RUNDU - Northern based artist, Lukas Thomas, better known by his stage name M-Gee has dropped another fresh video for his fans, this current afro pop offering titled ‘Kumorora’ is inspired by the current Covid-19 pandemic, and it is shot in a vintage style he wore along with other casts who wore some sort of vintage clothes just to give that classic look to the video.
M-Gee in April released four studio tracks relating to the pandemic and this video is part of the Covid-19 playlist, other songs are ‘Kumbhaya’ in two versions and the third track is ‘Apa gazipwa corona’ which translates as ‘When corona will end’.
“Straight from the mic, I saw the storyline to the video, the song says we should be greeting each other as we are facing this crisis of Covid-19, it doesn’t hurt to say hello without touching each other, just greet each other,” he said.
In this particular the video, he talks of taking leave from his job where he worked with his wife as farmworkers to go and visit his family at his village in Kavango, he has heard that corona is wreaking havoc around the world and Namibia is no exception, so it reminded him that he had to go check up on those that he left home a long time.
Planning of the video took two months, which included casting for ideal actors and so forth.
“We came up with a concrete storyline and then we moved on to securing the venues and worked on the vintage dress code. It’s hard to get such outfits these days, so we tried by all means to get something that we were happy with and the outfits also define my style,” he said.
A good storyline makes it easy for the cameraman to play around with the ideas.
“We shot the video in three days, piece by piece. I needed something that doesn’t need elaboration when one watches it, young or old should understand it,” he noted.
In the video, M-Gee is a farmworker, portraying a farmworker’s life and that scene was taken at Sikondo government irrigation scheme in Kavango West. “It took us two days to finish up with interior scenes. Shooting with people who were born with an acting talent is fun and takes less work, it’s a great video cause everyone was having fun while making it,” he said.
“I do music to educate and entertain and if my talent can change people’s lives in any positive way, then I have to give it to them through my talent. I know nothing comes easy, it’s tough out here as a solo artist, you need guidance and for that, I thank God for making it easy for me to connect with people,” he added.
“The video was shot by SODO, one of the best people in the industry, I have worked with on my best videos, we worked on the ‘Payday’ and ‘Nci-nci tjokola’ videos.
“So in my video, I wanted to show the olden days life with a fusion of the current situation,” he noted. In September last year, M-Gee released his fourth album titled Esimbi, which translates as an ‘Elder’, describing his growth in the music industry that he has taken on since 2009.
– jmuyamba@nepc.com.na