“I incorporate my philosophy in music to my life as well, so whatever I do, I make sure I’m doing it as best I can”. — Kimbassax
By Doddy Maru
The quality and diversity of Nairobi’s live music scene have been steadily growing in recent years, thanks in no small part to dedicated musicians like Kimbassax—a multi-instrumentalist who began his journey in high school and has spent nearly a decade honing his craft alongside top regional and international artistes.
Kimbassax, born Eric Kiprop Kimaru Maru, is the youngest of four siblings. His love for music was inspired by his elder sister during their high school years. After school, Kimbassax, a talented multi-instrumentalist, began playing in church before working with various artistes—a step that marked the beginning of his career in the music industry.
After nearly a decade in the Kenyan music industry, marked by major collaborations with numerous artistes and producers, Kimbassax has become a renowned and well-respected musician. As a member of Hornsphere, he won an AFRIMA award for the group’s debut EP, Sherehe. This year also marked the release of his long-overdue debut single, “Pacho”, as well as the completion of his upcoming album, Tiba.
Building on his professional expertise and deep knowledge of the music business gained through years of experience, Kimbassax has diversified his roles beyond creation and curation. He is now venturing into the business side of music, having launched his own company, Kimbassax Music Entertainment.
For Afrocritik, I caught up with Kimbassax, shortly after his recently concluded “Hornsphere Live” show, where he not only performed but also served as a consultant through his company, Kimbassax Music Entertainment.
During our conversation, we delved into his early days in music, his journey into the music industry, live performances, collaborations and networks, artistic philosophy, and his future plans.
How did your stage name, Kimbassax, come about?
My name is Kimaru Eric Kiprop Maru. My surname is Kimaru so I took the ‘Kim’ first. The latter part is inspired by the primary instruments I play professionally, which are the saxophone and the bass guitar. So, to the Kim I added ‘bass-sax’, got rid of an ‘s,’ and “Kimbassax” was born.
You have such a distinct sound on stage, and your performances are always quite electric. Would you say you prefer being on stage to recording in the studio?
I’ve actually never thought about it before. But funny enough, now that I think about it, I’ve come to realise I have a strength in live performance because that is something I was introduced to when I came into music as a subject and performing in Kabarak High School.
We had a music room with a wealth of instruments, although we didn’t have a studio. Every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday we went to the chapel—four days a week, I played several instruments in the band and sang in the choir and I believe that frequency really sharpened my skills.
But the music festivals were the stage upon which I now learnt the nitty gritty of live performance. After high school, I performed a lot in church before going into the music industry, and until now I can say performance has been my main thing in music.
It has come with its downsides though, because my love for live performance is one of the reasons I have not yet released any solo projects thus far as Kimbassax, although that is something that I am currently working on. If you ask anyone about Kimbassax, they know me as a saxophone player, and more of a performer.
However, I started intentionally going into the studio in 2019 just before COVID hit, although as Tha Movement we had been to the studio to record the album Revelillusion in 2017. I then got into session music and started recording horns for different artistes with my colleagues, and it became my new life.
Now that I have grown, I can say the live performances and studio sessions work in tandem with each other for me because if you have a good recording session and people love your music, automatically your performance on stage will be ten times better.
What I really love about studio sessions though is that you are creating something from scratch. It is literally your creation, and that’s what I love: the feeling of listening to your creation and people are vibing to it; it’s a blessing.
If I had to say, it’s very hard for me to choose between studio sessions and being on stage because they’ve both become so integrated for me creatively, but if push comes to shove, I wouldn’t mind going for a studio session on a daily basis, but I would mind performing on a daily.
As a member of various groups such as Tha Movement and Hornsphere, how did this come about?
As for Tha Movement, I was the last to join. Tha Movement started when there was a group of dope rappers called One-Two-Five for whom Mutoriah, JP, Arthur and Robin used to play.
They loved the sound, the chemistry, and the vibes generally, so they started playing for Swiga. As they were playing for Swiga, Mutoriah met the late Nelfrey and he invited Nelfrey for an audition and they started working together. Personally, at the time, I was playing in Parklands Baptist in a band known as G-Cleff.
In our first concert for G-Cleff, Mutoriah came as a photographer and after the show he took a photo of us and took my number, but he never sent the photos. Later, Zeshari, a vocalist from Sauti Academy who sang with us in G-Cleff, was graduating and she called me as she was in need of a saxophonist. I then found out that the music director for Zeshari at Sauti Academy was Mutoriah.
In hindsight, that gig had an interesting line up: Zeshari was the singer and she was doing her finals at the Academy. Mutoriah was on keys and the music director, K2, was on drums. Baraka was on the bass guitar, and the electric guitarist was none other than Bensoul.
