United States based-Zimbabwean grammy nominee King Isaac has released his studio album Love Talk currently rocking the airwaves. King Isaac born Isaac Kalumbu speaks to Classic263’s presenter/producer Terrence Mapurisana aka The Hotstepper on what makes the album stand out and why love is important not just musically but socially. Read the excerpt.
TERRENCE MAPURISANA: What prompted you to come up with the Love Talk album?
KING ISAAC: It has been a while since I put out an album. My last album, my last album, Makuwerere, had been released in 2019 in Zimbabwe.
Between that time, and now I’ve been concentrating on releasing singles, because it seemed as though we were getting more mileage with singles than we were with albums.
But albums are still an important part of the business and I had recorded a number of songs individually, with different producers in four different countries; Jamaica, Canada, US Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Actually, that makes it five and I realized that they had the same theme of love and I just thought it might be a good idea to put all those songs in one album and have it become an album whose theme is love. So, we just put the album together, put the different songs from the different producers in the five different countries and created Love Talk and then of course the idea came that it would be good to release it on Valentine’s Day of 2023 and that’s exactly what we did.
TERRENCE MAPURISANA: What would you say is the difference between this production and any other albums that you have produced?
KING ISAAC: I would say the main difference is that this is a purely 100% love song album whereas the other albums I’ve done have a different range of topics but this is an album that is dedicated to the theme of love so that would be the main difference.
Otherwise, we maintain the same high standards of music throughout, because that’s very very
important to me that we do the very best we can with the quality of the music, quality of songs and performance. So yes, this is a gem. It’s a really great album with beautiful, meaningful lyrics and smooth flowing melodies, nice sing-along choruses and lively rhythms.
TERRENCE MAPURISANA: As the title of the album, Love Talk, are all the songs to do with love? If yes why?
KING ISAAC: Yes, every track on this album is about love. That’s why we called the album. Love Talk. You ask why, but love is the foundation. Families are built on love, homes communities, cities, countries are all built on love. It starts with two people and then it grows from there.
Even after God created Adam, he knew that Adam needed a companion, so he made Eve. And the Bible says he who finds a wife finds a good thing and he shall be blessed by the Lord, so that’s the kind of love we are talking about. Not cheap love, or lustful love, but a love that builds, for love is the foundation and the basis for human existence. So, it’s a pretty important topic if you ask me.…
TERRENCE MAPURISANA: You recently launched the album virtually on both YouTube and Facebook, what was the response from your fans and music lovers alike?
KING ISAAC: We have been overjoyed by the response on YouTube and on Facebook. Many love the songs and what’s very interesting is that there’s not a song on the album that hasn’t had a person say this one is my favorite. Each and every last one of those 12 songs, somebody has picked it is their favorite, so that is amazing to me.
There are many commentators who have come through, but this one individual stands out to me, he said, I like this particular song, but I can’t afford to skip any songs once I start playing this album because I love them all. That has been a joy to me to hear that the people listen to the music and come back with those very, very kind and encouraging, uplifting comments. It is a great validation of our efforts. As I said earlier, I aim very hi…
TERRENCE MAPURISANA: Who are some of the artists that you worked with on some of the tracks?
KING ISAAC; So, the first two tracks Love to Talk, and Uye Uye were done by a musician and producer from Uganda. His name is Deus Pro. He is a very talented producer and musician. He understands my style of music and my way of composition and gets the best out of what I come up with, what I write. So, I enjoy working with him because he produces very high-quality work as you can hear on the tracks. He is immensely talented and always brings a fresh new angle and a fresh new sound and ideas to the song, which is something that I appreciate very much.
The third song, Secret Admirer I recorded that in Jamaica with Leroy Sibbles and there’s a story behind that song. Originally, I had written it for Gregory Isaacs, but this was around the time that Gregory was sick so even though he liked the song very much, he was not able to record it. After he passed, I just decided, well I’m gonna have to sing it myself.
So yes, with the help of Leroy Sibbles we pulled it off. Leroy produced this song and he brought in the musicians and basically directed the band but of course Dean Fraser is on the horns on that song and then it was mixed by one of Jamaica’s top engineers named Stephen Stanley, he is the same engineer who mixed Gregory Isaacs, popular song, Rumors and Red Rose for Gregory and many many other hit reggae songs.
I also worked with singer/producer Glen Ricks who comes from an R &B background on songs like Love Train, Can’t You See, To Win Your Love and Love Of All Senses. On Love Of All Senses we really had a star set with Sly Dunbar on drums, Glenn Brownie on bass, Robbie Lynn, who used to work with Peter Tosh, on keyboards.
In Zimbabwe, we have ProducerMono Mukundu on that song African Pearl, which is a duet with a sister from Botswana named Kearoma Rantao. On that song, We have Josh Meck on bass, Freedom Manatsa from the musical Manatsa family on drums. IsheunopaJere on keyboards and then the great vocalist/ producer Derek Mpofu on harmonies.
We have a great jazz trombone and trumpet player Wycliffe Gordon on Everything I Do, the late great Danny Brownie, a superb Guitarist is also on eEerything I Do he’s from Jamaica and was the band director for Freddie McGregor Leroy Sibbles himself is on bass. So I had the privilege to work with very accomplished musicians and then of course you know that on one of the songs, The Score, we have Chaka Demus.
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