'My Craft' Sessions | Michael Makembe: Music Producer | A Short Documentary | IGIHE
Michael MAKEMBE has easily become the master of Music Production in Rwanda fusing both traditional and Modern music. On the latest episode of 'MY CRAFT' - SESSIONS, we dive deeper into Sebuja w'injyana's passion, creative process and lifestyle.
Directed by: Patrick Shyaka - https://www.instagram.com/shortsiighted/
Edited By: Mucyo Serge - https://www.instagram.com/i_mucyo_serge/
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/IgiheTV?sub_confirmation=1
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/igihe
DailyMotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/igihetelevision
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IGIHE
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igiheofficial
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/igihepictures/
Website: http://igihe.com/
#IGIHE #Rwanda #Makembe
Directed by: Patrick Shyaka - https://www.instagram.com/shortsiighted/
Edited By: Mucyo Serge - https://www.instagram.com/i_mucyo_serge/
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/IgiheTV?sub_confirmation=1
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/igihe
DailyMotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/igihetelevision
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IGIHE
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igiheofficial
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/igihepictures/
Website: http://igihe.com/
#IGIHE #Rwanda #Makembe
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 [ Music ]
00:08 When I get inspiration of creating music or an art piece,
00:11 most of my time I first move to places.
00:16 You know, I first move to places looking for, you know,
00:20 inspiration, research, you know, looking for natural sounds.
00:25 So I usually go to what we could call villages, you know,
00:30 I go to places that I could find people who are still
00:33 in the vibe of natural, you know,
00:35 looking for traditional sounds, looking for natural sounds.
00:38 [ Music ]
00:52 This is my journey.
00:53 This is how I go record.
00:55 I go to different places.
00:58 As I told you, I go to villages.
01:01 I meet new people, new vibe, new content, new sounds, man.
01:08 So this place is called Kajina.
01:11 I want to go meet my elders.
01:13 I want to meet people that I believe they have different
01:17 music, they have different art.
01:19 [ Speaking in Foreign Language ]
01:21 [ Music ]
01:34 [ Singing ]
02:02 [ Speaking in Foreign Language ]
02:10 [ Singing ]
02:35 [ Applause ]
02:45 [ Speaking in Foreign Language ]
02:55 So when I'm creating music from scratch,
02:59 I do record sounds before.
03:02 You know, I go look for sounds.
03:05 Not the sounds that I will use, but every sound, you know,
03:10 everything that sounds good to me, you know.
03:14 I go record someone cooking.
03:17 I go record the society.
03:18 I go record people digging.
03:21 So I bring those sounds together to the studio.
03:26 The second thing I do after recording them, I tune.
03:32 I make them sound good before, you know.
03:34 If the noise, I move the noise from those sounds.
03:38 I chop them, you know, if I could, you know,
03:41 sample them even the beat.
03:43 So I make a pack, you know.
03:46 I make a folder for them, for those things.
03:50 Then after that, I start creating music.
03:54 When I have an inspiration of using the same sounds,
03:58 I drop them to the beat.
04:01 You know, because it's always to me, it's always improvisation.
04:06 I bring everything together.
04:08 I don't care how it sounds before.
04:10 What I care is the output, how it sounds after.
04:14 You know, sometimes I create music.
04:17 It sounds weird at the beginning, but at the end,
04:21 the sound or the music is different.
04:25 [ Singing ]
04:46 [ Music ]
05:16 [ Singing ]
05:30 >> My first challenge actually, it's knowing, you know,
05:36 having an idea or getting the skills of my tradition
05:41 because I grew up from a different genre,
05:44 a different music.
05:46 And I didn't have a chance of learning my local music.
05:51 And I was interested in traditional music.
05:54 So the first challenge was like to me to understand according
06:00 to where I've been growing from, even the society
06:04 of the music we've been playing.
06:05 So understanding the traditional instrument
06:09 and understanding the tradition,
06:11 time signatures was really challenging to me.
06:14 You know, traditional music has different time signatures.
06:16 They have different complicated rhythms, you know,
06:19 something that you can't just dance to it.
