Soul Man Ciano Maimba

“It is both thoroughly rewarding and deeply frustrating being an artist in the Kenyan music scene whilst it is still in its infancy”

Ciano Maimba is not your regular 23 year old Kenyan musician. He is one you meet and know he is onto something epic with his artistry. Dynamic is the word he chooses to describe his journey so far. Rightfully so as he has been into music and singing since he was in nursery school.

Ciano is also mature way beyond his years. He believes that  there needs to be an actual functioning structure for performing arts in Kenya before embarking on the task of serving society with it.

A challenge that is unique to being a professional musician in Kenya according to Ciano is the lack of proper collective management organizations to follow up on the intellectual property rights of musicians, composers and other artists in general. The existing ones have proven to be inefficient over the years. An upside to being an artist in this renaissance period in Nairobi at the moment is that artists are seen in a more positive light. People are becoming more welcoming to art in all its shapes, forms and colours and there are a myriad of visionary artists who will soon go into the annals of history as pioneers of new genres of art and new styles. It is both thoroughly rewarding and deeply frustrating being an artist in the Kenyan music scene whilst it is still in its infancy.

To answer the question all artists and other professionals ask themselves at a certain juncture in their career, what does he know now that he wishes he knew before pursuing music, Ciano's answer is simple.The business. That, music theory and the work ethic. He reckons that to think not only as an artist but also as a creative entrepreneur from the very beginning would have been instrumental in his career. Coupled with knowing how much discipline, diligence and dedication it takes. No regrets though for Ciano though… we live and learn.

Music is an art that comes naturally to most in this field but that doesn’t mean one cannot test and improve on their artistry. There are a lot of resources for assessing one’s skill and aptitude as a musician/performing artist. Ciano often records himself during concerts and practice sessions in order to play it back and correct mistakes and make improvements. Where need be, he takes short online courses and aptitude tests on musicality.

“With the internet, we have all the information we need to track our progress. The internet has made it so much easier to not only learn new skills to enrich our skill set, but has also provided a place where we can receive real-time feedback on the progress of our art and its effect on our audience.” Ciano

Having fully packed out his first 2-hour solo show at the Goethe Institute is something Ciano counts as the biggest highlight of his career. It was an experience that tugged at him mainly because he did not think he had that many fans.

For the second half of 2018, Ciano plans to focus on pushing his just released E.P titled Serve Chilled which he collaborated heavily on with his good friend M-cubed. At 23 and making waves in the industry already, whilst taking inspiration from the likes of Ed Sheeran to the guitar maestro Kato Change, we at TAP believe Ciano Maimba will be gracing bigger stages and reaching audiences across and beyond the continent very soon.

FUN FACT: Ciano is a colossal geek.If he was not a musician, all his money would be spent on gaming rigs and high end P.C parts to build his own gaming computer.Also, Rock Lee from the anime Naruto is one of his inspirations.