TAKE 5: Monitah and Isak Tenacy

Monitah and Isak Tenacy who run Drumaxx International, a company that creates beats and instrumentals for artistes. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Drumaxx is a company whose sole purpose is creating tailor-made instrumentals to suit artistes and institutions.
  • We conceptualised the idea on a long bus drive from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi after being inspired by the diversity we saw in terms of creativity and support in Tanzania.
  • We have moments where we disagree on what works best with work projects but we've learned how to keep work from interfering with the harmony of our home.

Drumaxx International was founded in 2017 by music-making couple, Monitah and Isak Tenacy. Isak is a rapper, and Monitah is a songwriter and a singer.

 

1. What exactly does Drumaxx do? How do you go from creating beats to selling them to artistes and which artistes have you worked with?

Drumaxx is a company whose sole purpose is creating tailor-made instrumentals to suit artistes and institutions. Our YouTube page @drumaxxbeats has over 170 beats with variations from two-minute to one-hour-long instrumentals.

We have a platform on our website where our clients are referred to after they pick a beat of their preference.

Then, after they finish with the payment, we work on their beats with a two-hour delivery time frame.

We have worked with artistes like Wonder boy Random and Mjus Slam of Tanzania, Red Giant, Ark Africa, UDS Studios and Silvershade Pixels on a number of projects. Many more are in the works.

 

2. How did you come up with this idea, and why did you decide to do it together?

We conceptualised the idea on a long bus drive from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi after being inspired by the diversity we saw in terms of creativity and support in Tanzania. The actualisation came after a growing dissatisfaction of how cumbersome and expensive it was to create music as artistes.

Isak was already making beats and instrumentals so we decided to create a platform where other artistes can come and engage, find what suits their style and just simply create music.

Coupled with the fact that Monitah was heavily invested in learning more about production and perfecting her guitar skills, it came quite naturally as we enjoyed working together. In addition, we complemented each other in our styles and tastes for musical sounds.

 

3. Is it hard to work together during the day and then go home together as well? Do you have to force yourselves to leave work at work?

It's not hard per se, just that it can get challenging at times to balance the work and home life. The beauty of it is that we have grown to be able to work around our busy schedules. It's been rather challenging with a young baby but we are grateful for how resourceful she's made us with time.

We have moments where we disagree on what works best with work projects but we've learned how to keep work from interfering with the harmony of our home.

In terms of leaving work at work, that's a tricky one because sometimes we find ourselves working at home but due to the advantage of doing something we love every day, it's easier to keep the momentum running.

 

4. Who would you like to produce beats for locally? How do you think our local music scene is doing in terms of production quality?

We would love to work with Mzee Ngala, Sauti Sol and Tanzania's Joel Lwaga who we feel would benefit from the futuristic heavy sound that Drumaxx generally has, enabling them to appeal to a broader international audience.

The Kenyan music scene is faring well in the production quality but we feel it's not been standardised because it feels like everyone is just following the wave on what's trending at the expense of creating timeless tracks.

 

5. Who are some of your favourite musicians?

We are huge fans and really appreciate the contribution to the music scene of Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smallz, E-sir, Chronixx, Shaydee, Eric Wainaina, Bruno Mars, Drake, Joyner Lucas, Lauryn Hill, Sean Paul, India Arie, Khadijah Kopa, Shekhinah and Tanzania's Mr. Blue. We also like listening to music from Migos and acknowledge their influence on the music culture and sound.