He is the undisputable music heavyweight of Malawi. He has been there and perhaps seen it all in the music circles. With 16 albums under his belt, he is still going strong. And now Lucius ‘Soldier’ Banda launches his 17th album at the weekend.
Time which was recorded in Malawi and South Africa will first be launched at Mkango Lodge in Blantyre tonight, before its re-launch at Lilongwe Golf Club on Sunday.
“In Blantyre, it will be a phungwe that will start at 8pm till Saturday morning, then Sunday noon we will be in Lilongwe. Unfortunately, this is an abrupt launch after some songs leaked when my driver lost a flash in an accident. Upon hearing the songs on the radio, we cancelled the double launch planned for March month end for the album and DVD.
“However, we are geared to launching the album. It will be a full house with artists like Organised Family and General Kanene from Zambia, locally we have Piksy, Dan Lu, Skeffa Chimoto, Black Missionaries among the many musicians. Of course the Blacks will only join us in the Lilongwe gig,” said the excited Banda in an interview.
Some of the singles on the album, enjoying radio play locally are Missing, a tribute to South Africa’s Reggae icon Lucky Dube, Paulendo, Mphawi Uja and Tseketseke, house song called Boss’ Wife which he collaborated with South Africa’s DJ Professor.
For easy distribution of the album, Soldier has partnered with Puma to sell it on his behalf.
“Currently, there are several Puma service stations already selling the album. We will reach as far as Chitipa so that we reach many people. In that way, we will also discourage people from buying pirated CDs, which is killing many artists. We need to do more on awareness on the matter.”
The musician has since described his musical journey fulfilling though not easy.
“It has not been easy to maintain momentum. It has not been paying in terms of gains as it should have been. All the same, I am happy with the little gains, for determination and hard work has seen me this far.
