STRICTLY ACAPELLA ZIMBABWE

Acclaimed gospel group Reunion Music Evangelism Ministry (RMEM) held a music event dubbed “Experience of a composer, Testimony of a listener ” in Harare yesterday.

Speaking to the group’s Functions Executive, Kelvin Chidzanja, he said the main purpose of the event was to share the RMEM songs with the listener and to share the experience behind the compositions.”

“We wanted to have that moment to share testimonies with people who follow our music and get to know the many ways which RMEM has changed people’s lives. ”

“The success of the event was a humble experience for RMEM Ministers, we had a full house, with part of the listeners coming from other religions to grace an adventist musical event, held on a sabbath. It gives us the confidence to continue to spread the word of God, with regard to our evengelistic life theme “Everlasting gospel to everyone, everywhere.”

The group blessed the crowd with songs like Tichazorora, Deborah and Thy Word ,which is the title of their upcoming album, to be launched this year.

The event which was held at Girls High School in Harare was free of charge and Chidzanja highlighted the reason behind this.

“We need money to foot costs that is why people pay for music events however in line with our musical life theme “Music is a prayer and an answer to a prayer”, this time we wanted to give our listeners the reality of this theme since people do not pay to receive an answer to their prayers, we were also giving back to the community that has contributed to the success of RMEM over the years, hence the event was for free,” he said.

The Rock and Inspirators were some of the supporting groups at the event.

“We had these upcoming groups to sing at the event as a way of supporting their ministries and as an appreciation of the support they have also rendered to RMEM. The platform we believe also gives them confidence and a market for their music, we wholeheartedly support them because we believe for the gospel to reach all four corners of the world, it takes more than RMEM.”

Reunion Music Evangelism Ministry has been in existence for over 20years and has 10albums and a DVD to its name.

This week we (SA) had Hlanganani Ngwenya (HN) who is the director of Thee Family Music telling us more about their journey so far as a group and the concert in October this year.

SA. Hlanga , can we start by having a brief background of your group?
HN.Well , the group was founded in 2009 by Eddie Matsika and I with six members but it was really established in 2011.

SA. Your name Thee Family, tell us why you chose that?
HN. When we started we were more like a family. We had Eddie Matsika who was the founding music director, Linda Matsika ,Kelvin Chidzanja ,my two sisters Spatisiwe Ngwenya and Thembelani Ngwenya and me as the founding group director.We were family friends so that is why we had the name Thee Family.Others joined the group , so sometime in 2011 that is when we got serious as a group. In the bible God refers to Himself as “Thee” so in other words God’s Family -Thee Family.

SA. How many albums do you have now?
HN. We have 3 so far and 1 single. The first one is Shall We Gather at the River in 2013 followed by Inorema Nzira Inoda Jesu in 2015 , the single Hakuna Usiku in 2016 and lastly Simswabisile Usatane in 2018.

SA. Which one from those album was the most successful?
HN. Shall We Gather at the River was the most successful interms of sales and impact.

SA. What inspires you as a group?
HN. Its love mainly. We don’t sing for praise from people but we do it for the love of Christ. We were once told that our music is boring for concerts but our music is not for entertainment, we want it to have a positive impact in people’s lives. So the love for one another, the love for music and the love for people keeps us going.

SA. How is your sound different from other groups?
HN. We have genuine love for each other and that makes our music different.We have a part we added to our music which is called the “spinto”.Its a more flexible part and people characterise it as baritone. We also have tried to fuse alto and contralto, then lead tenor and counter tenor , mezzo and soprano but we have gone back to the basics .As ministry we also don’t believe in putting unecessary notes that excites people instead of hearing the word of God, so we try to avoid that.

SA. What can we look out for from Thee Family in the future?
HN. We release an album after every two years so definitely our next album will be out in 2020.It is also customary for us to have a concert once each year so this year it’s going to be on the 26th of October in Harare featuring some local and regional groups. We are also going to be doing live Facebook sessions once every two month. We’ll be having influential people in the music circles and people will get to request songs they love during the livestream.We have been to Botswana, Zambia and South Africa but we want to go places in Africa and beyond.

SA. Thanks Hlanga.
HN. Thank you too

Gospel outfit Behold Music Zimbabwe is set to launch their 3rd album this year with the album mainly focusing on the salvation of mankind.

The group which is originally from Gweru with 10 members was founded in 2006 initially called Emmanuel and later on changed to Behold Music Zimbabwe.

Speaking to the director of the group Pascal Chigango , he said that the group is currently in the studio working on their latest offering which is to be released this year in Bulawayo.

“The album is titled Chinangwa Chem’chinjiko (The Purpose of the Cross) with the title track Ndimi Mega .It is going to be a 14 track album featuring songs like Tariro, Chitima and Despised.”

The group released their first album in 2014 titled Nzira Nhete which placed them on the spotlight and which the group consider to be their most successful album.

Chigango said that the purpose of this album is to let the world know of the love of Christ and how he died on the cross for mankind.

