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The other side of Piksy

On any other day, you would expect to find Piksy in a recording studio to make music or on stage performing one of his numerous songs.

For over a decade, his name has been synonymous with music. But there is another side of the artist that is yet to come to the fore and be appreciated.

Slowly, but surely, Piksy is carving out a niche in acting thanks to his Usauver (pronounced as Usova) series.

Since September last year, he has been thriving in his new role as Angozo in the Usauver series which he produces alongside other reputable names such as female dancehall artist Sangie, rapper Hyphen, socialite Emmie Kamkweche and lyrist Nepman.

The episodes, which come out every Friday and are beamed through his Facebook page, depict real life issues which border on relationships, socio-economic and other themes that are slowly becoming a hit owing to their educative and comic elements.

“We are trying to portray everything that goes on in family set-ups. We are bringing out real issues that people will not show you. I think that is what makes the series unique,” he said.

Piksy said although he does not have any background in acting, he has always had a passion for drama and the Usauver platform came handy to showcase that underlying and idle passion in him.

He said: “I like making jokes and creating fun. It is almost natural for me. And acting and music, which I do, are not worlds apart from each other. So, it is not hard to balance the two acts.”

Since the series first premiered last year, a total of 23 episodes, each running 10 minutes, have been produced. At first Piksy was responsible for the production, but that responsibility is now in the hands of CA Visuals and Zoe Photography.

The artist said acting alongside fellow musicians has made the series more exciting and he has promised to bring in more faces from the music arena due to interest from a number of musicians.

Piksy said alongside Sangie and Wisdom Phanga, who is the executive producer of the series, they are responsible for the production of the script. But the Unamata hit-maker has revealed plans of bringing on board renowned actor Mphundu Mjumira.

“The plan is to expand our scope. We want to extend the running time too to be between 15 and 20 minutes so that we can take the series on a bigger platform. I believe that we can favourably compete with the series that are shown on various television stations,” he said.

For long, the Angozo family, which features Piksy as husband and Sangie as wife Patricia, has been the mainstay of the storyline. But Piksy says in the coming weeks they will broaden the narrative and the Angozo family will no longer be regular features.

In a separate interview, Sangie said it is hard to separate music and acting as the two are intertwined under the umbrella of art. She said life itself is like a drama where people act every day.

Sangie said: “Acting is like temporarily assuming the duties of another person or taking up a role of someone at that particular time. As a musician, acting sharpens and broadens my imaginative skills.”

On his part, Phanga said they are working on improving the quality of the picture, sound as well as the script to bring in more characters. He said the series have gained huge numbers in terms of followership and they want to court sponsors.

“We have noted that corporate institutions are willing to sponsor. For example, Unicaf University sponsored the last episode. We want to bring in more sponsors and our target is to improve the quality of the production,” said Phanga.

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