Living the Dream: Dr.Claude taking local music to another level

Operating within Rwanda’s infant showbiz industry offers certain challenges. Some fall and never make it to the top due to a number of reasons while others live to fight another day. Dr.Claude seems to be cut out for good things to come. Going by what he has so far unleashed, 2009 promises a lot for him. The writer sought from him why 2009 would offer a better platform for his brand of music and by extension his personality as a showbiz player. A Different kind of music ‘My music is a different kind of music. I listen keenly to what society needs and I then base my lyrics mostly on larger societal issues. I mean critical issues facing society and how we can have a better society in terms of moving ahead’, he started off. He cannot be far from the truth. Dr.Claude’s music is very different. Completely different from the rest of the pack. ‘While I can talk about love, relationships and all that young people yearn for such as being famous or making money, I tend to think that society faces certain critical challenges and music offers to me the best venue to help address these issues’, he added. ‘Young people need to know that we need to realign ourselves with what our leaders in society are talking about. We need to understand where we are coming from and where we are going. It is very important to align ourselves with our leaders. Otherwise as young people we are bound to lose it. History never judged some of the young people well enough. We need to show some level of maturity as the country moves forward’, he said. I pressed him to expound on this kind of thinking. ‘look around you and ask yourself what young people can do to this country. We can do lots of things. As a musician I need to bring my style to a level whereby I can add more value to what the leadership is doing. As the country moves forward, musicians need to take the message of goodwill to the young people. This is very important. Music is not always about making money, having fame and conquering women the way we see it within western media. We need to be slightly different in our approach’, was his reply. Music within the context of Vision 2020 ‘There you go. My music is definitely well tuned to the direction the country is taking. The changes sweeping through the country, the prospects of making this region better, the thirst to have young people to be better citizens of the global community, the national rebranding efforts- all these efforts are very very beautiful things to talk about. Don’t you think so? An artist of my kind should use a thousand words to describe what is happening around’, he added. Dr.Claude said that regionally Rwanda offers far better prospects for the young people in terms of the future than any other country. He says that he has lived in virtually the whole of East Africa. He adds that he has friends all over and he is in touch with all that is happening within the East African Community. He however says that Rwanda offers better prospects for hope for young people regionally. ‘In other words the Rwandan youth are blessed to have this kind of leadership. We are lucky to live at this time of this country’s history. I don’t need to say more. There is peace. There is hope. There is a clear vision of how we need to move. That is too good. Others surrounding us do not have an idea of how to move the next day. We know what we need to do up till the year 2020’, he added. Dr.Claude says that the vision 2020 is actually for the youth. ‘Do not be mistaken. It is meant for us. The vision is for the young people’, he added. Because of this situation, Dr.Claude says that 2009 will see him strengthen his brand of music to reflect the situation on the ground while giving a future perspective of how changes sweeping through the country is likely to be played out. Watch out for Dr.Claude this year. Ends