Pinehas Nakaziko
Adam Aluvilu, popularly known as 6Five is a mixologist, sommelier and a musician at the same time.
He is currently working at one of the fine restaurants in the capital known as Sumi, situated on the ground floor of the new 77 on Independence deluxe apartment building.
Mixology is a term used to describe the art of mixing cocktail drink recipes while a sommelier is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional specialising in all aspects of wine service and food pairing. The 26-year-old singer says everything started way back in 2011, when he was working at the Kalabar at the Hilton Hotel as a bartender where he received different trainings. “I never thought I will find myself in these professions of mixology and sommelier, but it all started when I needed a part-time job to generate income so that I can fund my music career, which I was more interested in at a time,” says 6Five. He adds that he ended up falling in love with the passion of mixing different drinks, meeting people in the restaurant and welcoming and making them comfortable.
“This is where I was well trained and my skills of mixing drinks were on a high level.” He then started mixing cocktails such as Mojito, Magarita and Sake Sodas, loved mostly by female patrons. He also attended a workshop on ‘flaring cocktails’ hosted by Travis Kuhn from Perfect Serve. Since he has worked at different places such as Safari Hotel where he have been serving guests at the bar during conference bars. He also worked at News Cafe at the Grove Mall in 2016, where he worked as a mixology and a bartender. After another training on how to mix different drinks, make coffees and serving different wines, hosted by New Café, 6Five says his skills were perfected into making most of the top selling drinks and cocktails in the country such as Mojito and Long Island Ice tea.
End of 2016, 6Five needed a break from the restaurant industry, to focus more on his music, as the passion for singing and song writing started to grow more inside him. He quit his job and put his whole heart into music. “I still had passion for both, working in restaurants and singing, but I just wanted to be a musician more because music is where I felt in tune with myself and just wanted to express myself in a different way and through music. There was however, not enough time for me to record songs as I use to work all the times,” explains 6Five.
He started to record songs but he found himself in a financial problems, leading him to look for a job and he started working as a mixology and sommelier at Sumi Restaurant on different working shifts. “The shifts were flexible and this gave me enough time to work on both my passions. I have enough time to record and do shows and to work as well,” he says.
With the income from Sumi Restaurant, he started working more on his music and released his first single, Roll One, featuring Princelou from Blvcboxx Crew a month ago. The song was complimented with a video, shot and directed by Reggie Films, and it was released on YouTube. The song Roll One is about friends and families hanging out. Like the chorus says. “I want have a good time and not a long one,” it means just having fun. Born and bred in Windhoek, 6Five describes himself as kindhearted, loving and an understanding person. He says growing up listening to different local and international music has driven his passion for music to grow deeper in him. “On my music side, I learned a small piece from each and every one of them. The name 6Five comes from a street dice game, which means
‘Win All’. I grew up in an era of street gang-related violence. So it has an impact on my music,” says 6Five.
With music he releases his emotions, and that’s is why all his songs are about specific experiences at specific moments. Currently, 6Five is working on his first solo album, to be titled Temptations, which is expected to out in September or before that. His single, Roll One was released as a foretaste to his upcoming album. He has written up to 20 songs, but only plans to release 11 tracks for the upcoming album.