HARARE - Most musicians talk about wanting their music to help save the world. But with Mosman R&B artist LaMaq, it just might happen. (Pictured: R&B artist LaMaq moved from Zimbabwe to Australia five years ago. Photo: Dave Swift)
Ive always just wanted to help people and be in a position where I can make a bigger difference, he said. I want my music to be a part of that.
Its why the 23-year-old (real name Lameck Tobaiwa) wrote the song Mama on his recently released self-titled EP, and why he now splits his time between his music career and his job as a field manager with the United Nations Refugee Council.
R&B is just something that flows naturally from me because of my background and my roots, said LaMaq, who moved to Mosman, Australia from Zimbabwe five years ago.
As an only son and the youngest of four growing up in Masvingo in south-eastern Zimbabwe, he played piano, bass guitar and pianica, and sung with his sisters at a local church. But he never considered a career in music until he was 14, when a local television station came to film his high school band.
Realising he could make a career in music, he finished school and moved to Harare. But being Zimbabwe, theres not a lot of studios and equipment, he said.
Instead, LaMaq moved to Sydney to join his mother, who was working as a registered nurse. When she moved back to Zimbabwe five years later, he stayed and continued to write his own songs inspired by the likes of R&B artists such as Usher, Akon and Nellie.
If you listen to an artist from the US and another from Africa, the way they talk about things, the way they see the world is different, he said. My music is about capturing reality. Its not Hollywood. I didnt grow up in a ghetto or in LA. Its the things I feel.
LaMaq said the Mosman and creative communities had embraced him with open arms. I feel like I have a family around here because of the way people have treated me, he said. They appreciate you for what you are. It can still be lonely, but Im here and following my dreams.
Work on his EP began about six months ago at Vibe Doctors Studio in George Street, and now LaMaq, who also models and has acted in commercials for Coca Cola, Nokia and Mountain Dew, is on the hunt for a record label to represent him.
Music is a hard industry because its about the people you know, he said. I just want someone wholl place me in the right hands.
LaMaqs EP is available through iTunes and JB Hi-Fi stores nationally.
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