it was the weekends
the whole #tgif mantra died down yesterday
now Muna and sonia sat at home with nothing to do…
they’ve been gisting for the past five hours in muna’s room…
of course Muna carefully sat on his new favourite observant seat while sonia sprayed on the bed
sonia asked
“so youve never swam before,,,as in you don’t know anythin about swimming”
Muna shook his head
“nope..”
sonia scrunched her face
this was quite unbelievable
considering the amount of lakes around bongos
“haven’t you been to jos before?”
she asked
“I have?”
“so how come you havnt taken atleast one dip in any swimming resort”
Muna scoffed at her
“I’m a band musician sonia,,,the only thing I know is rehearsals,,,performing,,,more rehearsals and performing,,,,and on and on like that”
this was a fact
bands like cleansweep barely have time for recreational activities
it was mostly all about the music
another thought then came to sonia then she said
“Another thing I don’t understand is,,, why do you guys play so much instruments,,when someone can easily go to the studio and make some tracks”
Muna then said to her
“eh ,,,that’s the thing,,,”easily”,,, half of the stars u see nowadays don’t have real talent,,,all they do is let a producer enhance their terrible voice with autotune,,,”
he then said
“unlike them ,,,guys like us(cleansweep),,we are live performers,,,we show raw talent instead of the edited stuff they do in studios,,,that’s just nonsense”
sonia adjusted
but Muna added
“don’t get me wrong tho,,,I’m not saying there aren’t good singers out there,,,but to be honest ,,if you call yourself a musician and you can’t even play just one intrument,,,then what kind of musician are you”
sonia had a frank Look on her face as she listened to Muna speak
but she said
“but that doesn’t really matter though,,,not everybody is skilled in playing instruments and having a great voice like you”
Muna framed his brows
he asked
“like me?”
she nodded
“yeah like you”
“but I only play the bass guitar”
she smiled
“I know Dre is the lead singer in the band,,,but I also know you also have a great voice even better than his ,,,even if you don’t like to show it”
“well that’s,,,that’s actually-”
she cut in
“and I also know that you write most of the songs you guys perform,,,and pretend like most of them were written by Dre ”
Muna had a blank Look as he stared at her..
he was simply wondering which other hidden facts she knew about him
it was apparent that sonia always had him in check while he hardly returned her attention
she adjusted then said
“its hard looking towards your direction,,,why not come on the bed as we talk”
he flinched
hell no!
he wasn’t going to try that out again
he quickly evaded the request
“whoah!!, its already past 4,,,I should be at tobi’s by now,,the guys are probably waiting for me”
he was looking at his wristwatch as he spoke indicating his lateness
he stood up and grabbed his G-bag as he made to leave
the Look of dissapointment on Sonia’s face could not be mistaken
Muna glanced at her for a moment
he almost felt bad in leaving as she will be in the house all by herself…
“will you be ok all by yourself or should i-”
she then phrased
“no its ok go ahead,,,I should be going to jessy’s place too,,,she is also expecting me”
he didn’t seem convinced
“you sure you don’t want to…”
she insisted
“yeah its alright infact ,,I should be leaving now”
Muna soon nodded and made way to the door…
sonia watched him leave
wishing in her heart that he could atleast see within her words
***
“Another band battle again!!”
there was a slight sound of complain in john’s voice as he blurted out the words
Dre swiftly moved in to sway him a little
“no no no johnny boy,,,this isn’t just any ordinary band battle its the highlight of the year
john frowned
“what’s the difference between this band competition and the ones we’ve been doing all this while”
Dre revved then said
“the difference is that,,,this isn’t a local based competition ,,, its an international thing,,,lots of foreign record labels would be looking to sign new talents,,,so we just need to get our game together”
but john insisted
“what’s the use of going to another stupid competition when you havnt even written a new song”
“not to forget our patheticly weak instruments” Mike added
Dre sighed
he knew he would get a lot of negativity from the guys especially from john once he mentions this avenue
but this competetion happening at kubwa was a big thing…
if they could score a place ,,,they are sure set for life..
