New music galoreGiving his fans a taste of his forthcoming album As he prepares to release his 13th body of work, NAMAs artist of the decade Gazza last week released ‘Road To Messiah’ EP - something for the fans to hold onto in the meantime. MICHAEL KAYUNDEWINDHOEK
Having been consistent for many years, Gazza has amassed a solid fan base, one that always yearns for more because of the quality of music he has served them over the years.
His ‘Road To Messiah’ surprise release is testament to how loyal his fans are. With internet connection being a luxury in Namibia and the fact that the EP was released during a period when a lot of Namibians travelled either back home or to holiday destinations, the EP was still one of the trending topics online - another indication of how strong Gazza’s brand is.
He describes the EP as a preview to the album ‘Messiah’, adding that the creation of the EP was inadvertent as his team’s focus was the album.
In a conversation with tjil, Gazza mentioned that the response to ‘Road To Messiah’ has been amazing.
“To the point it’s treated to be giving the people a full 360 satisfaction, similar to an album,” he shared.
Complementing his music with visuals has been a big part of his roll-out plans. Asked whether we can expect the EP to get the same treatment, Gazza said: “Not sure, because these are supposed to be songs that didn’t make it to the album. During the planning it was seen not necessary to invest, but now songs like ‘Uuteku’ are proving otherwise”.
Streams only
Embracing the streaming era, Gazza said the EP will not be available on physical copies.
Meanwhile, on the song selection process, he shared that the process is the same with every project - not only his, but for every Gazza Music Production (GMP) artist. He revealed that it’s a very stressful process to the artist because sometimes his team do not know where these songs come from to judge them in five minutes.
“Some of them come from deep within where you cannot attach commercial value to it, but I guess it’s a capitalist world we live in so it only makes sense for the team to extract as much value as possible from the projects,” Gazza said.
When he dropped the EP, Gazza took to social media to explain that when consolidating the track-list on ‘Messiah’, the bulk of the music that didn’t make the cut felt too good to be archived.
“Paying homage to my loving fan base, I want them to know the quality of work they could expect and that we did not compromise on anything within our creative process.”
Production credits
“This project encompasses production value, lyricism and overall passion to create quality music that has continued to excel and stands to reiterate that if this is the EP, what’s on the album,” Gazza said.
The ‘Road To Messiah’ EP consists of six songs, with a feature from GMP artist Jeiyo on the song titled ‘Do You’.
On production, Gazza worked with Khadi Ramoon Music, Track Master Beats, Emerald P, DJ Shoza, Melofiles, Pex Africah and Jackson from South West Mastering.