06:21 So I've been challenged with those rhythms mostly.
06:25 And I was interested in, you know, producing them,
06:28 singing to the rhythms too.
06:30 [ Wind Blowing ]
06:41 [ Speaking Foreign Language ]
06:47 All right.
06:49 My hard drive.
06:52 So I do have some traditional vocals
06:56 that are recorded in the street.
06:57 I could make you listen to them.
07:03 [ Singing ]
07:22 That's tradition, right?
07:25 [ Singing ]
07:42 So I would love to add some Afro beat vibe
07:45 to these traditional vocals, you know, to make it more,
07:47 more than to make it more fusion.
07:50 So I do have some basic, like the basic rhythm
07:57 of Afro beat, Afro pop actually.
08:00 [ Music ]
08:20 So that's Afro beat, you know.
08:23 [ Music ]
08:32 All right.
08:34 [ Music ]
08:45 That's Afro beat.
08:47 Let me record that.
08:52 [ Music ]
09:12 And so I'll add some drums.
09:15 Now, traditional, traditional crafts, okay?
09:19 [ Music ]
09:29 And after that, I want to make it more groovy, yeah?
09:34 With the kick, with the punch.
09:36 [ Music ]
09:39 Remember I had, remember I had some traditional vocals.
09:43 Don't forget them, okay?
09:45 [ Music ]
09:49 Sorry for not knowing.
09:51 [ Music ]
09:54 And I add different percussions,
09:57 different rhythms, Indians, Arabs.
10:00 [ Music ]
10:02 You know, you hear the groove?
10:04 Remember the vocals we had before?
10:06 I want to put them now.
10:08 All right.
10:09 [ Music ]
10:14 Yeah. Let me add now the vocals now.
10:18 [ Music ]
10:19 So it's drums and percussion and the vocals too.
10:23 [ Music ]
10:43 [ Music ]
10:55 So I want to add some vocal, I mean some chords, yeah?
10:59 There's a guitar I recorded before.
11:01 It's a rhyme like I could call it more pop.
11:05 [ Music ]
11:11 Oh, there's another element that I usually add, you know,
11:13 after bringing the traditional vocals.
11:15 So sometimes I record myself with the microphone.
11:18 I put some humming too to make it more sweet now, you know,
11:21 not to make it more pop, you know, studio session.
11:24 [ Music ]
11:27 Mm.
11:30 Remember the groove we had?
11:33 [ Music ]
11:36 So that's the groove.
11:38 [ Music ]
11:40 In the bass line.
11:41 [ Music ]
11:44 That's African man with the percussions, eh?
11:47 Yeah, man.
11:49 So let me make you listen to the whole groove.
11:52 [ Music ]
12:21 [ Music ]
12:23 So remember the groove, you know, Afro beat, Afro pop,
12:26 but also the clap of Rwanda.
12:29 [ Music ]
12:38 Later on I could jam, I could jam anything, you know?
12:42 [ Music ]
12:57 Oh, sorry.
12:59 [ Music ]
13:03 So that's the groove, you know?
13:05 [ Music ]
13:16 That's the groove, man.
13:18 So remember I had the vocals of traditional singers,
13:22 just put the rhythm of Afro pop, put the bass line,
13:26 put the guitar, put the chords, just to make it more vibe, you know?
13:30 So that's Michael Makenbe.
13:34 [ Music ]
13:39 Yeah, man.
13:40 I greet you in the name of Jah Rastafari.
13:46 Everything early.
13:48 I give thanks, man, them call me Michael Makenbe,
13:50 the beard man, a.k.a. Sebu Jawi Njan.
13:54 [ Beatboxing ]
13:59 When I started music, like doing music well,
14:03 I was in Uganda, you know, in high school.
14:08 I got a chance of going to the school that, you know,
14:12 I had different cultures, different people from different countries.
14:17 So that time, you know, music, it was my language actually.
14:26 You know, going to a place, you know, very good at speaking English,
14:30 you know, very good at communicating with people.
14:33 But music was there for me.
14:35 So in Kampala, I started a record match in the Aden.