he said to them
“listen listen,,,guys I know you all are not really hyped on this comp,,,and I know you actually think we would fail woefully if we compete,,,but Look at something,,,all the comps we’ve gone too we’ve scaled through in flying colours,,even without a new song and with worn out rusty instruments,,,we’ve swayed lots of audience in different parts of the states,,,and even the country,,so I’m asking,,,why don’t we remain positive on this last show!”
he checked their withdrawn countenance
then said
“about the song,,,I’m already halfway done with it,,,its just some finishing touches left,,,so why don’t we just bear with it”
he seemed to influence them a little with some charisma
cos john and Mike seemed deep in thought contemplating over
his words
but unfortunately…in that moment of triumph
Tobi ruined the charisma by sayin
“which is why,,I say we quit all these cleansweep trash and chase solo careers.,,let’s split the money we made from last comp equally among ourselves ,,then we wouldn’t have to worry about this petty issues”
Dre gritted his teeth at Tobi
but he decided not to take any action towards him
he wondered why the idiot keeps pondering over splitting the money when even if they actually did it,,,Tobi would easily go broke in less than a month
Dre simply hissed and turned to Mike and said
“hh,,,mikey ,,are you done translating those lyrics I gave you, ,?”
Mike then said
“almost done., although I would have finished them on time.,,if you hadn’t used all these big big grammar”
“ehn which is why I’m trying to make a difference now”
just then
Muna pushed open the door and stepped in
“who’s translating what”
john retorted him in a frowned face
“you’re late!”
Muna raised his hands up while he said
“easy boy,,I had to take care of some issues”
Tobi chipped in
“yeah ,,some sonia-tic issues”
Muna gave him a raised eyebrow
but john had a fumed Look on his face as he heard Tobi speak…
he then thought
“soon ,,,very soon I’ll show you”
he had increased his reading hours ,,going through manuals upon manuals,,trying to find out the symptoms,,,prevention and causes of the dreaded soniatic flu
it was a tedious task…but he was determined to be ahead of Tobi
Mike then replied muna’s question
“Dre gave me half of the
song he is writing for me to translate it to fulfude”
Muna raised his brows
“whoah,,,nice man ,,I didn’t even know you speak fulfude,,,I thought you were strictly a nupe dude”
Mike then replied him
“Look fulfude is a dialect that every no mad in this northwest should know ,,Nupe/kanuri ,,it doesn’t matter,,,one must know fulfude”
Muna looked at him in a glum manner then mockingly replied
“I hear you,,,you are a nomad now right,,,”
Muna then asked Dre…
“what brought about the idea”
Dre shrugged
“I just felt like we’ve been doing a lot of stuff in english ,,we tend to forget our native roots,,,so this is trying to fix that issue”
“but why Fulfude ,,we’ve not done anything in igbo before,,,”
Tobi chipped in
“C’mon Muna you’re a foreigner you don’t know anything about igbo”
“Shut up your mouth” Dre hushed him
Tobi kept mute
But then he said
“Eh is it only fulfude and igbo ,,what about yoruba,,,why don’t we do something in yoruba”
“Tobi you rap in yoruba most of the time and people here don’t even understand most of what you’re saying”
Tobi kept mute again
Just then
Dre’s phone rang
And he picked it up
The caller at the other end addressed him
Dre agreed and mentioned his name
Then he asked Dre for some more details
They kept talking for a while until the man hung up
Muna got curios as to why Dre had an eager Look as he was speaking on the phone
Then he asked
“What was that all about”
Dre grinned
“You know that anonymous caller I told you about!”
Muna nodded
“You mean the unknown dude who decided to give us some new instruments for free”
Dre smiled
“Yeah…yeah!,,, he just called me now and told me the spot where to get the tools”
Mike then asked
“So seriously the guy wants to really give us this stuff for free”
“Yeah,,,whats wrong with that,,,”
“I don’t know,,,its just a little suspicious to me!” Mike noted
Dre revved
“Dude chill up,,,this could be a loyal cleansweep fan who saw our plight and thought about taking us away from this old rusty things we play”
Mike shrugged
Dre then stood up
“No wasting of time ,,,let’s be on our way now”
He looked towards the guys and said
“Mike ,Tobi follow me,,, I need extra hands”
Tobi grumbled a little
But the threatening Look Dre gave him was enough to comport himself,
They headed out leaving john and Muna behind
Tbc
