Christian Music Online

Lloyd Phiri Gospel musician

December 16, 2006 – 6:25 am

Lloyd Phiri Gospel musician - He went into hibernation after taking a trip to the United Kingdom but now he is back to continue with his music ministry after spending over 2 years in the foreign land. The name Lloyd Phiri is not new to those people who have followed gospel music in the country.

This is a gospel musician who made a name for himself after releasing his debut album Musagwedezeke in 2002. The album, sold over 30,000 copies. It was no wonder that the hit from the album ‘Afuna Ulape’ was voted as the best gospel song in entertainers of the year in 2002.

Interestingly the gospel artist says that his music career is not at all in born and before he released his first album, he harboured no ambition of becoming a gospel music artist.

“I started singing because I wanted to thank God for whatever he has done for me. When I became a born again Christian, I thought singing would make me serve God best,” says the musician who has never sang in a church choir or any other group when he was young.

Born on March 4, 1980, Phiri — a last born in a family of 8 children — did his primary school education at Limbe Primary School before he did his secondary school education at Davie Boys and Soche Progressive Secondary School.

His hunger to learn prompted him to enroll with the Malawi Polytechnic for a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering after completing his secondary school education at Soche Progressive in 1999.

The gospel artist, who hails from Mulinga village, Traditional Authority Mpama in Chiradzulu says he joined Presbyterian Church of Malawi where his interest in music grew.

“ At PCM I was given a chance to play a keyboard after they asked for those who were willing to take the challenge. I took it up and frankly speaking nobody taught me how to play the keyboard,” he says.

Instead of concentrating on his course, Phiri became obsessed with music after gaining a lot of knowledge in music.

“I had mastered all the tricks with the keyboard, I was able to sing and this was the time God gave me this gift. I later failed to continue with my course,” says the artist who knows how to play a guitar, a keyboard and drums.

Lloyd believes he is into gospel music to minister and take God’s word all over the world.

He is happy at the moment that he will be entering into holy matrimony this tomorrow with his sweetheart Harriet Chipinda, who is also a long time member of his Happiness Voices Band.

“Marriage is a very precious thing and I am happy that the time has come for me to get married. I thank God for giving me a wife whom I am going to live with the rest of my life,” says Lloyd about the wedding whose officiation take place at Calvary Family Church and thereafter a reception at Comesa Hall in Blantyre.

After he released his debut album, Phiri released his second album Ndagwiritsa in 2003 which proved that he was on gospel music scene to stay. The album did well on the market and the song ‘Sitimasilira,’ scooped position 2 in Entertainers of the Year 2003.

“I felt on top of the world with this achievement and I knew God was taking control of each and every move I was making,” he says of Ndagwiritsa.

On his trip to the UK Lloyd says: “My going to the UK was all to do with ministering God’s word through music. I was performing at Calvary Family Church of which I am a member and Living Waters Church.”

He adds that his plan was to stay there for only 2 months but then he prolonged his stay because he enrolled with Manchester Christian College to pursue a course in Theology.

“I ended up not finishing the course because it later transpired that my visa had expired and I was refused a student visa because I went there on a ministry visa,” says the artist who is working on his third album.

The frustrations of failing to secure a student visa led him into the idea of getting a job to compensate on the money incurred on his Theology course.

“I wanted to raise more money before coming back home to cover up on the money I lost while pursuing a course in Theology. I secured a job at a certain company where I worked as a Vice stores manager,” explains the musician adding that people chose to hear the wrong information when he returned to Malawi.

He says his return back to Malawi in June was also to do with God’s ministry.

“The ministry in the UK was not at all convincing and I decided to come back and continue from where I stopped,” he says.

The musician describes his UK trip as fruitful as far as his music ministry is concerned. He says he has managed to acquire modern studio equipment and he is destined to open his own studio in February next year.

“This will be a sophisticated studio taking into consideration the modern equipment and we will be recording musicians live at any place they would like to be captured,” said Phiri further saying that the studio can capture 16 separate tracks at once.

Apart from acquiring studio equipment, Lloyd says the UK journey has also been of great importance to his music ministry in that he had a chance to study music production at one of the studios in Manchester.

“ I won’t have difficulties operating the studio because I learnt a lot during my music production study and had a short training at the place I got the equipment,” he says.

The artist who admires gospel songbird Ethel Kamwendo for her strength says he would like to go far with his gospel music ministry and reach the level where people in foreign countries would call for him to perform.

“I like the way Ethel sings, composes her songs but all in all her strength and faith,” he says.

The Chilobwe based musician observes that distribution of music in the country is the main problem, which is letting musicians down.

“This is a very serious problem because all musicians in the country rely on O.G. Issa for distribution and I wish something was done. Musicians invest so much money to come up with an album but in the end they get nothing and fight a losing battle,” says Lloyd.

The artist who has grown to love the kwaito style and says he will continue playing it, says his two albums had a strong message of repentance and further advises the youth to tread carefully in these times of the HIV/Aids pandemic.

“As youths we need to choose one thing and then do it but the most important of all is to follow what God wants us to do,” he says.

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