ARTS & CULTURE
In the lead-up to the launch of his ‘People’ album in 2016, celebrated poet Qabaniso Malewezi called on his fans on Facebook to suggest names of budding artists they wished to see on the line-up of performers during the launch. A plethora of names followed, but two came up more prominent. One was Phindu Zae Banda. The other one was Julius Banda. Both were students at Chancellor College at that time. (The two are not related.)
Though just up and coming in the spoken word industry, the exploits of the two were already too loud to elude the ears of spoken word and poetry fanatics across the country, usually starved of works of note. (a topic for another day of course). Perhaps it explained why Q took one of his rehearsal sessions to Chancellor College.
The two have since gone on to hit great strides in the industry. Phindu for instance, having opted to use her talents for activism against gender-based violence, has gone on to perform at various high-level functions over the years. Among them, she has since gone on to perform at the launch of the National Strategy for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS. It was an event attended by several important dignitaries with the country’s First Lady, Madame Gertrude Mutharika as the Guest of Honour.
And two years after performing at Q’s album launch, Julius Banda went on to release his own project titled ‘I am Somebody’ EP (extended playlist). This was a collection of spoken word works that went on to enjoy an encouraging reception both within Malawi and across borders. For instance, according to Julius, the project registered streams and downloads from over 22 different countries on Spotify, an internationally recognized audio downloading and streaming platform. It also sold a considerable number of CDs locally that the artist-cum entrepreneur is never shy to brag about.
The reception and the success that the EP registered was so overwhelming that a year later, the artist has decided to follow it through with his second project titled ‘Empathy. According to Julius himself, Empathy, which was released in March this year, is almost a direct result of the success story of his debut album. He acknowledges that he was awestruck by the way people, both locally and worldwide connected to his debut album so much so that it inspired him to work on this new project.
‘In I am Somebody, I was trying to make a statement of who I really am. I wanted my fans to appreciate my journey, where I am coming from, what I have been through in my life, my visions and things like those. The reception was so encouraging. And Empathy is building on that foundation because I am trying to relate better with my fans’, said the 26-year-old Lilongwe-based artist.
But unlike I am Somebody which was purely a spoken word project, Julius has decided to take a different route with his recent project. According to the artist, Empathy is a mixture of spoken word and music. It blends four genres of hip-hop, jazz, afro and spoken word. Is it not a move that is completely unorthodox and unfathomable though – the lines between music and spoken word or poetry can be hard to draw often times than not. And the artist explains this departure as being inspired by his desire to navigate the other aspects of his talents little known to his fans.
‘Since the release of my debut EP, people have come to identify me as a poet or a spoken word artist. The music aspect of my talent has almost gone un-noticed and I am trying to navigate the music aspect as well. This is why I have fused spoken word and music to come up with the EP’ Said Julius, who is also known in other circles as a model and fashion designer.
And whereas in I am Somebody Julius was sharing his identity with his fans, in the current EP, the artist is trying to understand people’s feelings vis-à-vis engendering and nurturing perfect relationships amongst people. ‘With Empathy, I am trying to set the tone for conversations in which people would be more understanding (to other people’s feelings and situations) and beyond. With that, we can have genuine and healthy relationships amongst ourselves’. He said.
He says the conversations he has had with young people has made him realise the need to understand people, their feelings and what they are going through instead of making assumptions about their lives. He says this is the general message that this project is trying to put across to his fans and everyone that will listen to his EP.
The EP which has just been launched has a total of 6 works and it has been produced by three local producers. It features two other up-and-coming artists by the names of West Cole and Yang Chitika. The project took Julius 7 months to complete. Currently, Julius is working on a music video for one of the songs on the project titled ALS.
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