Kleyah: I am working on new music

What you need to know:

  • Speaking to the Beat exclusively this week, Kleyah said there was plenty in the pipe line and that her silence should not be a major point of reference.

Dar es Salaam. She has been quiet for some time now to the extent that her fans began wondering what happened to Kleyah whose pulsating beats on the ‘African Drums’ caught Bongo Flava by surprise.

Speaking to the Beat exclusively this week, Kleyah said there was plenty in the pipe line and that her silence should not be a major point of reference.

“I am working on an album which will probably be out sometime next year. I realised there was need for me to reorganize and strategize as an artiste,” said Kleyah

She adds: I realised that the standard music business model in Tanzania today of prolonged promotional campaign which is followed by a single and then another single and more singles, is getting tired and as a result it is becoming increasingly hard for an artist to stand out.

She believes that when an artiste releases fast paced work it’s easy to lose a sense of artistic direction as one may get lost in the trend and forget the creative part of the business.

“With an album, it’s easier to reflect on the kind of art you are creating and how to combine a collection of songs. That takes time, hence the silence so that when you come out, your work explains the silence,” she said.

The album according to her will feature some outstanding collaboration which she unfortunately can’t reveal at the moment due to contractual issues at hand.

“We are still working on some collaborations and when the time is right we shall put out the whole package including the three internationally recognized artistes that have already confirmed availability,” she told The Beat.

She believes that the consumer behaviour in this age is something that an artiste has to take carefully into consideration.

“We live in an era that is defined by consumers with increasingly low attention span. We get hyped on something instantly, make sure everyone is aware of how hyped we are about the thing, and then forget about it entirely in a few days when there’s a new thing to get hyped on,” she says.

Having had an opportunity to work in other parts of the world Kleyah says her experience in Tanzanian music space has a learning curve.

“To be honest my experience in Tanzania has been a learning process. I feel there’s a lot that has to be done to support artist growth. Such as copyright of material and the fact that artistes don’t earn any royalties yet it is out there being played in public,” she says.

She believes that these are areas where artists could recoup their investment they put in producing music and other material the way it is in other industries.

She cites the example of Ghana and South Africa that have put in place a mechanism that allows their artistes to earn from their skills.

“There is need for government to set up such avenues so that when we retire we can still earn from it.”

She has set her sight on the big prize and with the different sound that she produces it should be only a matter of time before it falls into place.

As you may have noticed with the songs that I have released in the past my sound is different. My aim is to break boundaries, gain international recognition and not to be confined and defined by one genre that is leaving most artistes in Bongo Flava lost in noise clutter.

In another development, Kleyah who quit a high profile job to pursue music has said she will be releasing a single next month to give her fans something to keep them as they wait for the upcoming album.

“There is something coming in the next couple of weeks and I hope they will like it,” she said during the interview.

She adds: I may release few singles but the quality of time and work I put in is worth it. An example is African Drum which won the 2016 video of the year at the international song writing competition in the US judged by leading international artists and record label executives.

Previously she has released songs such as the ‘African Drum’ produced by Nahreel, ‘Boom Bye Bye’ featuring Mayunga, ‘Msobe Msobe’ featuring Barnaba Classic and ‘Sioni’.