Lawi, Soldier sounds out love
Two of the country’s influential musicians generation Afro-jazz artist Lawi and contemporary music kingpin ‘Soldier’ Lucius Banda have collaborated on a single Hello Love.
This is the first time the two to appear on a song together. The closest they have gotten previously was in 2015 when Lawi produced Soldier’s song Nthungululu.
Lawi said: “This was an amazing experience. Soldier is a great musician and there is always so much to learn from him when you are in a creative space. I enjoyed working with him.”
On his part, Banda said he felt different since Lawi is a peculiar artist with a unique style. He admitted he needed a lot of adapting to fit into his counterpart’s style.
“The beauty about Lawi is that he is in his own race. He is not chasing anyone. He does music that he likes. Such artists go far. I would say he does music as a hobby. He is not a commercial artist and he is just a pure artist,” said the Balaka-based artist.
The song was released on Monday evening and even though the song bears a love theme and coincided with Valentine’s Day, composer of the song Lawi says the offering was not designed to be a Valentine’s Day song, but just a general expression of their art.
Lawi said: “It is not about Valentine’s Day. Not at all. It is a song of love which we ought to express every day of our lives. It is just a coincidence that it has come out this period.”
Though coming from two different genre leanings, the artists seem to have compromised to meet halfway with Lucius appearing to make the big sacrifice as the song has a dominant jazz element which is a domain of Lawi.
The to-and-fro flow of the song arrangement is almost a battle of vocal supremacy that has been achieved with a good measure of calmness between the two artists. The high knots in the vocal projection are well observed when it required them to do so owing to their respective experiences in such kind of ballads.
The concept of the song is about a woman who is beckoning her partner to create time for her. She calls him to check how he is doing at work and asks him to come home straight from work and not pass by a drinking joint so that his children can see him first.
The song goes in part: “Babe, babe usalire, nane ndakusowa ndikubwera kunyumba. I promise I won’t get drunk today I am coming home to you, tidzadye limodzi. Ndagula kachidole, ana adzandilandire, tikhale pa khonde kudyera nsima limodzi”
Hello Love is available on YouTube and various other platforms. Lawi has three albums to his credit, Lawi, Sunset in the sky and Thirties while ‘Soldier’ Lucius Banda has 20 albums, with his final studio album named Love and Hate released recently.
