Sauti Sol: We’re still making good money during these tough times
By Thomas MatikoWithout shows, performance and appearances gigs due to Covid 19 pandemic, most artistes in the country have been grounded and are struggling to make money.
The situation was made even worse last Saturday when President Uhuru Kenyatta extended the night time curfew and ban on social gatherings for a further 30 days in an effort to curb the spread of the virus was first reported in the country early in March 2020.
The situation has left most artistes to survive on their savings while others have been forced to switch to other business ventures to make ends meet.
However, this isn’t the case for multiple award winning Kenyan music group, Sauti Sol. The band that recently dropped their fifth studio album, Midnight Train, has revealed that they are still getting booked and making money from their music during these tough times.
“We started this year with so many plans, but Covid-19 changed everything. For a minute we were a bit scared but we changed our business module to now become a more online kind of brand,” lead vocalist Bien Aime Baraza has revealed.
“We have been commissioned to do a couple of concerts. The other day we did Africa Day concert, we’ve done a concert for Stanford University, and we have now been commissioned to do a concert for Essence Festival. So a lot of international festivals are reaching out and the model is doing concerts online and in digital space,” he said.
Meanwhile, the group has since relocated to a ranch in Lukenya on the outskirts of Nairobi, where they are currently isolating as they work on production of more content.
“We got tested for Covid-19 so we are now together in a place where we are isolated and we are just making a lot of content and rehearsing. Kazi inaendelea,” Bien said.