Veteran songwriter and musician who was a PMAN copyright council member, Prince Umukoro aka Kabalistic has taken a swipe at Nigerian musicians, saying they have become lazy, thanks to the introduction of digital recording to the industry and cannot play music instruments.
Umukoro who has just released a new single titled ‘A Brighter Day’ after laying off since his last album in 1996, said that the emergence of digital recording has made musicians become unprofessional and lazy.
“Digital recording is very effective but if you have to use it, do it in such a way that you can still play the song live in case you are called upon to perform live. There are some digital sequences that cannot be played live, it could be so digital that no guitarist can play it live. So when you do digital recording, make sure you record it in a way that is performable.
” Because of the existence of digital recording, Nigerian musicians lack professionalism in terms of instrumentation. So many musicians cannot play instruments these days which is wrong. This is because the school of music and dance has not thrived along with the industry. We are supposed to have the university of music, solely for music and dancing. Whenever the Federal government wants to do big concerts, dancers can be taken from there to perform. It is only cultural sector that have those dancers. There are just few groups in the entertainment industry today who are not even properly choreographed that we just accept whatever they do from them. It is not good that we don’t have a school of music and the industry is progressing,” he said.
On his mission as a musician he says, “I believe in the philosophy of the goodness of life and the survival of the living. I’m very much interested in the emancipation of the suffering masses and the good of not only our nation but the world. I have been preaching this since 1993 when I released my first album titled ‘Suffering’ and then the second album titled ‘Good’ in 1996, after which I relaxed a bit, and then in 1999, I contested the presidential elections of PMAN with King Sunny Ade which he won and I was drafted into Copyright committee in PMAN then. Even when MCN had copyright problems, I was the one who chaired the occasion in the copyright council, removed the case from court and resolved the issue. Battles never end you know, they still have their problems but I did something then. I am from Sapele in Delta State Nigeria and all my life I’ve always believed in the survival of the living.”