Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mwiza. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Mwiza thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I only started pursuing music as a full- time profession two years ago and I just now starting to actually be able to get to the point where I can afford everything that I need so you definitely need to have dedication as well as a vision, and most importantly, an almost blind belief in yourself since chasing after your dream does not give you instant results nor will the pay out be something you should expect to see within one to five years if we’re being objective about it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Born in Zambia, Africa, I came to the U.S when I was 10. I learned how to sing from my chorus experiences from 5th to 8th grade but then quit chorus to pursue visual art from 9th to 12th grade at the Osceola County School for the Arts in Kissimmee, FL. I started learning how to play guitar at the end of my 9th grade year and have focused on the acoustic guitar throughout this time until two months ago when I started playing electric guitar. I first started making my own music while having jam sessions at school with my friends but soon managed to join the band The Avalon Broadcast. My time in the band helped with giving me song writing skills as well as finding out what style of music I gravitated towards and wanted to create and play, but after graduating from high school I left central Florida and went to the University of North Florida where I majored in Studio Art with a minor in Psychology. My hope at the time was to become an Art Therapist or a Child Psychiatrist but I realized in the year I was up there that I had started to dislike drawing and creating visual art and I also realized that I actually didn’t like being around children, let alone wanting to work with them all the time. During my time at UNF, right before I left the school I ended up going to an open mic which then led me to having my first ever gig at the Starbucks on campus and it was the first time that I ever realized that it was possible to make a living from music.
I then left UNF and moved to Tampa in 2013 where I moved in with my parents and started working at Walmart while I attended the Pasco- Hernando State college. In 2015 I started making friends that also loved music and that led to me starting to bring my guitar to the college to jam and that led to me starting to go to open mics around Tampa. In 2016 I started getting paid gigs due to people seeing me at the open mics, and that also led to me being showcased in Creative Loafing, a Tampa Bay newspaper. At the beginning of 2016 I left Walmart and started working for the call center for UPS but at the end of the year my aunt passed away and that caused me to start really thinking about my life and how I felt like I was wasting it by working at the call center even though it was a steady job, but it brought me no joy or fulfillment, but it made me feel like I was wasting my time. Due to all of these thoughts and feelings I actually ended up packing up my belongings, leaving home and going to St. Petersburg, FL where I was homeless for a few months but my goal was to strictly pursue music and see where it would lead. That period actually taught me about busking (street performing) and it actually led to me having a three hour set list, which then led to me getting more gigs and making connections around the Tampa Bay. After that I realized how difficult it was to make a steady income because the market was saturated with other musicians, let alone the people that have been gigging for years and had residencies at venues so I was forced to get a plethora of jobs while I was focusing on having gigs. I then happened to be invited to a woman’s benefit show up in Illinois at the end of 2018 so I went up there for that show and ended up falling in love with a woman that was in the event with me so I ended up moving up to Illinois in 2019. While I was in Illinois I was focusing on working so I didn’t do music at all, and I also dealt with cold weather and snow for the first time so I was bombard with a multitude of negative experiences in regards to the north so I moved back to Tampa at the end of 2019 right before covid and ended up getting a job at the Hard Rock Casino right before things got shut down. The Hard Rock ended up being one of the first places to open up again so I got to see my musical peers performing so I started slowly getting back into writing music and by the time 2022 came around I had started gigging again and decided to quit my job at the Hard Rock, move in with my band mate Stetson Lucier and focus on doing music full time. Stetson and I are in a band called Jocosus and I have since then started on working on recording and learning how to mix and master my music so there are quite a few songs that I will be releasing soon.
Right now things seem to be in full swing so I am gigging every weekend and occasionally during the week but the rest of my time is spent practicing with different full bands. I typically gig with a saxophonist in a band called Smoove Jamz but I want to broaden up the range of music I perform since I am drawn to so many different types of cultures and music due to the people I have met along the way. This has also transformed into me starting a showcase called The Locale Favorites and the goal of the event is to be a hub for different creatives, musicians, poets, artists, vendors and people from all art forms so that it can not only showcase their work but also build connections to help them get paying gigs since most great artists just need to be exposed to people who otherwise don’t know that they’re surrounded by quality art and people with meaningful messages.
I have already been able to get a few of my friends into venues that I have gigged at and my goal is to keep creating a network of people that appreciate and want to see art thrive. I am the first one in my family to pursue music so I had no one give me a rubric for what I should be doing or what the right moves to make are so I at least want to make other artist’s lives easier than I had it since it helps us all thrive if we help each other and focus on building communities.
As far as my original music is concerned, I write based off of my musings and experiences so I love when people can either relate to my music or it causes them to reflect upon things. I have also had people approach me a few times while crying and letting me know the reasons why certain songs have touched them and that brings me so much happiness and joy, those moments are what keep me wanting to keep going.
I would say that my message to everyone who is a fan of me is that, embrace the struggles that are a part of life. There is always a lesson to be learned and you can either let it overwhelm you or see it as a way to have it help you become a better version of yourself. I hope to never stop learning and to keep an open mind because there is so much to learn and experience and having seen how much i have grown is rewarding to me.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I think my overall goal is to spread the idea of personal growth and enlightenment, which is not a pleasant or easy thing, but I think it’s necessary for this world to become a better place. I am lucky to have been surrounded by people that are more intelligent than I am so I often post about things on social media that I am then challenged about and it forces me to truly assess myself and why I think the way that I do. I was raised religious so me having this viewpoint about life forced me to rethink things like why I was so adverse to the existence of gay people, why was I so against having student loans forgiven even though it would have been something that benefited me as someone that was forced to go to college because that was pushed as the natural thing that one should do after high school. So many things in life can only become better after we challenge the way things have always been done and choose to find better ways to fix them collectively.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I honestly wish I had utilized social media more while growing up since it has helped me connect with people that I would otherwise never have run into. But I think that I am now actually putting myself out there more, but it is difficult because I am an only child so I still inherently prefer to be alone and social gatherings can be draining after a certain point.
Ultimately I hope to be the kind of resource that can help other creatives achieve their goals since I did not have anyone to help me out due to no one in my circle knowing about how the music industry worked or how being a creative worked in general.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blinq.me/Bo9253CsJN1iphoEYzzT
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iammwiza?igsh=ZGlqM3Z4eWo5dDh4
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MwizaSimfukweMusic?mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwiza-simfukwe-381602108?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app
- Yelp: https://www.youtube.com/@boyfromzambia
Image Credits
Ryan Boza J Larry – Loverz Of Art Trenton Butler Manda Linn Photography Mia Evedith