Founder of Kwan Pa Musical Band, Andrew Asah Nkansah, has explained why the band is male-dominated and does not have a single female instrumentalist.

In an interview with GhanaWeb’s Elsie Lamar, Andrew Asah Nkansah explained that the band was formed mainly with instrumentalists from an Ebenezer congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Mamprobi, where they all worshipped, and there were no female instrumentalists in the church at the time.

“At the time we started with the church instrumentalists. So all of us at the time were instrumentalists at an Ebenezer congregation, Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Mamprobi.

“Now at the time all the instrumentalists were guys and that is why. If at the time we had a lady instrumentalist, she would be part. So we started with all the instrumentalists,” he explained.

The founder of the band further noted that since the group was formed, there has not been any recruitment to add to the existing members, although many people have expressed interest in joining.

“No, we’ve not really had, we get a lot like people wanting to join the band but for now we are not ready for that,” he noted.

He further added that in the future, they may consider auditions and possibly form an all-female palm wine band, which is something they have discussed before.

Speaking on the influx of DJs and contemporary music and how the band is still thriving, he explained that every genre has its own path and audience.

“It is beautiful but we all have our path and we weave in beautifully. We cannot say that because there’s DJ music, live music has no place or because there’s hiplife or there’s highlife and palm wine has no place. No, we all have our different paths that we are following and it’s been beautiful so far,” he added.

Andrew Asah Nkansah also indicated that more events are now making room for indigenous live music performances.

“Events that hitherto they will not even have music in there, now you have music there. So you have corporate entities having their conferences, seminars, retreats and all that and they still make some place in there for indigenous music and it’s beautiful. The reception has been great. Sometimes people have the opinion that oh your kind of music will be for the older generation,” he added.

Up close with Kwan Pa Band - Talkertainment



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