GUITAR RECORDING: SHABO MAKOTA & ME
After the basic tracks, we started to overdub. First Shabo and I played the guitar tracks. Shabo Makota is a superb rumba/soukous style guitarist and a singer, who does also his original music. All guitars on the record were recorded without an amplifier, plugged straight to the audio-interface through Shabo's multi-effects pedal. I tend to use old tube amplifiers if possible when recording electric guitars in Finland, and I have been frowning upon this kind of multi-effects that are the digital all-in-one packages of the electric guitar world. Even though recording electric guitar through tube amplifiers with microphones is more traditional, these days it is more difficult and expensive, which made our setting in Mtungi studio the best, most sensible, and in the lack of good amplifiers, the only solution for the situation. In the recordings, I learned to use this device quite well and managed to get nice sounds from it, which basically was a learning and eye-opening experience for me, being the guitar vintage person I am.
Shabo himself did not know how to use all the settings in his pedal, which lead to surprising choices of sound. Sometimes he just browsed through the sound presets of the multi-effect, and chose a sound that to my ear was completely out of style in the occasion. There were situations where I discussed these choices and proposed a change of tone, but sometimes I didn’t interfere with the (from my point of view) surprising style clashes. An example of this is Shabo's solo in the title track "Mwana Mkala", played with a heavy metal sound with a strong delay. The sound reminds me a bit of Steve Vai, the virtuosic heavy metal/progressive rock guitarist. Probably Shabo didn't hear these details of guitar sound the same way I did, because many of the sounds in his American multi-effect pedal, especially the distorted ones, were simulating classic rock sounds. Shabo is surely much more familiar with the guitar sounds of soukous and Congolese rumba than heavy metal and progressive rock. This reminds me of my understanding of the different Tanzanian tribal rhythms, I am still struggling a lot to know which is which, Zaramo or Makonde, and so on.
I guess the closer you are to a certain aesthetic, like a music genre, the more details you know about it. Some of this knowledge may seem self-evident until you see the aesthetic from a perspective that’s very different from yours. At the same time, it becomes more unlikely for you to break the paradigm of the style intuitively when you know it well. For this reason, it’s most likely that people, who don’t know completely what they are doing are the ones that come up with real new artistic innovations, some of them bad, some of them cringy, but some of them pure genius. Anyways this collaboration of guitar colleagues resulted in the guitar sounds of the Mwana Mkala album, which is, also in a guitaristic sense, hybrid.
LENNICK JOACKIM , BACKING VOCALS
Backing vocals were sung by me and Shabo for the first four songs, but in the latter 4 song sessions, we decided to get ”another vibe”. Lennick Joackim, Kikombe’s friend and prominent church choir singer. She brought a refreshing breeze of spirituality to the record, and the sweaty studio. In the recording sessions for ”Tusikate Miti” (Don’t Cut The Trees), the song about the environment, Lennick wanted to pray together before recording, and she led the prayer, asking God to help us deliver this important message to the people through our music. I, Kifimbo, and Balthazar were silent, so this was a special moment in many ways. Lennick is an experienced choir singer, so it was easy for her to make the background vocal arrangements spontaneously. Lennick's beautiful voice gives the songs she’s singing on a sense of smoothness. In ”Tusikate Miti” she gets to utilize her full range of expression with the dense choral harmonies and improvised leads in the ending.
MIXING
Balthazar made the first mixes on his own, and then sent them for me and Kifimbo to listen. I usually had a lot more comments about the mixes than Kifimbo, because I'm more used to commenting mixes. This was an important part of the production where I had a lot to say. In the mixing phase, I noticed that nearly always Balthazar's first mixes sounded too sharp in my ear. The stinging high frequencies made the music sound like scratching a chalkboard. This made me think, if this is a question of aesthetics. In Tanzania all the radios, speakers, and other sources of sound are usually turned to full volume regardless of overdrive and stingy quality of sound this produces. In my perception, the mixes of Tanzanian pop music are generally sharper and clearer in the upper register than what I am used to in Finland. I didn't want to mess up Balthazar's vision, but on the other hand, I wanted to trust my ears. In this sense, it was helpful to listen to the mixes with Kifimbo and discuss what kind of changes we want Balthazar to make. Balthazar also used a lot of reverb and delay in the mixes. In some songs, like ”Nipe Tano” I asked him to reduce the reverb, but for example, the in-my-opinion-hardcore delays in ”Tusikate Miti” stayed, and I’m happy for it. I wouldn’t come up with that sound myself. Usually, after I and Kifimbo gave our comments, a solution was found that pleased all of us. Balthazar also made the final master for the record.
