Kuvie makes music for chair dancers

The Afrofusion sounds coming from Nigeria and Ghana are finally entering playlists in Europe. One of the guys behind many catchy songs from Ghanaian artists is Kuvie, a producer from Accra.

I got to know his beats through some of the La Meme Gang artists. I bumped into his compilation ‘Gruvie’ on Applemusic and I loved every track on it. I started digging into his sound and realized he’s the main man behind some of my favourite tracks.

During my stay in Ghana he hosted a night at the Woods, a bar in Osu: ‘Stella’. A night with a dope all-female line up. My favourite female artists, Amaarae, T’neeya and Efya were performing so I had to go. Only there I found out Kuvie organized the night because he’s working on a new EP with all these female stars and he wanted to present their tracks to an intimate audience. Eniough reason to chase him down for a talk.

A calm soul

I meet him in a studio in Tema where he’s working on music with another interesting artist: Avit. We talk about Ghanaian music, which is in general very energetic and music that makes you want to stand on your two feet and start dancing. I ask if he’s much of a dancer: “I’m a phenomenal chair dancer”. We laugh. I’m not surprised because his sounds are chilled, sounds I love; the sounds I would box as Afrofusion. “I make music that makes you chilled, relax - but that will make you bump your head”. Kuvie explains he prefers to make calm tracks like ‘You and me’ or ‘Tomorrow’ over a club banger. “...because that’s my character. I’m chilled”.

A trendsetter in sounds

“My sound might not be what you want at the moment but you’ll welcome them” is what he replies when I ask him about the way people respond to his beats. His sounds are balanced. They’re different because of the nature of his approach yet refreshing, they’re somehow recognizable but at the same time very different.

“Gruvie is the sound that represents me best” he starts off with. On his first compilation he smoothly blends the sounds that influence him. “I play with textures I know, and textures people know”. One of the most recognizable sounds he plays with is a typical Ghanaian sound:  “We [Ghanaians] basically fit five notes into a four notes bar”. Kuvie starts tapping and demonstrates the sound - I do recognize it and understand what he means. “This makes it recognizable for us”. His explanation makes a lot of sense - somehow his sounds are new and refreshing but I do hear elements that sound familiar. He talks about trends that he follows - something I didn't expect from this soul that creates crisp refreshing beats. “A trend is a texture,  it’s a validation, at times you like to feel important” Kuvie explains. 8-0-8 is one of the trends he worked with. It’s a sound from trap music that Kuvie easily adds to an Afrobeats track. “The 8-0-8 has the identity of a bass but it has a melody too. It‘s the sound that gives your speaker the bounce”. He used this beat for tracks of Pappy Kojo. “Now it’s often incorporated in an Afrobeats, it’s now called Afrofusion, which is considered alternative”. Kuvie started a trend in music with the 8-0-8. He opened people’s minds and many other producers and beatmakers started using the 8-0-8 in their Afro sounds. “Trends are there, you can rework them. You have to give it a new perspective and make it work for you and not approach it the way everybody is using it”.

Stella

The project he’s been working on for the past year and that’s soon release is Stella, an EP named after his mother. “...because of the qualities I saw in my mother; strength, vulnerability, intention to provide, her honesty and resilience. In times where most women would have given up, she would fight through the pain”. The EP has songs with 18 female artists on it “at first it wasn’t intentional, I just like to work with women, they are prone to soul, to character and feelings”, values he finds important. Kuvie likes to work with women because of the natural match; our values and ways of presenting ourselves easily match with his character, in a natural sense. “...where Lady J is resilient, Efya has a vibrant energy and yet a calm aura. She knows how to channel that Big Dragon energy when she needs to show out. Narah is new in the industry but is willing to learn and challenges herself” All women on the tape inspire Kuvie in a different way - all of them have found their sound and created a sort of safety in an industry that is perceived not to be fair always. 

The goal of Stella is not just to release refreshing music but also to inspire other girls to express themselves without fear - to have no fear. The women on this tape show them it can be done, in different ways. “Women are supreme” he continues “Women nurture and create”.

Follow Kuvie on Instagram and listen to his music on all the big streaming platforms like Applemusic and Spotify.