14:41 I had friends from Tanzania, from South Sudan, Sudan.
14:45 So we could try to communicate with music, you know.
14:49 Some of them were speaking Arabic, not very good at English,
14:53 but we could have a jam session, we play music,
14:56 he jam in Arabic, I jam in Kinyarwanda, someone jam in Luganda.
15:00 So, you know, the journey started well now, you know,
15:04 now going to music deeply.
15:06 Later on, I used to get chances of meeting different artists,
15:10 most known artists in Kampala.
15:13 Then, after high school, you know, I came back to Rwanda, my home.
15:23 That was in a holiday.
15:28 I got a chance of now doing a competition.
15:30 I didn't know that the competition was for going to school.
15:34 You know, I thought I'm doing a competition, maybe, you know,
15:36 they would give us some money.
15:38 Then I got a call after doing the competition.
15:43 I got a call from someone told me, you know, yeah, Shimu Michael, yes.
15:48 So you want to go to start at Nyundo Music School.
15:52 I didn't know about Nyundo Music School, you know.
15:56 I didn't know about much things about Gisegni.
15:59 So that was my first time even moving around.
16:02 I said, my mother pushed me, you know what, like you should go study music
16:06 because you're the first person in your family that is going to learn,
16:09 study music professionally.
16:11 A lot of them, they're doing art, but they haven't get a chance of studying,
16:14 you know, art professionally.
16:17 So when I went to Nyundo, then music was challenging.
16:24 You know, imagine coming from, you know, because I could say I was from the street, man.
16:28 I was from like, because the jam session I used to do before, we're open.
16:33 Even if I was singing off, no one would know.
16:36 If I go off beat, you know, it could still sound weird,
16:41 but the people that we've been together, that was good.
16:44 You know, we had fun.
16:47 So when I went to Nyundo Music School,
16:53 somehow things became complicated.
16:56 I could start singing, "Hey Michael, you're off."
16:58 "How am I off?"
17:00 Off pitch, you know, sometimes when someone plays you chords and you sing off pitch.
17:04 So I didn't have the idea of pitch and singing in the key, you know,
17:10 but I was very good at freestyle.
17:12 Play something.
17:14 With the words, you know, I start singing.
17:22 You know, do different things, but not well, like,
17:25 understand the idea of how I should do it well, professionally.
17:30 So Nyundo Music School, you know, they started teaching me
17:34 how to sing in the key, warm up, vocal warm up,
17:37 how to make your vocal range, you know, to grow your vocal range.
17:44 [Applause]
17:47 After finishing now, I started going to different shows, performing,
18:01 you know, requesting for musical performances,
18:05 emailing different people with different events.
18:08 But everyone could tell me, "Michael, you're a very good performer."
18:12 "You play guitar, harmonica, cello."
18:15 "Are you from Rwanda?"
18:17 That could hurt me, man.
18:19 Imagine, you're like, you know, "My name is Michael Makembe."
18:23 "I'm from Kigali." You meet someone from outside, you know.
18:26 But it's not like you're not from Rwanda.
18:28 Because of what? Your music sounds different.
18:31 I could sound like someone from Senegal, Dakar, Mali.
18:35 I could play, sing, play scales of Mali music, you know.
18:39 But then I said, "I need to push this."
18:43 "I need to find my identity."
18:46 Then how should I sound like someone from Rwanda, you know,
18:50 looking for now local sounds, you know.
18:54 Because, you know, they have taught me how to do things professionally.
18:57 I know what I should do now, you know.
18:59 So I have an idea what I should do.
19:02 So I started sampling things I could see on YouTube.
19:08 I sampled "Havmeiling." "Havmeiling" is one of the tracks that I did.
19:12 So now people have been telling me, "Michael, that's the sound you've been looking for."
19:25 "We need something traditional, but not boring."
19:28 You know. So I went, you know, you know how to fall in the water.
19:34 I went like, fall in that.
19:37 Yeah, man. So I went and fell in that mood, in that society of, you know,
19:45 of fusing things, of, you know, disorganizing everything, you know.