We killed the show and it was afterwards that I exchanged contacts with Mutoriah. I had been playing in church for a while and I was feeling eager to be part of a more serious band, so I told Mutoriah if they ever needed a saxophonist, he should just call me, and fortunately he informed me that they even had an upcoming gig and that I should show up.
When I got there, that was when I got Tha Movement: Nelfrey, JP, Arthur, Robin, Ayrosh, Mutoriah, and now myself. Tha Movement then became a seven-piece band. The gig we played was magical and we decided to keep playing together. And after that, Tha Movement grew.
However, since Ayrosh was at the time transitioning to become an urban folk musician, we had to separate the two brands so that he could build his own artistic side, although we still used to play shows for him.
For about five years afterwards, we worked together as Tha Movement doing all kinds of gigs from corporate events to weddings and festivals. Now, through Tha Movement, I started growing my reputation as a good saxophonist and started being approached by other people; this was when I also worked with Gilad.
I was also still playing in church and was invited for a studio session. Evelyn Wanjiru’s team who were quite impressed that first time and called me back to play saxophone on one of their tracks. Afterwards, I was invited to be part of the album, Praise Atmosphere I, in 2018.
The next year, when making Praise Atmosphere II, they needed to expand the band with more horn players and conducted an audition. Danso, King’ori and Babu were the ones who went through, and that’s where I met the future Hornsphere members.
We rehearsed together for about a month and it was really dope. We spoke of the need to do something together but then COVID happened and things went silent for a while. Eventually, we started jamming at my house on Sundays, and that grew into music recordings that we started sharing online. We then decided to brand ourselves and that was how Hornsphere was born.
You can clearly see how Hornsphere and Tha Movement are both separate brands and grew out of different circumstances. However, now that I’m part of both, whenever we perform as Tha Movement and need a horns section, Hornsphere steps in to perform with us—and vice versa. It has evolved into a big family of independent entities and friends working together.
In that vein, what is your favourite gig that you’ve played—one that gave you chills; and seeing as you’ve performed in dozens of cities. What’s your favourite city or town to have played in?
Tough question, but I’ll pick the first show I did. There have been many that were crazy awesome, but that first show, performing with Duane Stephenson at KICC, was when I really came to believe in myself.
It was very deep for me because I had grown up as a kid listening to Duane Stephenson, and to be there on stage with him was quite remarkable. I’d say that was my best gig because everything went extremely well, everyone was loving it and the crowd went wild.
Afterwards, I was even the talk of town for a minute. Until then I had never even thought I could achieve such milestones and it really boosted my confidence.
I’ll also give an honorary mention to a show we did at Open House for Gig Dynamics as Hornsphere and also as Tha Movement; we first performed as Hornsphere then did Mutoriah’s set afterwards as Tha Movement, and to top it all off, Nyashinski came on after us, so that was a crazy one.
Another one that is memorable for me is performing in Mogadishu at the UN Camp.
You are an All-Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) winner as a member of Hornsphere in the ‘Best African Jazz Group’ Category, playing the alto saxophone. How was the experience at the awards and how did the win come about?
Hornsphere is made up of Babu on the tenor saxophone, Danso on the trumpet, King’ori on the soprano saxophone, and myself on the alto saxophone. Mutoriah to us is like a brother, and personally, he is the one who introduced me to the industry.
Before, I only used to play in church, but Mutoriah introduced me into Tha Movement. Since then, we’ve worked together for nearly a decade, and I have learnt a lot from him—values such as discipline and excellence in music. In fact, our EP, Sherehe, was produced by Mutoriah.
Our Hornsphere AFRIMA Award came about as a result of Mutoriah’s submission of his projects for consideration at the Awards, and we were pleasantly surprised when one morning we just randomly received an email notification that we had been nominated.
A few weeks later, we were in Lagos for the award show where we won the ‘Best African Jazz Group’ for our song “Dance” from the Sherehe EP. We were seeing the work of our hands pay off and it was amazing.
Now we’ve made history with that accomplishment, and we are just trying to be consistent and create more because we’re doing this music thing for life. We’re here to stay.
This year as Hornsphere, we hosted our first ever live show, “Hornsphere Live”, on 27th September at The Alloy, which was a massive achievement for us. We are also planning on recording another album, as well as incorporating other aspects of creativity into our repertoire to improve the band.
Late last year Hornsphere blessed us with the project, Fomation. Can you tell us about it?
After the Sherehe EP and the AFRIMA win, a lot of doors opened for us. It was like a favour and a blessing from God. We were somehow always at the right places at the right time.
For instance, when we went to record with Bensoul for the song “Nairobi”, Sol Generation fell in love with Hornsphere and through that, Sauti Sol got to know us and we went on and did Savara’s album, Savage Level, where we play horns in about eight tracks.
