Tonzi reveals in the last part of her interview, the best of his many beautiful songs. It took a lot of hard work to get the result he was looking for.
Le Canapé: Does it take you a lot of time to produce a three-minute song?
Tonzi: In any case, it takes time to produce a quality song. You have to compose the lyrics, the production manager has to listen to it in a studio, prepare the project, listen to the song again, make modifications, and so on, … To finalize the production of a song it can take up to a year. Some songs only take you six months, three months, one month, two weeks. It depends on the production manager, the size of the project.
Le Canapé: Which song took up a lot of your energy but gave you complete satisfaction?
Tonzi: I’ve already produced seven albums. I have a lot of beautiful songs that took me a long time but in the end they were good products. “Humura” took me four years. The producers have changed many times. The best one for me, which took me a lot of energy in shooting, sound production, …changing producers but finally was produced to my full satisfaction is “Sinzamuvaho”.
Le Canapé: What is your source of inspiration?
Tonzi: My inspiration depends on the situation I’m in, but most of the time I compose my songs during prayer times. When I read the Bible, I take notes. Sometimes when I walk around, ideas can come up, but often it is the times of prayer that help me to be inspired.
Le Canapé: Which books of the Bible do you like?
Tonzi: In the Bible, I especially like the book of Psalms. So does Matthew. I like those books very much. Psalms, for example chapters 91, 23, 103, … some of the verses make me feel good like a cool drink when it is very hot.
Le Canapé: Let’s go back to the digital platforms. How do you make money there?
Tonzi: The big fish have known long before us how to make money on social media. They knew how to make money on digital platforms. They would steal our songs, market them and make millions to leave us sometimes with crumbs. Today Rwandan artists have their own “You tube” channels, we sell our products on digital platforms like “Spotfire”, “iTurnes”, these are sources of income. We work with companies like MTN, our “caller turne” provide us with revenues.
Le Canapé: One less challenge. Are there others?
Tonzi: Piracy. We are calling on our partners to fight copyright infringement. A channel should be found to distribute the music industry’s products to avoid piracy. For wedding ceremonies, you need a song, meetings, radio stations, … everywhere music consumption is necessary. The artist should reap something every time his product is consumed. Some radio stations would close down without music. To say that we have important content. We should be treated with dignity.
End
Gérard Rugambwa