“As we were working on the album, we removed any song that does not speak about the cross because this time its all about the cross.”

“We have also added an African feel to our sound and I believe that sets us apart from any other group .In as much we have English songs we try bring out our roots as Africans in our music.”

The group which gets songs from big names in the acappella circles like Tanaka Muza and Phillip Machokoto says they are comfortable singing any song even if it is not a gospel song as long as it is inline with what they believe as Adventists.

This week we had an interview with The Example Acapella, a male group from Chitungwiza. Strictly Acapella (SA) met up with Kudakwashe Nduna (KN) who is the director of the group to shed more light on the their upcoming projects.

SA:Kuda tell us , how did The Example start?
KN:The Example music started on a sabbath day at lunch .We were just a group of boys singing for fun .I remember we were singing the song Audience and we asked the elders to sing during the afternoon service and we were granted the chance and we delievered but by then we didn’t have a name people just called us “Special item” nekuti pese pataida kuimba taiudza church kuti we want to give you a special item.We then realised later on that we need a name and God gave us one THE EXAMPLE meaning the good example set by Christ for us.

SA:How many albums do you have now?
KN:Right now we don’t have any albums but we have two singles .The first track is Zvose Zvaitwa. The second one is Ndachengetwa and it talks about how God has been there for us , thanking him for dying for us.We are currently in the studio now recording our first album which will be released in December.

SA.Who writes your songs?
KN.We write our own songs but we also get songs from other people . That makes us special because our songs are written by people with different experiences and who are inspired differently.

SA.So we have noticed some of your members are leaving the group for more popular and well established groups , what is the problem?
KN.Firstly people are not willing to start from the ground, they just want fast results and fame. The other thing people don’t know when we sing , we are doing it for God.If they really knew that , we wouldn’t have people accepting invitation from bigger groups. Lastly the problem is also those big groups.They think they’re the only ones who deserve talented people not knowing they’re killing the small groups.

SA.What inspires you as a group?
KN.The experiences we have faced as a group inspires us.At some point we splitted as a group but we found our way back and we continued with our ministry. So those challenges that we face pushes us to do more and after all we are doing this for God so God is our inspiration.

SA.Do you have music that accommodates the elderly?
KN.Yes .Our music accomodates everyone , from the elderly to the younger generation.

SA.What sets you apart from any other acapella group?
KN.We don’t just sing with our voices, we sing with our hearts.Our music is for the hopeless, vakaremerwa , vakaneta .That’s why we sing , to give hope to those people. We really don’t have talented people in our group but we work hard and we pray more so that makes us unique.

SA.What can we expect from The Example in the future ?
KN.More uplifting music and better sound that will give hope to the hopeless and heal the broken hearted.

SA.Thank you Kuda !
KN.Thank you too Vicky for having me.

So as a Public Relations (PR) professional, I have been getting calls from music directors asking me the best way or ways to promote an album which is due to be released.

This had me thinking, you can be a great musician or a great group but you can’t be a marketer and a Public Relations Officer ( PRO) at the same time! This is something most adventist music groups do not know .In as much as gospel music is about spreading the word of God , we can still do that in a more professional way. Hiring a PRO to do the media aspect of your music is a good start.You can have one who does your PR work on a part time basis for instance when you want to launch your album.

The most important of all is PROMOTE YOUR ALBUM ON MAINSTREAM MEDIA. Many people underestimate the power of mainstream media since the advent of social media but one thing is for sure , people trust information on mainstream media compared to social media. A quick advice ….do not hesitate to approach media organisations for interviews.This is were a PRO comes in handy since they are already in in the media industry , they can easily hook you up with media organisations.

One of the best ways that i recommend when promoting an album before launching is sampling some of your songs at concerts or even church programs . This way people will know the songs and will look forward to the real deal once you have launched your album.This also encourages them to come to the launch.

Music promotion is important before releasing an album because it gets your fans prepared for the album.You should not start promoting your album a few weeks before launching , take your time.Do it a few months before launching. One thing to note is keeping your fans hooked up but NEVER ,i repeat NEVER pre – empty what you are going to deliver on the day of the launch otherwise there will be nothing to look forward to.

Another way to promote your album before launching is by recording short clips of a few songs you are going to feature on the album. Put the clips on social media not forgetting to tag everyone who is involved in the production and distribution of your music.This way people will know you songs but will not be able to get the original songs up until the day of the album launch.They will definitely come to your launch and they will definitely sing along since they’re already familiar with the songs.

Releasing a single before the album launch is another way to promote an album. However, a couple of things are to be considered here.Get music critics whom you trust and let them help you choose a suitable song.You can get some intrest generated and this will keep people hooked up.

Social media is another important tool when promoting an album. Promote on your website, Twitter , Instagram, YouTube you name it all.One thing i have noticed though is many groups do not have website and twitter accounts.These are really essential in this digital era . Also do not forget giveaways so that you attract people to your pages.

(For a music website you can try bandzoogle.com)

Contact us if you need help with PR consultancy and marketing.