19:50 I could bring maybe a loop of Michael Jackson.
19:57 Then I add something.
20:02 The line when it's in Nanga.
20:04 So actually it was a process, you know.
20:08 I came from reggae, then I went to western music.
20:11 I went to Mali music.
20:15 I used to play what we call world music.
20:17 And I played different patterns, like time signatures, which are very crazy, you know, like 4/4, 3/4.
20:23 So that was a process to me, you know.
20:26 I started in reggae music, went to world music.
20:30 The world music still from Africa or Rwanda, you know.
20:34 But now, after world music, that was in 2018, you know.
20:39 That's when I started going now, visiting places of tradition singers.
20:45 Going recording them, you know.
20:47 Go learn, go see shows where they're performing.
20:50 Before I wasn't interested in tradition, because I could see someone playing in Njiri and fall over one hour.
20:57 I was tired.
21:00 I can tell some people also, you know, even now, they don't feel like, you know, they could watch a show in Njiri for all over one hour.
21:09 But, you know, in 2019 I said, 18, sorry, I said I should now try to see what I didn't love before.
21:19 To, you know, to combine with what I love, you know, to see if I could create something new.
21:25 [Music]
21:47 I had a child that my family members, some of them had instruments.
21:52 They had piano, like my uncle is a very, very good keyboardist.
21:56 He plays piano in every key, you know, jazz, classical music.
22:01 My brother too was a rapper, singer.
22:04 My brothers mostly, you know, they're into music.
22:07 Though now they're not doing music so much, but I grew up seeing them playing music, you know.
22:15 One of my brother was, like I could call him a legend, man.
22:19 Shout out to Lucky J.
22:21 [Music]
22:51 [Singing]
23:07 Lucky J, he was like, every time he was updated, you know, he could bring the new songs, the new hits.
23:16 I could listen to, you know, Lil' Wine, 2Pac. I could listen to many of the artists that were hitting in, maybe, I think that was 2008.
23:29 Yeah.
23:30 Yeah.
23:31 So I could listen to, you know, musicians that were hitting at that time.
23:37 So later on I started playing guitar, playing guitar at school, home, small birthday parties.
23:47 Then people could tell me, Michael, you know what, you're very good.
23:51 You should keep doing music.
23:53 Because I was very good at performance. I never had a very good vocal, but people could, I could entertain, you know, the vibe, you know, I feel.
24:00 [Beatboxing]
24:04 At that time I was more fun, you know, entertained, actually.
24:07 I could take my guitar, jam with the audience.
24:10 Even the, I mean, the society, you know, helped me to push my career.
24:17 [Beatboxing]
24:46 [Whistling]
24:56 [Applause]
25:00 Music, to me, music is a disorganized sound.
25:06 [Rattling]
25:08 This is music.
25:10 [Rattling]
25:14 That's music.
25:16 So then music production is to make that disorganized, have an arrangement, have a recording, have a, you know, a structure.
25:26 So you producing, you take those sounds, disorganized sound, you know, waterfall, you know, shakers, clap.
25:39 Now make it in one thing, organize it now, you know, have an arrangement.
25:45 So that's music production, you know, you produce that sound in two, you know, arranged way, you know, like have a structure, intro, verse, you know, outro, bridge.
25:57 That's music production.
25:59 [Speaking in foreign language]
26:01 [Beatboxing]
26:08 [Speaking in foreign language]
26:10 [Beatboxing]
26:20 [Speaking in foreign language]
26:22 [Beatboxing]
26:37 [Speaking in foreign language]
26:39 [Beatboxing]
27:03 [Speaking in foreign language]
27:11 The name that I got first, it was [Speaking in foreign language]
27:17 To me, they wanted to call me the king of Wikembe.
27:23 But I don't like sound like a king, you know, it's too popular.
27:28 We're looking for something that is too different, you know, that we haven't had so much times, so many times.
27:36 So, you know, [Speaking in foreign language] is like the boss, you know.
27:42 I don't call it like [Speaking in foreign language] sometimes it sounds like someone who is, you know, boss, want to direct.