So, in creating the Fomation album, we were looking to express just how the Hornsphere brand has really grown and. In titling the album, we were trying to communicate where we are now in our journey, and we knew the album was a totally new and different sound from what is out there in the airwaves. We were also trying to create simple lines and melodies that every common mwananchi can rock with.
Now taking into account the favour of God and the fact that we were in the right place at the right time, in football terms that is termed as being “in formation.” We are always in very strategic positions to score the goal, and that is how Fomation was born.
Also, if you look at the album artwork, it appears like we are in formation going for war—we are in the wilderness but we are still creating our own way.
That’s also why there is a song on the album called “4-4-2”. Fomation is also dedicated to the lovers out there, and the video, “For Lovers” featuring Mutoriah, Aliye and Noi is out now on all platforms.
You have a new enterprise called Kimbassax Music Entertainment. Can you share a bit more about it?
In my time in the music industry, I found myself doing a lot of admin work such as talking to clients to negotiate terms, arrange contracts, quotations, receipts et cetera. With time I got better at it and I also realised that I was quite good at the business side of music because it’s something I learnt through experience.
The formation of Hornsphere confirmed that I was indeed good at the administrative and business side of music because it was like a trial for me. I was the one who came up with the logo ideas and branding, organised the venues for recording sessions, as well as linkages with other artistes and promoters.
For instance, for the song “Nairobi”, Bensoul had called me to come play saxophone alone, but I insisted I have a horns section with me and I believe we would sound better as a group.
Every opportunity I had, I went with Hornsphere by my side because I know even though I sound good as Kimbassax, as Hornsphere we sound heavenly. I believe the more Hornsphere grows, the more I grow as well.
We also felt that there was a lot of demand and opportunity at the time for our craft since there was hardly any other horns section in Nairobi that was consistent, apart from the Nairobi Horns Project. There was a lot of opportunity in the space and we were hungrier, so we used to go all out.
Last year in March I realised that I am good at these things but I haven’t really monetised it, so I launched Kimbassax Music Entertainment, a music business and events management consultancy firm. We curate shows, and engage artistes as well as venue management to organise all kinds of gigs whether corporate, weddings, festivals, or any other.
Simply, Kimbassax is the artiste, while Kimbassax Music Entertainment provides consultancy services in music, entertainment, and events management.
While we are on the topic of curating live shows, tell us a bit about the Liveyard Experience (LYE)
The Liveyard Experience (LYE) is a curated immersive live musical experience featuring Jukebox The Band, Ras Amor, and myself, alongside guest artistes from time to time. Some of the notable guest artistes we have worked with so far on LYE are Phy, Charisma, Muthaka, Don, Sage, The Babaz, as well as Ayrosh.
The Liveyard Experience involves both covers and original compositions, and we have so far been able to run two seasons with some shows at The Vineyard Restaurant and others at The Tunnel. We also recently launched season three of LYE, with a few shows already at Vineyard Restaurant as well as The Alloy Bar & Lounge.
The Liveyard Experience is linked to Kimbassax Music Entertainment, and one of our objectives in creating the LYE is to enable artistes to make money by creating a system where artistes can use our services to curate their shows and earn income.
The plan for 2024 is to add more venues, and we are also planning on a Liveyard Experience Prime which shall be a concert featuring the various artistes we’ve worked with on the LYE so far.
What are your future plans as Kimbassax?
This year my primary focus is on growing the brands Kimbassax and Kimbassax Music Entertainment.
I am preparing an EP called Tiba, which is inspired by the depression that has become rampant in our generation, and I thought it would be good to speak about therapy and write music in relation to therapy. In the Tiba EP, I make songs that are not necessarily meant only to entertain, but rather to soothe the listener as they are going through something difficult. The EP will most likely be released in the last quarter of 2024 or early 2025.
I am also looking to grow Kimbassax Music Entertainment and the Liveyard Experience by working with more artistes and staging more creative shows.
Additionally, as Tha Movement we lost our violinist, Nelfrey, who had recorded an album before his tragic passing. In his honour, we shall be holding a concert to release, posthumously, the album he had recorded.
Finally, what is your artistic philosophy, and how does it feed into your life?
My artistic philosophy is, whatever you’re doing, do it well, and make sure that you are consistent in doing it well. At the same time, make sure you are patient and persistent.
I also always put God first and believe in adhering to all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.
In music, if you have those qualities, you might not be the best saxophonist, let’s say, but you will really grow because people will always want to work with you. I incorporate my philosophy in music to my life as well, so whatever I do, I make sure I’m doing it as best I can.
Doddy Maru is a writer particularly interested in covering about entertainment and pop culture.