Singer Derek Sano has dismissed rumours that he could have quit all boy group Active to start a solo music career.
The day the singer released his own Extended Play (EP), came as a signal to many that his journey with Active might be coming to an end to follow the likes of Urban Boys, Dream Boys, TBB, Tuff Gang, TNP and The Brothers among other groups which parted ways.
However, the singer said that he is still committed to contribute to the group’s music projects and sees no reason why his group colleagues Tizzo and Olivis Mugabo should worry about his recent EP release as long as it does not affect the group’s music projects.
Derek told The New Times that the idea to work on his own songs came just a few days after the country was put under total lockdown during which everyone was supposed to stay at home and, as a result, the trio were not able to meet and work on their music together.
"The total lockdown made me think of changing the way I can do music. I was alone and I took enough time to think about myself and the future of my music, as an artist,” Derek said.
"I started to imagine what would happen to my career if the lockdown was to last a year or so. It was really a big challenge for me and I had no choice. It was time for me to stop putting limits on just doing music as a group and start working on my own songs because, isolated or not, I have to still do music,” he added.
During the lockdown that Derek took his notebook and wrote songs and started to record some including ‘Down for You’, a collaboration with upcoming female artiste Linda Montez, ‘Mr Lava Lava’ and ‘Wow’, all of which are available on his EP.
Derek said he informed his colleagues Tizzo and Olivis about the songs he was working on but avoided sharing all the details about his personal projects ‘because we have to give priority to projects that we share in common’
Asked whether they were happy with his personal music projects while they are supposed to do music as a group, Derek replied, "You can’t expect that people will understand things the way you want them to understand them but, with due respect, I made sure they know what I am doing”
However, Tizzo said that he and Olivis were surprised when Derek dropped his own songs, adding that he knew nothing about Derek’s new songs till the day he released them.
"We asked him about his new songs and we got the same answer he gives in the media. But if a person takes a decision you support him and we are supporting him though we were surprised. Everyone has a way of doing his own things. So what you do is to respect his decisions,” Tizzo told The New Times.
Despite Derek’s recent behaviour, Tizzo said that their relationship as Active members is still good so far because he participates in the music activities including the video shoot of the group’s recently released song ‘Kigali n’Ibyayo’.
The video is being worked on by Meddy Saleh.
In 2018, Derek joined Nyundo School of Music to learn more skills that can help him grow his music career. Since then, Active has never been the same and the group’s music performances started to wane.
Speculation has been rife that the singer is looking to pursue a solo music career but he made it clear that he is always committed to contribute to the group’s music development as has been the case since the group started in 2013.
"You can’t stop people from talking but this [releasing own songs] does not mean that I quit the group because we have music projects that we are working on together,” he said.