27:50 But to me, I want it to sound like, you know, I'm the owner of this sound, you know, I'm the owner of this instrument.
27:58 [Speaking in foreign language]
28:00 So a friend of mine called Rumaga, he's a poet. Then he said, man, [Speaking in foreign language]
28:09 To me, that sounds good, but that was not like, I want to name you [Speaking in foreign language]
28:18 He went, actually he was here at home. I used to have a bed here.
28:24 I've been recording poem then, I've been playing him music, playing [Speaking in foreign language] for him, trying to loop [Speaking in foreign language] with the vocals.
28:32 But mostly I've been putting [Speaking in foreign language] because I loop, I do looping station with the looper station.
28:40 So I've been having a guitar, I record a guitar, ball of guitar, then I add [Speaking in foreign language]
28:46 But [Speaking in foreign language] to me, I could bring more ideas from [Speaking in foreign language]
28:53 Then the guy said, man, [Speaking in foreign language]
28:56 Later on, the more I've been creating music, the more I've been doing research, I wanted something, you know, like second name, but also unique to me.
29:10 Michael Makenbe is my name, but I wanted something that people could call me.
29:16 Something should be like even a tag in a song, because sometimes we use producer, Michael producer, some other producer.
29:25 But I wanted something sound like, you know, traditional, also local, a tag.
29:31 So I choose [Speaking in foreign language]
29:35 So like I'm the boss of this rhythm, the owner of this rhythm. Which rhythm is that?
29:42 The rhythm that I produced, it's me who created it. That's what I wanted, me.
30:10 When I release an artwork, I feel good when it's out and they tell me this song, it sounds something like from Rwanda.
30:22 You know, it's not like every time I need a hit, I need something that is trending.
30:28 But what makes me happy is when I get a feedback or someone, sometimes I play a song and I don't tell my friend because it's me who produced it.
30:39 Because I don't put my tag, they tell me, man, this is a song from Rwanda.
30:43 I can hear it now, I can hear it.
30:45 [Speaking in foreign language]
30:49 Something, you know, from Rwanda.
30:51 So that's really like a win to me when they tell me this song, this artwork, this rhythm, it's from Rwanda.
31:06 [Speaking in foreign language]
31:14 Man, the environment of Rwanda is really, really beautiful.
31:19 Because imagine I have a studio, man. I do have the fashion designers, I have a place, cinematography, literature.
31:30 Even if I'm working with an artist that is not good at writing, I call my guy from literature and write for me something on this topic.
31:38 So the environment is artistic environment.
31:41 Like I have everyone that I need now because even what I'm dressing now from Kanyana, she's a designer from Rwanda.
31:53 So I bring ideas, we work together.
31:56 So it's a teamwork mostly, which I believe teamwork makes the dream work.
32:00 So when I have an, because I don't do only music, you know, I do different things.
32:08 I'm a creative artist in general, so which means I need those people to be creative artists.
32:16 So the environment is this that I need to live in.
32:20 [Singing]
32:44 It's not me who do the dressing codes, but I get the ideas.
32:49 I make the basics, you know. I make the basic production of the dressing codes because I cut them, then I go to the tailor.
32:56 So I need this, I need this. I direct actually because I already have an idea of what to do.
33:02 So this one is from my mother.
33:07 Then I saw this dressing. I love the color so much because to me it looks somehow African.
33:16 Also what I should call from outside of Africa.
33:23 So I came up with an idea of, you know, using it on the stage.
33:30 I drew the idea of how the dress should look like.
33:36 Then I went to the tailor. We did different things, you know, after that.
33:42 You know, improvisation to the dressing code too. This is the outfit that came out.
33:47 [Music]
34:02 My goal, my career goal.
34:06 The first goal is to bring out the music of Rwanda to the industry of selling, you know.
34:14 What do I mean? I mean bringing out the image of Rwandan music, Rwandan tradition to the competitive side, you know, to the market.
34:24 You know, to the, how could I call it, to bring the music on the table like competing with the music that is on the table too.
34:34 That's my goal.
34:36 [Music]
34:57 [Laughter]
35:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]