Mutari is a German born and Toronto based artist who implements ‘foreign sound’ into his music. Both his parents are from Cameroon in West Africa. He went against the grain to chase his true passion of becoming a musician, pursuing his calling to leave lasting impressions on millions of fans worldwide.
He is further joined on stage by guitarist Juan Arizac, drummer Colin Hassell and DJ/emcee EyeQ (Jayson Alexander). Together, they make up The Foreign Sound; a band who’s goal is to bring down genre barriers in popular music. Their songs are influenced by genres such as hip hop, pop, R&B, electronic and rock. The foreign sound also includes photographer David drab (@drabvision) & videographer Brandon Mwendo (@6ception).
Mutari and The Foreign Sound have a very diverse sound to their music. He often describes his band as an act that can go on tour with a rock act, pop act, hip hop act, and R&B act all at the same time because of how diverse they are.
“Miss U” is Mutari’s top song at the moment, having racked up 70,000 streams on Spotify already. It’s a heavily pop/electronic influenced tune. The song gives off very happy positive vibes but when you actually listen to the lyrics, you realize the song is actually about a break up and kind of sad.
The whole idea behind the song was, he wanted to figure out a way on how to talk about his feelings but still have a happy sounding song. The meaning behind it was that we make the best out of any bad situation. When was the last time you heard a happy sad song ? That’s how Miss U was made.
His band mates from The Foreign Sound played a huge role in coming up with the sound of this particular tune. Juan and Colin both added a bunch of guitar parts in the song, and EyeQ was present during every session to help consult and construct the song.
One thing MUTARI always says is – “Who wrote the rule book? You know, why can’t I do a show with a rock band? Some people say “no – you’re a hip-hop act. A rap act. You can’t do this, you can’t do that.” Some people think there’s only one way to do things. There’s not. I don’t see myself in a box. Even as a kid, I’ve always had trouble with anyone telling me I have to do something a certain way. I want to change how people think about and view this industry.”
That’s what “The Foreign Sound” is all about. One side is, literally – you haven’t heard it before. A foreign sound to your ears, that blends together different sounds. It’s also about doing things differently, the non conventional way.
The Foreign Band is currently booked for Canadian music fest 2020 for Canadian music week. So far, they have been a part of A3C festival (Atlanta)2018 with Lil Wayne and Wu Tang. They have also been a part of mod club with Pryde, and performed in Phoenix concert theatre with somo. They have also worked with one of the Toronto’s top studios and are working closely with engineer Evan.