We’ll change the game

It seems like a world away since he released his last album, when he serenaded dancefloors nationwide with his lead single Kutentha.

So long has been the break that led to many in the industry to suspect that Theo Thomson had actually quit the industry to concentrate on running his family business, FM 101.

But the smooth singing crooner is back, releasing Magic—the lead single off his sophomore album White Elephant—a follow-up to the highly acclaimed debut Gypsy.

He told On the Arts: “With his album, I wanted to showcase musical growth and tackle more mature topics and have fun with the general sound and direction of the music. I’d like this album to really establish myself internationally as well as bring Malawi music to the front of the world stage.”

According to the artist, White Elephant is refreshing. “It’s a game changer; it’s relative and I feel it could even be iconic,” he says, although he is coy about the elements that would make this album iconic.

“If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise, but it’s gonna change the industry,” he muses about the album that he is recording at his home studio in Sunnyside, Blantyre.

“This project really comes from a more mature place, it’s a very musical piece with a variety of concepts that really showcase my songwriting and show off my vocals more than previously.”

Magic was released on Friday and features outspoken dancehall artist and Times TV presenter BlakJak. The single has an Afro-pop dancehall fusion with vague R’n’B elements and a touch of local music.

Magic finds Theo and BlakJak singing about being spellbound by a woman despite knowing or hearing things about her.

Theo, whose last project was a feature on the all-star Mwezi Wawala track, explains his choice of White Elephant as the album title.

“White elephant is a folk tale told about ancient Thailand, where a smaller village would give a grand gift to a larger village, that being a white elephant. It was a beautiful gift couldn’t be declined, but keeping the gift brought the burden of looking after it, as it ate the village supplies and its size damaged the village. The gift left the bigger village vulnerable to the smaller one. In short, it’s a gift that’s a burden. And in my journey in music, there are times that title is appropriate, so it felt fitting,” he says.

And justifying his long break before, Theo explains that a confused music scene left him at a crossroads.

“I didn’t like the direction our music industry was going in, so I took a step back to see how it played out. Music lost its way, we slipped back into trying to be what we are not and the pursuing corporate took the purity out of the process. Shows stopped, the market got flooded with artists only intending on getting a bit of fame and very few people actually genuinely care for shaping our industry,” he says, and offers into insight on what can be done to remedy the crisis.

“Unity is a start, but how long is a string? It’s impossible to know what’s needed. If, however, we are all moving to the same common goal together, we can achieve or pave way for someone to achieve,” he says.