An Interview With Tha Phunketts: Who They Are and What Their Music is All About

If you are a Kenyan rock fan and you don’t know who Tha Phunketts are then you must be living under a rock, these guys have served us some fire jams this year. I decided to have a little chat with them before the year ends.

Tha Phunketts, interesting name, who came up with the name and why Tha Phunketts?
The beauty of art is the ability to create something out of thin air, and attach whatsoever meaning you desire to it – as for us, the name seems to conjure up an image of a 1960s doo-wop girl group. We have ‘aaaaaaabsolutely’ nothing in common with the aforementioned image – but we grabbed the name anyway and stuck with it!

So who are tha Phunketts?
Tha Phunketts is a Kenyan rock band, comprising of the amazing vocalist; Alby, and the eccentric axeman – Colbert Ozzy. But that’s merely a tip of the iceberg. There’s a 10 year history behind this group involving incredible twists of friendship, love, struggle, loss, death and discovery that we one day hope to talk about in detail.

You came out of the hiatus with a bang! Or was that the plan before the hiatus?
The band went into hiatus for a little housekeeping. The brand and general outlook of the group had to be altered a bit. The bang you’re referring to reflects how much work has been put into making the positive, forward looking in-house changes and reinventing the group as a whole.

Tell us and your fans more about your singles: 147, Drive and Abrasion
The story behind each of the songs (the writing and recording process – getting it from brain to speaker) – is really an entire mini-series in itself. But for the sake of time and space, we shall save the behind the scenes for a different forum:
147 in its very foundational state is an anti-war cry, appealing for peace both from a personal and political standpoint. The single was written in memory of the late students of Garissa University, who lost their lives to the terrorism attack. However, there are more themes to it as one continues to analyze the lyrics; from radicalization to dehumanization, conflict and the immorality of inaction.
Drive is actually the first song (guitarist) Colbert ever wrote, waaaaay back when. It reflects on the frustration and difficulty of living in a world where you as an individual are the only one capable of noticing and picking on the flaws and hypocrisy of individuals (your own included) and systems as a whole, yet not being able to do anything about it because your voice is either not loud enough or no one takes your cries seriously
Abrasion is special. Abrasion is close to the heart. To each, their own interpretation!

When are you dropping that album? Or tuchill tu?
No surprise spoilers allowed! So tuchill tu. What we can say however, is that most of the work has been done. We’re suuper excited to be working with ultra-talented Nick Wathi and Andromeda Studios on this one! It’s just a matter of sorting some of the non-musical elements; and who knows, perhaps there could be a coupla live shows thrown in there for good measure…..

What is your ideal live show venue? Lol, I have never thought about that but most definitely a huge, bomb ass outdoor venue, like a sold out stadium.😍