Maravi

Our music is not political - Third Eye

Our music is not political - Third Eye
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Fri 21 Jan. 2011, 18:20 CAT

THE Third Eye’s Zambia Libala, a title track for its debut eight-track album, has been adjudged political and is not receiving airplay on ZNBC, complains bandleader Peter Mwila.

The three-member Rastafarian band is now in a drive to market the album that has not gone down well in certain circles because of the title track and two others, Moneni and Kasalanga.

Zambia Libala was initially produced as a single in 2006 and is also on video.
Among Copperbelt residents, the track came to prominence during Fr Frank Bwalya’s days as Radio Icengelo station manager when he adopted it as a sig-tune for his live phone-in programmes.

Zambia Libala talks about investors coming into the country and exiting after making profits, leaving the locals with nothing to write home about. It also talks about problems of the economy, unemployment, agriculture and brain drain.

“Our music is not political because some people think that we are fighting government. We just want people to bring in genuine investments, not people coming in the country with the same investments using different names and leaving us empty-handed. That is what we are saying, foreign investment is good but should benefit the locals.

We have given out our music to all radio stations but on ZNBC our music has not received favourable airplay, especially the title track Zambia Libala,” says band leader Peter Mwila.

Mwila, 55, a former member of the Family Rock Band of the 70s urged Zambians to first understand the messages in their songs before judging the album.

Kasalanga talks about how prisons are full of young people and proposes various ways of fighting youth delinquency. Moneni is about how many people left their villages and migrated to towns along the line of rail, became employed but things went wrong and they were retrenched without receiving their benefits for years.
Band member Kelvin Nkandu, whose stage name is Naphtali, said the group was making efforts to market the album before starting new projects.

“We have received some response from members of the public but not as desired,” said Nkandu.

Labels: MUSIC

posted by MrK @ 4:08 AM