adminEdwin Nhukarume
TOCKY Vibes says music is his passion and a way to stay away from horrible activities.
He said this as he defended the number of songs on his latest album titled ‘‘Chicken and Chama’’.
The 36-track album has received praises from music lovers, who were impressed by the songs, which exhibited the talent and versatility of the musician.
The songs on the album show the artist worked hard as most tracks sound solid and well-crafted with lyrics that are pregnant with message.
It is also rare to come up with a 36-track album that can get positive reviews from most listeners.
The album has different sounds like Afro pop, Afro jazz, traditional music and Zim dancehall songs.
However, there are music fans who believe the tracks on the album are too much since it could sabotage the work of the artist, which could go unnoticed, or to waste.
Despite the critics from those who were of the view that the tracks were too much for consumption, Tocky Vibes believes other music fans will find time to listen to the songs.
“These songs are not many at all. Those who are saying the number of tracks are too much are pretending to be busy. When they find time they will listen to the album.
“I am, however, happy that the response to the album is impressive,” he said.
He believes the long playlist helps listeners to choose from a variety of different arts, while promoting his work.
“I implore people to work hard, especially musicians. I also realised that by having this long playlist, music fans can have plenty of choices on the album.
“Someone might have a choice of 10 songs on that playlist.
“This also helps me to reach out to many people, because If I don’t work it would negatively affect my career. I need to promote my work so I can expand and excel,” he told H-Metro.
The ‘‘Mhai’’ singer said working hard sharpens his skills while keeping him away from illegal activities.
He said he has countless unreleased songs.
“The more I work the more I sharpen my talent.
“Working is good, it helps me stay away from trouble or some sort of illicit activities that could be harmful to me.
“I even have countless unreleased songs.
“I would have released more than those tracks on the album,” said Tocky Vibes.
The secretary-general and spokesperson for the Music Management Forum of Zimbabwe, Russell Mavudzi, said success in the arts sector has no formula.
“I feel the arts sector has no boundaries or formula, what determines success for one artist might be going outside the usual box that the majority puts themselves into.
“I advise artists to do what they feel comfortable with, internationally, some are limited due to record labels that put certain standards and feel robbed of what they want to put out, so independent artists should do all they can before they get signed,” he said.
Mavudzi also spoke about the album with a long playlist like Tocky Vibes’ ‘‘Chicken and Chama’’.
“The advantages to releasing a 36 track album is you give the market many choices to choose from and suit their needs, another advantage is you attract attention to your album by going outside the box.
“For instance, internationally, most hip hop songs have 8 or 16 bars as a standard, however, we have artists who have done 100 bars and everyone wanted to hear what they were saying in 100 bars.
“The disadvantage, however, is that the industry is not that patient unless they are fans of the artist first. Media (radio, bloggers among other journalists) might miss track number 12, which does it for them, because they didn’t like track one to three and move on to the next artist in line for review to plug in,” said Mavudzi.
Online Reporter