RISING sungura singer Lesley “Musician” Mukwacha said the current crop of musicians was failing to match the competition that had been in the showbiz during the spells of the departed music legends as they try to be “copycats” of the latter. BY LIFE &STYLE REPORTER A tour guide by profession, Musician, who mostly lives in Windhoek, Namibia, and Cape Town, South Africa, said he decided to utilise the lockdown period to release his debut singles collection album backed by Kukura Express. “I have decided to go full-time into music as I felt that in Zimbabwe we no longer have strong bands after the death of legends like sungura singer Leonard Dembo, System Tazvida, Tongai Moyo, James Chimombe, Marshall Munhumumwe and Oliver Mtukudzi,” he said. “There is no competition anymore, no variety in music as everyone is trying to sound like our living legend, Alick Macheso whom I cherish to curtain raise for or our departed music icons.” The multi-instrumentalists said he had much respect for Macheso, adding that he hoped to have a collaboration with Peter Moyo whom he described as a young artiste with charisma that matches his late father. He said he became a musician because he enjoyed writing songs and stories. “I discovered my music talent in 1996 when together with Sam and Valentine we formed True African Connection band doing urban groove music. We did songs that topped the radio charts, such as Kamutandavare and Tapera. Then in 2006, being someone who always liked sungura music by musicians like Dembo, Tongai Moyo and Khiama Boys, I decided to learn to play sungura guitar,” he said. “For the past 15 years, I have been living mostly in Windhoek Namibia and Cape Town, but when I came back home (Zimbabwe) in February this year for a two-week break, I could not go back because of this coronavirus outbreak, so I decided to perfect my guitar-playing skills and ended up going into the studio for this singles collection album.” Musician said he was working on two more songs that he hoped to release by year end. “I wrote the song Izuva Rudzii having looked at our current situation, poverty, unemployment, pandemics like coronavirus, causing a lot of us to lose business and jobs. Mudiwemoyo is a love song dedicated to those that have been in relationships for long periods, but failing to getting married,” he said. “I play all guitars, but mostly the lead guitar on my live shows, exactly the way the late Tongai Moyo and Dembo used to do while in the studio when recording I also play most of my rhythms,” he said. Songs featured on the album, which were recorded at Live Sounds Studio in the capital, are Mudiwemoyo, Izuva Rudzii, Usacheme, Chido, Tauya Nemafaro and Nzira Yevaimbi. Musician said people could find his videos on YouTube under Kukura Express.
