Home Sweet Home: Day 23 – The One Where Tehn Made “Stone Soup”

Yes okay, I’ve been ridiculously slack with the blogging action. But you gotta understand between power cuts at odd ass hours and tryna be in the studio every other day, I haven’t really found time to sit down and share my thoughts. Nevertheless, I apologise. Things’ll be back on track soon enough.

Moving swiftly along though…

Oh shit fuck ! Its finally going down, I’m ACTUALLY doing my first shows in my beautiful hometown of Harare over the weekend. Naturally I’m excited as flies at a shitfest. I’ve always said to people who ask me why on earth I keep coming back home to try and do music when nobody can really afford to buy music, that for me its a no brainer…I LOVE HARARE !!! Also whats the point of having hundreds of people know you in other spots around the world know you for your talent, and the folk at home only know you for your absence.

So over the past 23 days I’ve been sowing the seeds that’ll give birth to a solid local following and ultimately a solid regional fambase as well. I’ve been meeting and greeting with all sorts of people in the industry, and do believe me the scene is alive and well. The wealth of talent is ridiculous.

My number one goal has been to try and solidify the business side of my music business, so that the next few months go off like they’re supposed to. And no man is an island, so its been a mission of making connections and building on them. I’m pleased to say I finally have a manager, so more doors should open shortly.

In short I’m making Stone-Soup (just a little story I read over at Musician Coaching), enjoy

Once upon a time there was a great famine in which people hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night. There is no food anywhere in the village,” he was told. ” You had better keep moving on.”

“I have everything I need,” the soldier said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.” He pulled an iron cauldron from his belongings, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

“Mmmmm,” the soldier said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with carrots — that’s hard to beat.”

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding some carrots he’d retrieved from a hiding place, and added them to the pot. “Great!” said the soldier. “You know, I once had stone soup with carrots and a bit of beef as well, and it was close to perfection.”

The village butcher managed to find some beef and so it went, through potatoes, onions, cabbage, mushrooms, and so on, until there was a delicious meal for everyone.

Peace,Love & a little stone soup…

Tehn Diamond

P.S. I’ll post up photos and stuff from this afternoon’s short and any video I can get it in tomorrow’s post.

Lest I forget, on Sunday I’m sending out my latest track “Grown Up Kid” as a special thank you to those of you who signed up for my mailing list. The rest of you only get to hear it when SOTG.2 comes out, and who wants to wait that long ? So fuck it, sign-up and join the inner circle and lets make history ! (that last bit was me getting overexcited)

Home Sweet Home: Day Two – The One Where Tehn Reflected On Stuff

Had a nice an lazy day as far as actually doing anything physical, instead i spent my hours in quiet reflection. For the first time in a while the noise in my head is clearing. I usually carry a lot of fear in my heart and in my mind. Mostly about the future and also about the past. Even though I know better than to live in either of those places. The moment is where the calm resides. As a result I found myself writing a whole lot once I came out of my little pseudo-meditation.

While I still don’t quite feel like home is home, I guess thats something that comes with being a travelling man. You pick up a lot of memories of amazing and beautiful people, in places you never imagined you’d see. The more I move around chasing my hearts desire around this globe though, the more I see that in my heart is my home. The uncertainty of such a life however is far outweighed by the beauty and happiness of the NOW. Plus I kinda fall in love with every place I go.

Rest assured I’ll be back at the studio tomorrow, I’m gonna record a track I wrote called “Life Goes On”. I’m excited as fuck about it cos’ its the type of track I get the most satisfaction outta writing. The insightful and inspiring kind, at this stage its these types of tracks I feel that’ll set me apart from my peers and hopefully one day elevate me to the level of those in this music that I admire most.

Tracks like “My Favourite Girl” are fun and still a part of who I am and true in every aspect, but its the other songs like “I Had A Dream”,“No Lie” and soon “Life Goes On” that are part of my contribution. Which as Maxwell tweeted a while ago is what this is all about, not a competition but a contribution.

Peace,Love & lucid dreams…

Tehn Diamond

Home Sweet Home: Day One

So after a gruelling 24 hour flight, which saw me touching down in Mumbai and lounging there for 8 hours, then cruising through Adis Ababa and finally touching down in Harare aka H-Town aka My Town….I”M FINALLY HOME !

Its a whole new vibe here right now, the hip-hop scene is definately buzzing and growing strong. I’m kinda saddened that everyone i hear sounds American, not just in voice but in the direction of content.

I am super excited though that it looks and sounds like everyone is working harder, better and faster.

I got in at 1:30p on Tuesday and by 2:30p I was at the studio checking in with probably the most promising artist/producer/songwriter that Harare has in hip-hop….at least in my eyes. This fella goes by the name of TAGS. So happy to see that his set-up has expanded and his grind has only intensified.

Its such a crazy scene at his home/studio cos quite clearly everybody is tryna work with him and get him moulding their sound. Its a beautiful.

So naturally first thing Wednesday morning I headed straight to his place and got behind the mic. We banged out a track called “My Favourite Girl” I’m on the hook, Tags on the beat and a verse and anothe rhot MC out here ILLcee is on the bars as well…naturally I had to get a sixteen in as well….so stay tuned for this one.

One thing I know now that I didnt realise, while I may have notched up roughly 800 shows while in Singapore which fine tuned my stage game, I haven’t been in the studio properly for a good year and thats something thats gonna be getting worked out over the next few months.

And dammit people if you see my main man Jackpott, get him to play you a lil’ banger that myself and H-Roc recorded just before I left. Its called “Faded” and it bangs !!!

Anyway, I’m outta here but rest assured I’m gonna be updating this thing as often as I can and keep you lot, my family, firmly in the loop.

Peace,Love & a little less conversation…

Tehn Diamond