Most University students fill up their spare time by being glued to the latest Netflix series or sleeping the day away, but not 20-year-old Business Management student Camilo Musse. Born in Zimbabwe, raised in Mozambique and now living in England, Camilo spends his time producing, rapping and engineering for himself and others.
His latest work sees him collaborating with fellow student Elle Baker on their smooth and catchy track “Free“, which has already received airplay on four radio stations around the UK.
Writing from a young age about subjects based on his real life stories or inspirations, Camilo admits that he struggles to keep up with sounds that are popular because he spends most of his time in his own little world, but that doesn’t seem to be a major disadvantage as his music is certainly getting noticed with his track already being re-tweeted and noticed by the MOBO Awards, which he described as “felt like winning an award for me”.
Unlike other artists, he admits that his music doesn’t have a specific sound, but the sounds he creates are based on feelings, therefore he’ll create a beat or melody depending on the mood that he is feeling at the time, making the music more personal to that specific time. He began playing music in school bands where he played percussion and wrote lyrics, but gave this up when he started listening to rap music and now his main musical influence for his own music vary from Ryan Leslie, Kanye West, Mac Miller and Hot 8 Brass Band.
Aside from University commitments, he is currently occupied working on his debut EP, which will all be self produced and written, recorded in his home studio, featuring a handful of artists ready in time for the summer, where he has scheduled shows around London and Kent. He is certainly not a newbie when it comes to performing in front of large crowds at festivals to say the least.
In 2014, Camilo had the privilege of performing his own music at an Under Siege event at Rochester Castle in front of a crowd of 5000 people, where artists like UB40 were also performing on the same stage. “This was one of the best experiences in my career so far as it gave me a little taste of what it is like to be a professional musician and how to work with a full band which I don’t normally do”.
When discussing his career highlights so far, a stand out moment that was mentioned was hosting his own music concert in 2012 to help raise money for an expedition to Jordan. All marketing and promotional aspects were organised by Camilo himself who managed to get together an audience of 100 people and further raise over 600 pound for his trip… you can tell he is a business student!
“I used to think that studying music would help, but then I realised that you don’t need to study music to be good at music, especially when there is platforms like YouTube, which can teach you how to do anything”, Camilo admits when asked why he chose to study Business instead of music at University.
It is clear that this motivated musician certainly has his head screwed on right and knows exactly what he wants, admitting his aspiration in the next five years is to be able to create something that is not out there yet, that people like and reveals the bigger picture. Keep your eyes and ears out for Camilo Musse, his music is certainly going to be highlighted in the next couple of years, for sure.
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Words by Mia Woloszczynska
