Daniel Izere alias Dany Beats is no stranger to the local music scene. He is now cementing a reputation by emerging as one of the youngest creative Rwandan music producers.

On a normal day, the 25-year-old has a busy schedule recording, creating music, arranging, and directing artistes.

His passion for creation germinated from the age of 15 in secondary school. “I loved music programmes on East African Television, which fed curiosity on what more could be added to the beats being played,” he told Rwanda Today.

Music producers were a rarity then, and so was their access. Dany Beats cites producers like Pastor P, Chris Cheeta, Jay P and Nichola, as his inspiration.

Heart and mind

Borrowing from R&B and Hip-hop, his initial venture into production was when his cousin left him a laptop, which had music production software. This turned into a hobby for him, something he did for fun, “I would record, then create beats using the laptop,” he recalls.

But this wasn’t enough for him for he aspired for more. Mr Izere even skipped school lessons to dabble in producing music.

This didn’t go down well with his family. However, when they realised he had poured his heart into this venture, his mother established a recording studio at home, but on condition I balance music and school, to which I readily agreed,” he muses.

To Dany, music production isn’t that easy for it involves “creating from zero, so it requires a stable peace of mind.”

Production requires time, patience, and meditation. “Mainstream music back then was not good,” he says. “It was riding along the influence of trends, blindly copied by everyone and I sought to make a change,” he adds.

Dany Beats’ body of work may be described as uptown, groovy, with a touch into Afro R&B, hip-hop, and pop. His hit songs from 2011 include Empty House by Weya Viatora, Twifunze by Sintex, Sabrina by Mike Kayihura, Badman by Kivumbi, Niyibizi and Ku Gasima by Bushali.

In artistes Darkecy, Amalon, and Ange Ritah Kagaju, Dany’s works resound.

He is fully immersed in this career as a fulltime business. Dany partners individually with artistes and record labels on projects rather than being owned by them, which helps grow his brand.

Unlike most studio managers and record labels who only front the earning from the artistes, Dany feels otherwise; “Some artistes may not be able to meet the fee required by the studio, yet they have talent and lose out,” he says.

Working on projects for East and West Africans up for release, Dany envisions taking Africa’s sounds to the world.