ALLY CHUDO, PERCUSSION
Ally Chudo overdubbed the percussion tracks next in the firm guidance of Kifimbo. Ally and Kifimbo have a special relationship, because Kifimbo has been 10 years younger Ally’s teacher in music and dance when he was a kid. Kifimbo also helped Ally to get to secondary school. Currently, Ally is a professional musician playing in many groups, Ze Spirits being the most important one, where he is playing original music with other musicians about his (and my) age. He is the youngest in MAN Kifimbo band. When recording percussions, Kifimbo had a lot more to say than in the other overdubbing sessions. Drumming is Kifimbo's native musical language, and the core of most of his compositions. Ally had a collection of percussion instruments with him in the studio: shakers, maracas, cowbells, djembe (West African drum with metallic sound), ngoma (Tanzanian drum with a wooden sound) and so on. I was very impressed of Ally’s sense of arrangement, as his percussion tracks were recorded, layer by layer, to form the full fabric of rhythm. I liked all the tracks Ally played, but this was also the point where I realized that we would need to cut down something in the mix, for there are so many good tracks already, before even recording keyboards and vocals. The percussion tracks made the songs sound instantly more like afro-fusion, with the emphasis on the word afro. They are important in every single track of the album.
MUSTAFA YAHAYA OMARY, KEYBOARDS
We had some misfortune with the keyboardist of the band, who canceled the studio sessions for both 4-song sessions the day before. Both times he was substituted by Mustafa Yahaya Omary, a.k.a. Muu. In these sessions I participated a lot, because I had a lot of ideas for keyboards, Muu hadn’t had a chance to rehearse the material and plan his parts, and I also wanted to make sure we wouldn’t hit the wrong nerve with the wrong kind of ”plastic” keyboard sounds. After all, being the only really digital and synthetic source of sound on the record, the sounds chosen for keyboard tracks affected a lot to the general feel of the songs. These sessions needed a lot of effort, and I was taking part in the situation more than in other sessions. I was keener on recording certain sounds for certain parts in the song, and this way giving the different parts different characters, whereas Muu would have jammed the whole song through with a sound that seems fit. I was afraid that Muu, Balthazar, and Kifimbo might think of my fine-tuning of sound details annoying, bossy, and meaningless, but on the other hand I was driven by a strong vision about how I wanted the keyboards to sound, and how not. I think the result is good, with some very cool keyboard parts, like the ”music box” melody in "Mwana Mkala", or the ‘80s synth hits in the "Nipe Tano" chorus. The team was very happy with the results also, even though I doubt that they would’ve judged me face to face for interfering too much. Balthazar seemed especially enthusiastic about my synth ideas, seeing a certain pop production value in them. Muu might’ve felt that I’m going into too much detail, but he especially liked the ”music box” melody. Kifimbo seemed to trust me on this matter, as I trust him with the percussion tracks. In the keyboard tracks of the album, there is a lot of my ideas, that change between parts, but in ”Nunu” the keyboards, playing with a marimba sound, are jamming rhythmically all through the song.
Figure 2.38. Ally Chudo working on the percussion tracks. In the end conversation about the tracks between Ally, Balthazar and Kifimbo. "Vitu vitamu!" means "sweet stuff!" and "Unaamsha masikio", "You open your ears."
MZEE SAIDI, TRUMPET
Three songs, ”Nunu”, ”Wwanitegela Usinga” and ”Tusikate Miti” got a finishing touch of trumpet by mzee Saidi. Mzee is a respectable word for an older gentleman. Said Othman Makelele is an older gentleman, who’s style is rumba from the sound of his horn to his outfit. I was very happy to have a chance to work with a real old school Tanzanian rumba brass musician, and his horn took especially ”Wanitegela Usinga” to a new level. His 2-part and 3-part harmonies were composed on the go in the studio, like the backing vocals with Lennick. Mzee Saidi improvised the solos for ”Nunu” and ”Wanitegela Usinga”, and for ”Tusikate Miti” he played an improvised jamming track all through.
LEAD VOCALS: KIFIMBO & ME
Finally, it was time to record lead vocals. We didn’t need many takes for Kifimbo’s vocals in general because he has performed his old songs for years and he always sings with full emotion. Hardest one for Kifimbo was the ballad ”Tusikate miti”, for I insisted him to sing a little bit more gently than usual. I didn't quench the ”fiyah” but I think we found a nice, softer tone that brings a nice addition to the record. When I needed to go in front of the mic I was a bit nervous because I am quite used to a different style of music, different language and a little bit slower workflow where it’s possible to take many takes, but I managed to get it done nicely and not spend all our studio time for it. When I was singing, I was relying a lot on Kifimbo’s and Balthazar’s comments, because it’s hard for me to produce my own vocals. Kifimbo's comments were usually about the whole track or the mood of singing, whereas I usually put my attention to certain details, like is that one part in tune or well-articulated.
Figure 2.41. Keyboard sessions with Muu. I had a lot of production ideas for the keyboard tracks, which made me talk a lot in this situation.