adminIn an interview, Josphats, who is also known as Roki, said he got involved in music when he was four years old.
“I grew up under the guidance of my uncle Kenny Tsvatsva who was a band member of the Bhundu Boys. He used to encourage me as he had seen that I had a lot of interest in music,” he said.
Roki said Tsvatsva started training him the theory side of music from around 1990 up to early 2000 before he left for the United Kingdom.
“Uncle Kenny was a seasoned artiste who could easily identify talent from young people and when he discovered that I had a lot of interest in music he encouraged me,” he said.
Roki said during that time his father was against the idea of him pursuing music as a profession, because he wanted him to be a mechanic.
“When my uncle Kenny was helping me to realise my dream of being a musician, my father was not amused,” he said.
Roki started putting into practice what he had learnt when he was about 18 years, when he met Delani “Step Aside” Makhalima who was a producer.
“When my uncle left for the United Kingdom, I never lost focus on becoming a musician, so I kept on singing and composing my own songs and soon after completing my Ordinary Level, I decided to follow my dream,” he said.
Roki was chucked out of his father’s house after he got a job from Makhalima.
“My father was not happy with my decision of taking music as a profession and he actually threw me out of his house for that, but I never lost track as I continued,” he said.
The musician said when he joined Makhalima’s studio, Step Aside Records, he started to put into practice the knowledge that he had got from Tsvatsva. “At first I did not understand why Uncle Kenny was teaching me the importance of being flexible in the music industry.
“All those lessons later made sense to me when I was working with Makhalima,” he said.
In 2005, Roki realised that he was more of a producer than a singer as he worked with Decibel and Leonard Mapfumo.
“I managed to produce successful projects for the likes of Leonard and Decibel and this forced me to create my own studio called Washing Basket,” he said.
Roki said he got donations from different institutions in cash and kind for him to get recording equipment.
“It has always been a dream for me to have my own studio and already I have worked with different up-and-coming musicians,” he said.
Roki said even if he is now into music producing, he is going to continue singing as he is flexible in doing anything as long as it is in the music industry.
Online Reporter