Catching up with Vaughn Ahrens
He discusses his NAMAs victory, European tour, and creating the soundtrack for #LandOfTheBrave film coming out next month.
This year Vaughn Ahrens extended his musical influences through creating the official soundtrack for the #LandOfTheBrave film. There is creating a song and then there is creating a soundtrack, which is a totally different dynamic. So tjil took some time out to get a deeper review of his involvement with the film.
The soundtrack is titled Ghost and is available on various online platforms. Vaughn Ahrens does not take working on the #LandOfTheBrave film lightly, saying that he treats it as a huge honour. “It is a big step for me because I have always wanted to get into film. This is my first step in the movie space and hopefully it is just a stepping stone and not the final destination,” he said.
The singer walked away with the Best Afrikaans award at this year's Namibian Annual Music Awards (NAMAs). On this victory, Vaughn Ahrens said that he was kind of taken aback when it happened. He added that he did not expect to win anything but he is grateful that he did. “I was quite honoured to be nominated in the first place so I am just very thankful that the people who did the judging, and the public as a whole, have started to recognise my music.
“I am very thankful that people receive my music so well.
I do not know if I can attribute this victory to anything in particular, I think it is more of a combination of everything coming together at once,” said Ahrens.
On the sound that he makes, the singer maintains that it is a montage of different genres, emphasising that the genre that encompasses most of it is alternative pope.
“I was nominated in the Best Afrikaans and Best Reggae categories which are two different categories but they are the genres I fit in. On the album that I released last year I have everything from Reggae, Jazz and Pop.”
In a music industry as small as Namibia's Ahrens believes that you need to be able to do a lot of genres otherwise you are going to burn a lot of bridges. He acknowledges that he is lucky that he has an interest in various genres, which makes it easier for him to present different music styles.
He released his debut album titled Music for Wednesdays in November 2018. So far he has not been able to complain about how that body of work has been received by the music community. “It has been received very well. I was kind of scared and hesitant to release it because it was different from the Extended Play (EP) I released prior to that, so I was not sure how it was going to be received,” he said.
The working title for his next album is The Collaboration Tape, which he said will consist of 10 songs and will feature 10 artists from Namibia, South Africa, Angola and other African countries. He could not reveal the names of the musicians he will feature stating that it is too early at this stage but promised that people will find out when the time is ready.
Ahrens values collaborations in music as it allows him to see how other musicians' processes work. He stressed that he likes to work with as many artists as possible so that he can be exposed and learn from other people's workflow.
“Collaboration is very important for learning and for growing the industry. If we are going to build our own little empires no one is going to get anywhere.
“It is when we join hands and learn from each other, that is when the industry grows and it also creates a sense of unity among artists,” he said.
He announced that he will be going on tour in November. He is going to do solo gigs in Finland and then fly to Germany with a band, and his last stop will be in the Netherlands. “I am very fortunate to do that. That is all on me; I am not signed to any record label I am completely independent.”
His goal is to be able to create music freely without financial woes getting in his way.
“I am working hard because I would like to be a musician and live comfortably without having to gig five times a week even though I love it.
“I want to be able to choose gigs more than just take them,” he summed up.
The soundtrack is titled Ghost and is available on various online platforms. Vaughn Ahrens does not take working on the #LandOfTheBrave film lightly, saying that he treats it as a huge honour. “It is a big step for me because I have always wanted to get into film. This is my first step in the movie space and hopefully it is just a stepping stone and not the final destination,” he said.
The singer walked away with the Best Afrikaans award at this year's Namibian Annual Music Awards (NAMAs). On this victory, Vaughn Ahrens said that he was kind of taken aback when it happened. He added that he did not expect to win anything but he is grateful that he did. “I was quite honoured to be nominated in the first place so I am just very thankful that the people who did the judging, and the public as a whole, have started to recognise my music.
“I am very thankful that people receive my music so well.
I do not know if I can attribute this victory to anything in particular, I think it is more of a combination of everything coming together at once,” said Ahrens.
On the sound that he makes, the singer maintains that it is a montage of different genres, emphasising that the genre that encompasses most of it is alternative pope.
“I was nominated in the Best Afrikaans and Best Reggae categories which are two different categories but they are the genres I fit in. On the album that I released last year I have everything from Reggae, Jazz and Pop.”
In a music industry as small as Namibia's Ahrens believes that you need to be able to do a lot of genres otherwise you are going to burn a lot of bridges. He acknowledges that he is lucky that he has an interest in various genres, which makes it easier for him to present different music styles.
He released his debut album titled Music for Wednesdays in November 2018. So far he has not been able to complain about how that body of work has been received by the music community. “It has been received very well. I was kind of scared and hesitant to release it because it was different from the Extended Play (EP) I released prior to that, so I was not sure how it was going to be received,” he said.
The working title for his next album is The Collaboration Tape, which he said will consist of 10 songs and will feature 10 artists from Namibia, South Africa, Angola and other African countries. He could not reveal the names of the musicians he will feature stating that it is too early at this stage but promised that people will find out when the time is ready.
Ahrens values collaborations in music as it allows him to see how other musicians' processes work. He stressed that he likes to work with as many artists as possible so that he can be exposed and learn from other people's workflow.
“Collaboration is very important for learning and for growing the industry. If we are going to build our own little empires no one is going to get anywhere.
“It is when we join hands and learn from each other, that is when the industry grows and it also creates a sense of unity among artists,” he said.
He announced that he will be going on tour in November. He is going to do solo gigs in Finland and then fly to Germany with a band, and his last stop will be in the Netherlands. “I am very fortunate to do that. That is all on me; I am not signed to any record label I am completely independent.”
His goal is to be able to create music freely without financial woes getting in his way.
“I am working hard because I would like to be a musician and live comfortably without having to gig five times a week even though I love it.
“I want to be able to choose gigs more than just take them,” he summed up.
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