Exclusive Interview With Music Producer Tatenda Kamera

Tatenda Kamera is the name you need to remember right now. Popularly known as Mr Kamera, the young singer and producer is making waves across Africa working with some of the biggest names in the continent including Ice Prince and winning a Zim Achievers Award -SA last year. Check out what he had to say about it all.

Q:Who is Mr Kamera?

A:  Mr Kamera is a versatile music producer from Zimbabwe.

Q:At what age did you realize you had the talent and hat made you decide to make music your career?

A: I discovered my talent at the age of 15/16 and I had always known that I wanted to be a professional music producer but I only made the decision to make it a career when I was much older.

Q:What’s the inspiration behind your music, what drives you?

A: Pharell Williams inspires me and success drives me

Q: As a media company owner, how important is it to own what you do in the music industry and was you company a result of you not being signed to a record label?

A: Its important to own what you make so that you have the rights to do whatever you want to do with it

Q: What was it like working with Ice Price Zamani?

A: Working with Ice Prince was a great experience as he gave me creative freedom as a producer. Working with him brought out the best in me as a producer and our new song coming out soon is a testimony to this.

Q: Tell us about some of the highlights of your career

A: Winning the Zim Achievers award, meeting and getting to spend time with artists like Davido, Runtown, Iyanya, Kcee, Brian Soko to name a few, in their personal space.

Q: Tell us about your collaboration with Anashe Media Group

A. I’m working very closely with Brian Soko on numerous projects in Africa, the States and in Europe. Prince Soko helps me a lot with my PR, social media management and the team is a great support system.

Q: You were part of a short film that was on DSTV, is Film something you are exploring?

A: Yes, film is something I am exploring more and more as there are four movies that I have done music for coming out this year.

Q: What are you currently working on that people can look forward to?

A: I have a lot of projects that will be released in 2016, from movies to local and international music. People can follow me on social media for updates.

Q: You seem to be working with many African artists, as a Zimbabwean what does it mean to you?

A: As a Zimbabwean, I am trying to break boundaries and expose Zimbabwean music through various elements. Working with fellow Africans reveals the phenomenal talent that this continent has to offer.

Q: Who is your dream collaboration or artist to work with?

A: Ice Prince has always been my dream collaboration and it happened so I thank God. This showed me that dreams come true if we have faith. Now I want to work with Wizkid and Pharrell Williams.

Q: What do you enjoy the most producing or singing?

A: I enjoy producing. I’m not a singer at all. However, when I pitch music to artists I sometimes put my voice on the music so as to give the artist an idea of what they could sing.

Q: Where would you want to see yourself in 5 years?

A: In 5yrs time I am going to be an internationally acclaimed producer. I would have won several internationally recognized awards, and working with the A-list international artists.

Q: What do you think is the reason why Zimbabwean urban music has not penetrated into the African market like South Africa and Nigeria has?

A: To be honest I really do not know why but one of the main reasons could be that in order to penetrate and get your music out there continentally, we need to have good quality music videos. Music videos are a major catalyst to getting music out there and unfortunately in Zimbabwe we don’t have good music videos. So we need good music that a wider audience can relate to, good music videos and a budget to actually market and push the songs and the videos.

Q: What’s your advice to the Zimbabwean youth?

A: Chase your dream. Identify what it is you want to do, perfect it, research on it, identify the markets that allow you to make a living out of it, believe in yourself, have faith, work hard and never ever give up. And most importantly, PRAY.

Q: What do you do to relax?

A: To be honest I hardly relax. I’m constantly working. It’s so bad that when I went on vacation over the festive season I had my laptop with me and any free time I’d get I would be working

Q: Is there a special lady in Mr Kamera’s life and what o you look for in a life partner?

A. Yes there is! I really appreciate a person with ambition and drive. A person that understand my career path and supports me. A person that has a good heart and most importantly a person that puts God first.

Q: How can people reach you or your work?

A. People can email me or reach me via my social media. My email address is [email protected] and my social media handle is @MrKamera and it is the same for Twitter, Instagram. For Soundcloud it is www.soundcloud.com/mrkamera

If people need my direct phone number they can request it via email.