It represents the dawning of a new age, a fresh start – which is what our music and lives are about. The name came about from an encouraging quote which says, ‘It’s darkest before dawn’. This is quite significant in that situations may seem to become progressively worse and things may appear to be darker and darker but just as you reach your lowest point, dawn arrives and as the day unfolds, things don’t look as bad as they did earlier on. It basically encourages us not to despair because dawn is sure to come.

2.       Who is Adawnage?

Adawnage Band is a vibrant unit of energetic individuals from different established professional backgrounds who have come together with the sole purpose of reaching out to the world with positive, electric, realistic and inspirational music.  Our Mission Statement is ‘TRANSFORMING LIVES THROUGH GOD-INSPIRED MUSIC AND LIFESTYLE’.

Adawnage Band is a Contemporary Gospel Band. The unique thing about us is our blend of genres, cutting across genres such as Soft Rock, Reggae, Afro-Fusion, Praise & Worship, Lingala, amongst others. This makes it impossible to put us in a box. As Adawnage, we refer to our music as “Life Music” which generally describes our style.

We hail from different denominational backgrounds hence we all worship at different churches.

3.       What’s the structure of the band?

Adawnage has grown to be more than just a band because we now have an

outreach team that works hand-in-hand with the band in outreach missions. But the forefront members

‘face of the band’ are Robert Njuguna, Anthony Iganza, Roselyn Mwihaki, Lorna Olwanda, Wanjiku Mirithu, Frank Karimi, all of whom are vocalists. Then David Ogara (keys), Elvis Muema (Bass), Victor Monyi (Drums), Michael Wanyama (Drums), Grace Nduku (Violin), Noah Otiende (Band Leader) and Leah Midamba (Admin).

4.       How did you meet and how did you decide on setting up the band?

Roseline Mwihaki, a singer/song-writer in the band, was then a finalist in a talent search dubbed Talentmania Awards where she met the resident band members for Talentmania Awards; David Ogara (Keyboardist), Noah Otiende (Bassist) and Brian Omondi (Drummer). She scooped an award for the most outstanding female vocalist.

It was after the Talentmania Awards that David, Roseline and Noah got to know each other better and discussed their musical backgrounds. Together they decided to steer forward with their passion for music and ministry by visiting local churches where they lead in praise and worship as well as presenting the song Roseline had contested with.

The feedback from the churches were quite encouraging and eventually they decided to call upon their other friends to join the band and together they met on the 28^th of March 2008, prayed about the vision they had and asked God to go before them.

5.       Do you ever disagree and if so how do you resolve conflicts?

Yes, we do disagree.

Because of the huge number of people there are to manage, there always arises the need for order so that there is always a common line of thinking though at times one will always experience crossing of paths though this on the other hand has helped us understand each other better.

In regard to solving them, we normally table our issues and give the afflicted parties a chance to air their grievances and frustrations; whether towards a particular person or issue and from there we work on a reconciliation path. This technique has always worked!

6.       Who’s your target audience?

Our target audience is mainly the youth since they make up roughly 65% of the Kenyan population as well as the fact that music plays a key role in influencing their daily lives. Our music however cuts across different age groups because almost everyone can identify with the messages contained in our songs.

7.       Who’s your producer?

Our producer is Dominic Khaemba. He is a multi-talented performer and producer who has so far helped produce over 150 songs for some renowned bands and Gospel artists in Kenya. His success is rooted in his academic aptitude and artistic genius of being innovative, relevant and authentic. He is currently pursuing a Masters in the field of contemporary music composition.

8.       What was the motivation behind your song titled Uwezo which most people I myself included cannot get enough of?

We came up with the song as a result of how we all at one point of our lives go through trying moments in life and most of the time we tend to look for a place that we can run to and call home – a place where we can find love and the truth amidst all the lies that have afflicted our lives though truth be told, the only place where we can really find all this is in the Word of God which is a lamp unto our feet and the only source of hope, love and joy in our lives.

9.       Are there any challenges you’ve faced and how did you overcome/are you overcoming them?

Yes, we have faced many challenges some of which include:

• Financial Strains – We haven’t quite had sponsors to fund our projects, so most of the projects and ministries we’ve had, (including our recording) we had to finance ourselves by making small monthly contributions to the band account we set up but God has always been faithful, making it enough to meet the expenses that we incur.
• Having our music aired in media stations – We tried using all our connections but to no avail. So we just made a simple prayer to God, telling Him that we had done our part of recording and now He just had to glorify Himself through our music. That’s when He stepped in in a mighty way and we started getting airplay from most of the media stations.

10.   Do you have any mentors?

Yes we do; our band patron Pastor Peter Kimari. He is always there to walk with us, counsel us and teach us the Word of God.

11.   Who’s your role model?

We all have different role models as individuals in the band. This is because we hail from different musical backgrounds and this aspect has helped us groom each other into bringing a different and unique touch to our music.

12.   What keeps you going/your inspiration?

We find our strength and passion to keep on ministering from the Word of God. We have a weekly Bible Study session which we have opened up to others who are not necessarily Adawnage Band members and during the bonding and sharing sessions, we have come to learn a lot from them.

We also interact with many other Gospel musicians and bands in Kenya and have picked up quite a lot from them.

