Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Njenga.
Hi Joseph, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Kenya and now reside in Houston, Tx. I guess music is in my blood. My grandma used to sing and she was also a choir leader at her church and was involved in a lot of cultural folk song performances and such. My dad used to sing a lot too in church and I remember recording both of ourselves on cassette tapes. When I was 15, I discovered that my older brother had a piano keyboard and immediately fell in love with it and learnt any song I could by ear. After high school, I decided to focus on music as a career and I’ve never looked back since. It wasn’t easy because I think my parents and my family, even though they didn’t openly say it, were hoping I’d something more “meaningful” like medicine or such. I did well in college and while there, I discovered music production. Started learning how to make beats on a church keyboard. While in college I started teaching the choir the proper arrangements as I learnt in school and that helped to enhance my skills. I got a chance to relocate from Kenya to the USA and I figured that would be a great chance to learn more as well as have a different experience. My first gig was at McDonald’s and I worked there as a cashier and order taker for a couple of months. Later worked for Home Depot and I remember I’d stay up all night learning how to work FL studio (a music production software) and I would have a really hard time the next day at work staying awake. I used to only sleep for an hour. I remember my first check wasn’t big but my first purchase in America was $100 microphone. From there I worked at a facility for individuals recovering from neurological issues from accidents and whatnot. I decided that was going to be the last time I was employed. I quit working there in December of 2011 with no plan at all or any money to get anything started but I was so sure I was doing the right thing. I stayed at home for 4 months barely making any income hustling small gigs to just get by. In May 2012 ,I had saved $750 which got me into my first space as a recording studio. I was in that location for one year but I was able to start meeting A list African Artists through referrals such as Wizkid, Rotimi and others. I was already working with popular local artists like Bils, Rukus ,Abizzy and many others. In May 2013 I moved from that location to my current space which is a bigger facility and I’ve been blessed to put together a state-of-the-art recording studio here in Southwest Houston. By now I’ve worked with almost all the major African Artists in different capacities e.g. Wizkid, Yemi Alade, Tuface, Banky W, LAX, Teni, Seyi shay, Tems, D banj, Scillah, Simi and a lot more others. I guess the latest highlight would be engineering for Tems on one of the biggest African records “Essence” which ended up topping the American billboard charts, breaking a bunch of records, getting a remix with Justin Bieber and getting a Grammy nomination. In 2017 I started releasing my own projects. I am blessed to be doing what I do and I pray it keeps getting better and bigger.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not smooth sometimes, but not bad overall. -Biggest struggle is a lot of experimentation because I’ve never had a mentor or someone who would guide me through this time. I’ve had friends that would show me a few ropes for short periods of time or colleagues that we would share ideas and that helped.
– Lack of support being the first in my family to do music on this level. Having to move in faith without knowing where am going.
-Relocation from Kenya to the US at a young age and having to start over since everything was new.
– Lack of financial support from to start earlier than I did.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Well as we all know it would be such a dull world without art especially music. Imagine the silence between conversations or watching movies which is an art form in itself, without music. Super dull. So what I do is basically pick up our daily lives and experiences and convert that to listenable music that calms or hypes you up or matches your mood when everything else fails. I help people of all walks of life be able to express themselves in art be it music or visual kind. I have an array of friends and colleagues that together we are able to tackle anything in any style of art form. I am an entrepreneur in that apart from owning and operating a state-of-the-art recording studio, I help others make creative financial decisions that help shape their careers in the entertainment industry. Am a record producer, which basically means I create music from scratch as a musician by blending different elements for a final product that you get to enjoy either on radio, streaming online or however other you consume music. Recording engineer which means being able to deal with the intricacies involved for example knowing which type of microphone fits a particular voice or instrument, to technical things like acoustics, recording software and such fan things. Mixing engineer which means taking all those elements after they are recorded and balancing levels to make them live well with each other and mastering engineer who basically puts a polish to the final product kinda like icing on the cake to finally get the consumer. Am also an occasional film director. Directing shooting and editing anything visual from music videos to short films to occasional event coverage.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the diversity in Houston. Lots of cultural differences that always make it interesting to experience new food, people, places and more. Houston has that international vibe that you will feel like you’ve been to all continents in just one day of driving around. It’s super easy to feel at home no matter where you are. The weather in the fall is just amazing as well. I’m a cool-weather kind of person and I love visiting different parks and outdoorsy kind of events. The nightlife is fabulous especially in the weekends. So many choices with different experiences and with all kinds of vibrant people. Another thing is that there are more jobs than in a lot of other places. The wages are great too and in addition to that the cost of living is relatively low and fair. I guess I don’t like that most creatives normally have to move from Houston to other places like LA or New York etc. to better their careers after easily hitting the ceiling here. I think Houston is great for families and certain types of careers as compared to the high traffic of creative activities in other entertainment cities even as close as Austin.
The summer weather is straight-up wicked. The sun burns like crazy and let’s not talk about the humidity. The bipolar nature of the weather too, can’t go unnoticed. It can be so hot and sunny and within the next 15 minutes it’s flooding and then back to being sunny and dry within an hour. Can’t forget the hurricanes too from September even though they don’t happen as often as it used to a few years back in my opinion. Most parts of Houston are modern and have a modern look but some parts aren’t so pleasing to the eye and still have that old look. To some, that’s great, though.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.4reignermusicgroup.com
- Instagram: I.am.giggz | xtrimstudios
- Facebook: Njenga giggz
- Youtube: Giggz music
Image Credit:
Joseph “Giggz” Njenga
