Faith Mussa tips artists who eye international festivals

It is a dream of every artist to take their work to the global stage where diverse audiences can appreciate it.

However, the truth of the matter is that not every artist who wants to penetrate the global audience knows how to go about it.

It is against this background that one of the country’s top-notch artists Faith Mussa has come out to tip local artists.

“As far as I am concerned, I regard networking, branding and good music as prerequisite for international exposure,” he said.

Mussa is not an ordinary artist, he is an energetic live performer who has carried the Malawi flag at big international festivals.

Among other notable festivals, he has been to the World Fest in the United States of America in 2015 and Woodburner Fest in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2016.

Mussa said international festivals require good networking and determination to widen applications to different festivals that suit your sound.

“What my fellow African artists should know is that apart from networking with different people, including fellow artists. Knowing your sound is the first step for external exposure.

“For a person playing Afro music like me, I mostly applied to festivals that entertain world music such as World Fest, Glastonbury, Boomtown, Sauti za Busara, just to mention but a few,” he said.

Mussa tipped local artists that ears of the global audiences are on African sounds; hence, challenging them to seize the opportunity.

“I will be honest with my fellow African artists that right now the ears of the world are on Africa. It is considered untampered grounds. Many of the sounds are all mixed and remixed over and over again, but African sounds haven’t been experimented yet,” Mussa said.

However, he challenged African artists, including Malawian counterparts, to get organised, arguing international festivals require authentic sounds.

“There is no shortcut to being organised on the global stage. I can testify on this because I have been to several international festivals.

“We need to be well organised as artists if we are to make any impact out there. Music without proper identity has no room on the international scene,” said Mussa, adding the global stage is yearning for original music.

He also urged African artists to utilise social media to promote their original work which can attract the attention of the international market.

Mussa said: “Apart from the lyrics and anything else, I would like to see an improvement on our production quality. We haven’t yet reached that desired level where we can compete favourably on the global stage. Our sound is not yet there. Therefore, we need to raise the bar.”

On his part, producer OBK Mfrika of OBK Records cited Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa as some countries whose music is fairing well on the global stage.

He said the music from these countries is rich in their specific cultural expressions, a unique element which attracts the attention of the global community.

“The world today is busy searching for good and unique things like music. People need to hear something new and innovative. So, capitalising on our local sounds can help local artists to come up with an identity which can stand out on the global stage,” said OBK Mfrika.