MASAKA journeys through heartbreak in new cut "ATV"
Displaying a multidisciplinary musical approach that pulls fragments from contemporary R&B, indie and alternative rap, the Ugandan heritage artist envisions a complex journey through heartbreak and reconciliation across “ATV”. With spacey guitar licks and electric vocal layering mixed by Fredrik Okazaki (Yung Lean, FKA Twigs, Skrillex), the striped-back, dystopian instrumental set pace for the rising talent to explore a fading love interest and the distress and confusion that takes control. Visually depicted through the dark and mysterious visualiser, MASAKA becomes the narrator of his own melancholy, a therapeutic outlet for him to express a deep-rooted sense of self-pity stuck in limbo that eventually manoeuvres towards true enlightenment.
Speaking on the record, MASAKA mentions: “ATV is about the abstract rush of self-pitying intoxication that a breakup can give you. It’s the ambivalent narrator in your head who starts talking right before the credits start to roll. You can feel things are about to come to an end and that there’s nothing you can do but try and salvage whatever pieces of self-worth that are within reach. Maybe you bargain one last time but really that moment is about realizing that your time together belongs in the past tense.”
Developing his musicality, producing, writing and recording his tracks in his father’s home studio, MASAKA earned a scholarship at Berklee College Of Music. While studying modern Jazz and perfecting his craft as a bassist, the rising musician began performing in icon jazz clubs across NYC before going on tour with three-time GRAMMY Award-Winning musician Terri Lyne Carrington, where he graced The Hollywood Bowl and The Monterey Jazz Festival. Now making serious waves across the underground jazz scene, MASAKA also has rubbed shoulders with international stars like Patti Smith, Ledisi, and Immanuel Wilkins, all building up to the release of his hotly anticipated debut solo offering “Ragdoll” earlier this year.
