by PHOEBE MUTETSI

“I will not conform to the notion that for an artiste to make it in Uganda, they must go for the kidandali music. I shall not opt for that 3-minute catchy nursery rhyme just so my song can be played on radio or just so I become a star”

Recently, a gentleman walked up to me with what seemed like an anxious question, “Have you listened to Tshila’s new music?” he asked. “No, ” I replied. “Man, she is the real thing. She’s set to be the next best musician out of Africa,” this gentleman assured.

The people who have listened to Tshila’s (pronounced "Chilaah") new and first album, Sipping from the Nile and those who have watched her performances speak of her as one would of living African musical legends like Fela Kute, Youssou N’dour, Mory Kanté, Angelic Kidjo and Khadja Nin.

So is she really that good, or are some people getting overly excited about yet another girl with an accent, all dressed up with emphasis of her ‘African-ness’ as if her skin is not African enough?

Maybe it is her optimism. She is almost too sure that World Music can become accepted and be popular music here in Uganda, if the media gave it a chance. Her spirit is almost contagious when she starts to argue for her genre - a fusion of traditional, acoustic soul, hip-hop - a genre that many would categorise as World Music, but not her.

Because she says being of particular genre is putting one’s self in a box, which she isn’t, she has chosen to go with her own formulated style, Firika; a style that merges both the past and the future of African music. Tshila believes, that her music is not like so many. I have played for women in my village (Bududda- Mbale District) and they applauded with the same enthusiasm as an up market Kampala audience would.

Sure of her genre
Besides, I have listened to Senegalese music, authentic World Music, which is largely embraced by the Senegalese. It’s played on their radio stations. It is popular music. So I will not conform to the notion that for an artiste to make it in Uganda, they must go for the kidandali music.

I shall not opt for that 3-minute catchy nursery rhyme just so my song can be played on radio or just so I become a star,” she insists saying that she will continue to take the opposite direction and she will get there, steadily and successfully.

Apart from the fact that she will ‘free style’ one of her rich and deeply intellectual poems without much coaxing, is that like a true poet, Tshila says what she wants to say without skirting around the topic. Unless it is a matter that concerns her love life (between the hmms and aahs, I gather that she has a biracial boyfriend -half Ugandan, half American, and he is constantly in and out of the country).

Despite the fact that the Ugandan (World Music) artistes she looks up to like Kinobe, Samite and Geoffrey Oryema are a huge success abroad and little known here, Tshila believes that she can make it big in Uganda without necessarily going in the diaspora.

She insists that it is not the listeners who dictate for the Ugandan Music industry to be watered down into the bubble gum music machine that it has become. It is the musicians and the media that have encouraged this adulteration of artistry, she says.

Tshila states that artistes owe their listeners a lot more than studio-manufactured tunes, “Some times you will listen to a song and you can tell it was born in the studio. That it is the producer’s song. I have been in a recording studio where an artiste will come and tell the producer that she/he wants to record a song, but she/he has no idea how that song should sound like.

And the producer goes on his computer, arranges some beats and in three minutes a “hit” song is born. That is why, with all due respect, you will find that most of these songs sound alike, because there is not that much time, thought or even artistry put into their making,” she says.

Tshila’s passion for pure and quality music is undoubted, especially when you listen to this album, Sipping from the Nile. The attention to detail she pays each of the 19 songs- that are in three languages, her native Lugisu, Swahili and English - is amazing. There are no computer generated beats, the entire album was recorded in live studio sessions.
When you start to wonder why she had to go to such financial lengths, she says that her reason for making music is to reach and be connected with the people, and no one can achieve that with a studio manufactured, nursery rhyme.

“Am I hoping to recover that money? Oh yeah. By the way, all my CDs are already sold out. I have ordered for another shipment. So as you can see, the people here too appreciate quality music,” she says.

Listening to Tshila speak of her music and poetry, you would imagine this is all she has lived and breathed. But she reveals that until August 2005, when Krazy Native (Alex Kirya) and Babaluku both of Bataka Underground practically dragged her into the recording studio, she had never thought of becoming an artiste.

“ I had just graduated from college (Valdosta, Georgia, USA) with a degree in Software Engineering and I had come back to Uganda to find something more purposeful to do than just a high profile desk 8-5 desk job. I didn’t know what it is I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to know something with and for the people.

One day I ran into Krazy Native and Babaluku and they asked if I could rap, because of the way I was dressed perhaps. I had always written songs and I have always been a poet but I had never considered doing music professionally. So we went into a recording studio in Naguru and we just went crazy. We recorded a whole album.”

Tshila believes she is on her journey to becoming a sucess on the global music scene and she is proud to be doing it here, in her home country. At 24, she is full of energy and ideas. And despite what people might say of her poetry, music, fashion style or her relationships, this girl's eyes are fixed on the top prize.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/entertainment/ent08135.php