EVASHIA: KENYA’S NEW FRESH VOICE

Evashia is a new Kenyan pop, RnB, and dance hall recording and performing artiste. Born in Portland, OR, USA and raised in Kenya, She enrolled in Portland Community college, where she took most of her vocal lessons, piano and guitar. She has been performing in several bands in Portland, OR. Until then, she decided to start working on her solo music career. Her music is new, unique and refreshing. Hot Secrets caught up with Evashia and tossed a few questions her way...

Who is Evashia? Give us a background of who you are and where you come from.
Evashia, is a Kenyan pop, R&B, and dance hall recording artist. Born in USA and raised with my Kenyan parents here in Kenya, I have never enrolled music schools until when she moved back to USA in the year 2006. I gradated in schools such as St. Anne’s girls Mumias, Ntinda View College, Kampala Campus, then Portland Community college where i took most of my vocal lessons. Besides vocal lessons, I also took some piano and guitar lessons hoping that sometime in future become a great songwriter and a composer.



What do you do?
I am not only an R&B, pop and dancehall singer but also a songwriter, im currently taking some other classes for music composition, piano and film production.




Give us a brief back ground on your musical journey as an artiste…
I started off by singing in my college choir for about 8 months, thereafter; I joined a local band here in Portland as a backup singer. I finally made up my mind working seriously on my own solo music., . usually Finding a good producer in for the first time is usually a challenge, especially for those musicians in a multi cultural environment, I finally came across Leos Cernousek ( currently my producer) who could relate so well with my style of music.

You recently visited Kenya. How was your visit like?
It was amazing, I wish I could have more time, I realized I had so much in my plate to do than I thought. It was a matter of hustling a lot mostly with the marketing department; I remember waking up so early and getting back to my hotel later on tonight just to get my music out to the general public. I always had to remember keeping up my positive energy and attitude. Of course there were also ups and downs that I was psychologically prepared to face just like any other artist.



What did you hope to achieve with your visit?
My main goal was to work massively with the marketing department such as radio interviews, newspaper interviews, etc, also visit some of the Kenya’s most known celebrities not forgetting awesome celebrities like Churchill, producer Bruce Odhiambo, DJ Adrian, Nonini, among others, also my interview with Capital fm, Citizen radio, Kiss fm, 1fm radio, daily nation came out to be successful.



Did you get to a sample the music scene? What is your take?
I had so little time and so much to do, by the time I realized I had to begin working on some shows, I had no time left. I just wanna assure my fans that I’m definitely going to work out something good for them on my next visit.

Are there any collaborations in the works?
So far there aren’t any collaboration works yet, I’m looking forward to do some collaboration with some artists which I will be announcing sometime soon.



How is it like for a musician abroad, what are the challenges?
As I mentioned earlier its definitely a tough challenge. First finding a producer for the first time that you can relate with is always challenge, also, it’s a matter of getting to work extra hard to be able to connect with other musicians back in Kenya, it’s not awaking up one morning thinking you can connect to an artist in a day or so but takes a lot of effort to finally connect with them, traveling to your fans destinations may also be costly, that’s why it requires a lot of support to be able to keep up your name as an artist.



What you doing to change this?
I'm definitely not changing my energy, I will keep up with my hardwork, positive attitude and determination. By having these three as my main ingredients, I can see myself taking the next level.



It's 2011, what are some of the projects you are working on?
This year good things are set up to happen, having a strong support with Kilimanjaro records it’s definitely another big plus. I’m looking forward to finish up on my album, then start some summer tours around US in places such as Texas, Boston, Minnesota, Washington and also California. I’m currently working on venues here in US, planning on my video shoots for Cheza Nami and Je Huu ni Ungwana singles.