A journey that began with playing a banjo

Edward Zvemisha–Arts Correspondent

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and that step for Clemence Yeyani, known by his stage name, Kire Yeyani 7 (KY7), began with playing a home-made tin guitar (banjo) when he was seven years old. 

Growing up as the last born in a family of seven in Masawa Village, Headman Mbudzi under Chief Mutoko, KY7 found solace and enjoyment playing the banjo which subsequently grew his love for Afro-traditional music. 

After moving from Mutoko to Domboshava to focus on his o and a level education in 2010 at Parirehwa High School, KY7 rekindled his love for music in 2017, but with a real acoustic guitar, he received from a friend. 

“A friend from a well-up family gifted me with an acoustic guitar since he had no use for it, I self-taught myself how to play and after finishing my tertiary education, I eventually bought a brand new guitar from my first salary, but I can say my friend is the who influenced my rejuvenated interest in music,” he said. 

Fast forwardto 2022 when KY7 recorded his first and title track and released his debut album dubbed, “Chipo Changu,” this year. 

The Afro-traditional album carries six songs.

“In 2022, I recorded my first track which also became my title track for the album, ‘Chipo Changu’, other songs are ‘Ramba Uchingoshaina’, ‘Dzungu Unoriwanza’, ‘Chiringa’, ‘Ndinotenda’, and ‘Ndezvemusoro Wangu,.’

He said he had more unrecorded songs and attributed this to financial constraints and lack of instruments that have made it difficult to dish out the songs to his fans. 

“As an artiste, I have more than 100 unrecorded songs and this hurts me to deny my fans these because I find it difficult to record due to insufficient funds, especially with well-known studios,” said KY7.

“Lack of musical instruments to do live shows has been a major setback since the genre requires different equipment to bring the fans and listeners closer while on stage.” 

KY7 said some of the challenges he has faced include being unable to shoot music videos to promote his music and scant airplay as radio stations prefer mostly the established artists.

 “People are now more interested in musical videos and it has been difficult for me to shoot those. Also as an upcoming artiste I get limited airplay as I am overshadowed by the bigger artistes,” said Yeyani. 

For his upcoming projects, KY7 said his fans should brace for collaborations with big artistes as well as release of informative  music covering different themes such as love, drug and substance abuse, among others.

 “The future is bright. For my fans I have a surprise collaboration with a big artiste on the cards, I am also going to release more music that promotes the KY7 brand while tackling issues such as drug and substance abuse which is on the rise among youths. It is our duty as musicians to steer youths towards the right path through music,” he said.