[9.54..NAMIBIA] From Namibia to the Junos: Garth Prince on Identity and Sound

54Lights

WHAT TO EXPECT...WHEN YOU PUSH PLAY

Kondwani interviews Juno award-winning artist Garth Prince, who shares his journey from Namibia to building a music community in Canada. With infectious rhythms and cross-cultural sounds, Garth describes how creating music became his pathway to preserve his African roots. Listen as Garth unpacks his evolution from focusing solely on Namibian music to welcoming diverse influences.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Music provided Garth a way to hold onto his Namibian roots and “keep that spirit alive” after moving to Canada. He started by playing shows then realised his sound resonated most with kids, which ultimately shaped his career direction.
• Garth measures success not by accolades but by those moments in rehearsals or shows when he feels he is home, he tries to “bottle” these feelings of being transported back.
• Though Garth led song ideas initially, his process has evolved to be collaborative based on audience response. If students don’t like a new song, he’s “okay with shelving that” because the community helps decide.
• Having lost his African languages and traditions over time, moving to Canada gave Garth a renewed sense of wanting to reconnect with his culture. Though geography limits full immersion now, music became his pathway to hold on to it.
• Garth used to firmly identify himself as Namibian but now embraces his hybrid identity. After being in Canada since 2008, he even jokes, “when people ask me, where are you from? I say, I’m from Edmonton.”
• Collaborating with other African immigrant artists has helped Garth form a community in Edmonton while expanding his sound, such as learning Swahili lyrics from a friend.
• An influx of black music and artists embracing their identity in the 90s initially drew Garth to music and made him feel “I can sing too.” He recognises this dream coming full circle through connecting with pioneers like Canada’s Maestro Fresh Wes.

BEST MOMENTS

07:22 “There’s that feeling of what the show feels like, I almost have to stop and just for a second...say, man, this is, I’m back home right now.”

8:56 "It can be very overwhelming. So sometimes I would just let the band play a little bit and I could just take that, that space and when nobody knows, but in that moment, it's, it's just a sense of gratefulness or that, that I feel in that moment."

18:00 “They [the children] responded the way you would typically expect in Namibia”

18:35 “And then after that, I went back to the drawing board with a band and I said, Listen, the intentions I had for this, that building that sense of community, you know, with the music reminding me of back home, these school shows reminded me more of that”

ABOUT THE HOST

Kondwani Mwase | Host & Creator

For most of my life, I have been obsessed with relationships. I have worked, watched and wondered about the complex nature of human interaction. Originally, my interest laid in the narrative…more specifically, I was driven to understand what was happening. Increasingly, my curiosity has been inspired by the underlying motivations behind events…why it happens. It is this curiosity that motivates me.

My professional journey led me to the field of marketing and the exercise of selling in the service of brands. Over the years, I’ve learned that the true currency is working in the service of people. Finding ways to understand how to cultivate meaningful relationships with them….and making them “happy”. I leveraged my skills as a mass marketer to reach a different audience with a different message. As such, The Warehouse Magazine became my passion. I founded the publication to try and build a community for the conscientious. It was my first business, my first foray into media and, in some ways, my first love. And its eventual retirement left me wanting. Leaving me with a feeling of unfinished business.

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