By John Muyamba
RUNDU – Local artist, Skinny Fella, has dropped an album which is enjoying massive air play on some radio stations around Windhoek and in the whole of Namibia, especially with the song, Respect. This song hit the first spot on Energy FM Top Ten recently. But his personal favourite track on the Victory album is Pandeni.
Richard Sikerete aka Skinnny Fella is a Rutown (Rundu) based artist who has always been dreaming of making it in the low turnover music industry of Namibia. He says he will continue making music as this is his passion that he just can’t seem to wear off. “I come a long way with my talent, I used to perform at school and in my town way back and people always loved my game and that time I used to be the local Michael Jackson as I used to imitate the dance moves of the Guru. At that time, way back in 1999 I was performing as a dancer before I decided to also sing one day. I was a big time Kwaito and Pop music fan, ” he recalls.
He chose the name Skinny Fella to rock with as he is skinny and it describes him and by which he is known around his home town of Rundu where he enjoys popular support in the “lokasie”. Fans and family, according to him, has inspired him to do more with his talent. “I used to dance with my little brother, Blacky, and we later started singing together and in 2003 we signed with Snippers record label, then a Windhoek based record label of Trace Garen which has a different name now.” Then they were known as M’clerix, a name given them by Trace Garen, their producer then. He adds that they recorded with Snippers for some years but both later gave up “as it didn’t work out”. “After a while, sometime last year I decided to wake the dream and I partnered with a producer from Tantis records in Rundu. I managed to produce an album which is on the market now.”
Skinny, however, adds that support from local folks is very vague explaining that this makes a lot of young aspiring artists to hesitate whether to do music or not as local people don’t really support local talents. “My producer Tommy is somebody that motivates and give artist his all, it’s not always about money when it comes to him. And at the moment I perform for free and haven’t made profit but I hope to make some as I need to bring out more for my fans,” Skinny Fella seems to dream.
He adds that he does Kwaito but because of the effect and influence of other genres, he is also compelled to venture into other genres. “So I do almost all genres because the more fans you make the more sales you make. I launched my album in my kasie, Nkarapamwe location aka Tura in Rundu, and to me making this album was victory. That’s why my album is called Victory and it’s out there for you to buy.”
“I’m inspired everyday all day by my mom and my girlfriend. Those two ladies mean the world to me, and shout out to my girl Leticia and sorry for the nights I spent late hours at the studio.” Skinny Fella goes by the name Richard Sikerete on Facebook