It’s largely been an exciting journey for Afro-Rock band Trezzor since its inception in 2009 at the University of Rwanda. The band started with three members, Yves Kana, Danny Ngirimana and Janvier Masabo but Kana is the only one left after Masabo and Ngirimana left the group to pursue further studies in the United States of America.

After their departure, the group enlisted new members. Trezzor is currently made up of Kana, the lead singer and guitarist, Bertrand Hategekimana, a pianist, Yves Limbonyi, a drummer, Keilah Creedon, a Cellist and Lauren Richardson, a violinist.

"We are trying to fuse rock and classic music because we think it is new and unique. We are also recording audio songs and participating in many shows so as to get people used to our new genre,” says Kana.

The group is currently putting together a ten-track album titled Ubuzima which they hope will be ready by May. It already has five songs, the latest being Iwacu that was released in December last year.

Last year, the group had the opportunity of playing at SautiZaBasara festival in Zanzinbar and they hope to perform at many more international festivals. Locally, they are targeting Kigali Up Festival that takes place in July.

The afro-rock band performed at the Bruce Melody’s album launch as well as Dream Boys’ concert last month. 

Kana says they started writing and recording songs for Ubuzima album in 2012.

It has taken them relatively long to release the album because it is a double album which will be released with videos, he said.

"We take long breaks in releasing our songs because we take time promoting each single. Our audience knows that it takes us time to promote a song. Iwacu was released in December (last year) but we are still promoting it,” Kana added

Trezzor plans to sell Album CDs and if all goes well, they’ll launch it in September.

"Our biggest challenge are music producers who are never consistent. They are unreliable and don’t deliver on time.

"It even gets worse because most of them don’t respect artistes,” Kana laments.

Working with other artistes hasn’t also been easy according to Limbonyi who attributes it to their laid back music style.

"Most artistes love music with hard beats yet our music is different in the sense that it’s soft and everyone can listen to it,” says the drummer.

However, according to Kana, they are all in the music business and that’s why they curtain raise at concerts.

"We have so far worked on music projects with some local artistes such as rapper Jay Polly and Ben Kayiranga in Sinjya Kure,” says Kana.

This upcoming ensemble has unique musical instruments that they play live at events. For example, the violin and cello. These instruments are rarely seen at music events and they have, therefore, caught people’s attention.

Keilah and Lauren are often asked questions by people who have seen them play at events.

"People are interested in our instruments. There’s a time we were playing at an event and someone from the audience wanted to try out the violin.

"Limbonyi’s drum also arouses curiosity, it’s basically a wooden box made by a carpenter. It’s not a real drum but it has good sound.” says Kana.

The group has enjoyed performing together and hopes to continue growing from strength to strength. Kana advises anybody who wants to start a band to get members who share the same ambition, vision and feelings about music.

"If any band member is more interested in making money rather than making music and promoting the group, then the group won’t stick together. It’s usually the common goal that everyone wants to achieve that’ll make the group stronger,” says Kana.

The group stages live performances at Heave restaurant in Kiyovu.