13.   Do you have any awards?

We had been nominated as Group of the Year in the KISIMA Awards 2011, Groove Awards 2011 and 2012, Mwafaka Awards 2011 and 2012 and Africa Gospel Music Awards (AGMA). We managed to scoop the Group of the Year 2012 in the Groove Awards 2012.

14.   How does it feel being crowned the group of the year in the groove awards?

It was very exciting given the fact that we were competing with other renowned groups and also humbling considering the fact that we never hyped our fans into voting for us as much as we did last year, in which case we lost. It was all just an act of God glorifying Himself through us.

15.   Any other highlights for the past 5 years? (e.g tours)

We have had the privilege of performing on ‘big’ platforms as well as before dignitaries like H.E. Mwai Kibaki, the president of the republic of Kenya and other Parliamentarians at a state function that was hosted in State House.

Presently our highlight is the ongoing project dubbed ZiAda, that we are working on with Zidi the Band and a couple of other artistes like Dann (Number Eight). This is a project which will enable us to go out into majority of the major cities in Kenya as well as the neighboring East African countries, with a mission of spreading the Gospel of Christ through music and sharing of personal testimonies.

16.   Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years? (e.g will you remain being a band?)

Our vision for the next 5 years is to expand our ministry and become a fully established organization and even create job opportunities for our own members in their areas of expertise. We aspire to remain a band but still have a ministry branch which will consist of people who won’t necessarily be the ‘face of the band’ but who will still work with us in Outreach Ministry.

17.   I noticed you have a very nice website, what’s your take on music and technology and what would you advice other musicians concerning the two?

A lot of music travels in an international scope via the World Wide Web through channels like YouTube, Reverbnation, Sound Cloud amongst others. IT has played (and still does) a great role in the growth of the music scene in Kenya and this is vivid through the influence that it has.

Musicians should create profiles in some of these sites and even create avenues for people to buy their music online.

18.   What’s your take on the music industry in Kenya and specifically the Gospel scene? Is every Gospel musician genuine?

The Kenyan music industry has in the past been dominated by secular artistes but presently this is not the case. Currently there is a growing appreciation for Christian Music and especially Live Music.

Concerning the motive of Gospel artists, there have been talks of some Gospel musicians being more commercial than actually spreading the message of Christ. We can’t quite point out fingers and accuse anyone by calling them ‘not genuine’ but some of them have already made that clear to us by the kind of lifestyles that they live.

19.   Apart from singing, what else do you do/engage in? (individually)

We are all from different professional backgrounds. It’s actually a blessing in disguise that all of us are learned and have an area of expertise. But at the end of the day, we all have one thing that brings us together; music- and that is actually what we enjoy doing.

20.   What advice would you give to anyone planning to venture into music?

The music industry in Kenya is not quite as established as it is in the Western world but it’s upon us to bring it to the level it should be at and we can do so if only we are focused and not just ‘trying it out’ as many people actually do.

If anyone is planning to venture into music, they should first identify their target audience, their mission and their vision. From there, they can strategize on how they will begin their music career and how they will advance in it. They should also work on their networking as this will create avenues for them to further their music careers.

It’s however quite sad that most musicians fade out of the music scene after hitting it big with one single but later on they never find their way back into the industry mainly because they never took the time to strategize.

21.   Considering that the elections are just around the corner, what  piece of advice would you give to Kenyans?

Strive to maintain peace by looking at each other as equals and not undermining one another because of our tribal differences or our social status in the society. Let us elect leaders whom we believe can bring about change in our nation and furthermore, our choices should not be influenced by our church leaders or people we consider ‘close’ to us. Let us elect leaders because we believe they are the best to steer this nation into the right direction.

22.   If you weren’t singing, what would you be doing?

Hmmm. We would be working in our different areas of expertise making the best out of life and trying to find a way to make life enjoyable…but music, singing-that is the peak of our lives.

23.   Do you have any albums out and if so where can someone get it /them and at what price?

We have one album titled SAFARI which you can get a copy of at LOIS OFFICE SOLUTIONS-Diamond shopping mall (3^rd Floor) suit 3B, Tom Mboya Street, opposite former Odeon Cinema. The prices are however determined by the retailer.

24.   Parting shot

DON’T TUNE YOUR GUITAR AFTER THE CONCERT IS OVER – Live life to the fullest and make the most out of it while you still can so that you won’t ever have to sit back and ask yourself ‘…what if…’

25.   How can someone contact you:

https://www.facebook.com/adawnage

https://www.facebook.com/adawnageband

https://www.facebook.com/groups/adawnage

http://twitter.com/adawnage

http://www.reverbnation.com/adawnageband

http://www.youtube.com/user/adawnageband

http://soundcloud.com/adawnage

M:  (+254) 721 341 291/ (+254) 720 294 589

E:    [email protected]

 

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, straight from the horse’s mouth so to say. I hope you learnt a few things here and there; as for me, their parting shot will remain vivid in my mind for a long long time to come.

Let’s remember to support our own in the essence of actually buying music and not always having to pirate it because if we don’t support them (not just Adawnage but the rest of the artists in Kenya) who will?

Here’s Uwezo, the song I asked them about earlier on.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWod1gJvY0M[/youtube]