The eccentric Czech of Sauti Sol

The manager of one of the biggest bands in the region showed up at Urban Eatery, Westlands, wearing trendy but eccentric tortoise shell Ray-Bans, a zany African print blazer over a T-shirt, jeans and these hysterical black pointed-toe boots that reminded me of a hilarious Scottish movie I once watched of an assassin who keeps a sheep as a pet in his red-brick house.

True to character, he ordered a Bloody Mary (it was noon Saturday, after all) but warned the waiter, “Don’t play around with that drink, my man, or I will have to come to the bar and make it myself. Make it good.”

Marek Fusch is an odd ball. An eccentric, effervescent, wisecracking, quirky, fast-talking and hilarious odd ball. No dull moment around the guy. His mind veers from topic to topic at great speed and he offers frequent deep insights into things which you can easily miss if you don’t keep up.

I hardly kept up. He’s unmistakably brilliant and has a very short attention span. I expected him to bolt out of his seat any moment. And he did. Once. He also never removed his Ray Bans, masterfully telling enthralling stories from behind the dark lenses, leaving me with only my reflection to look at.

----------------------------------------

Where is your wedding band, man? Didn’t you only just get married?

Oh shoot! Look, Annabel (Onyango) is always giving me grief about it. Look, I just got married and I’m still not used to wearing the ring so I keep forgetting it after my shower.

It’s been, what, 10 days? I got home last night after midnight and Annabel is like, (makes a mock impression, one hand on waist) “we just got married, we should spend enough time together, don’t you think?” (Laughs) It was practice, man.

She was all beefy and stuff and the next morning my dad called on Skype and I told him the story and he said, “Ahh, your mother did the same thing after we got married. She asked me what changed? You still come home at three in the morning.”

And my dad who used to play baseball until late said, “something fundamental has changed, woman. I look forward to coming home at 3am!” (Laughs) That was pretty funny. No, Annabel is cool, though.

What has changed for you?

I don’t know, it’s been two weeks, man. This is different, when you shake hands on something and when you sign a document. I mean for the first time, I got back from a tour and there was food in the fridge. There was KFC. (Laughs) Yes, but it was there and I was like hold on, hold on, is this really working? (Laughs)

Who are you?

I’m from the Czech Republic, was there until I was 10. After the revolution my mom was given a role in the government as a diplomat so there was a lot of travelling involved. We came to Cape Town then my mom left for Paris to work with Unesco. I stayed behind with my sister.

Then mom moved to LA. I once went to visit her when I was from high school and I was like (dramatic pause) “Girl, this is where you live, whaaat? What is this place!” (Laughs) I stayed in LA for seven years, attended UCLA, studying International Relations.

After uni, I met my business partner, a Cameroonian-American, and started a mobile tech company which we wanted to launch in South Africa.

Mom moved to Kenya and I came to visit her and I saw her house and again I was like, “Yo, this is where you live?!” So I stayed behind and we launched the business from Kenya.

How did you meet Sauti Sol?

I don’t really remember, I don’t think we do. Maybe Alliance Française? We were talking about this music festival I was planning to go to in Europe and they said, hey let’s go and I said, hey why not, I don’t know... (trails off).

I’m always going for music festivals and I told the organisers that I could bring some African acts and they all said yup yup yup and I thought, oh shoot, is this how this industry works? I called the boys and said, “Yo, we are booked, we leave in two months.” And they were like, “Who are you, man?” (Laughs) Then we did more.

What does it entail to manage Sauti Sol?

A lot more than I thought it would. I thought I was going to be able to do this part time. Hang on, I have to go to the bathroom. [He’s gone for two minutes] So yeah, these guys have similar drives, man. These humans are epic and we really clicked on what we needed to achieve.

Look, I was building my company of three years and doing pretty well and look, they were pretty well known in Kenya so I was a little intimidated. Six months of back and forth and we started off as part time.

What it entails is it’s a business brand. A lot of people don’t look at it like that. In Kenya, there is zero appreciation for artists and also the industry isn’t developed, so the challenges are numerous.

In this industry, you make money from shows, few get endorsement, album sales are down... so it’s tour sales, merchandise sales. When I joined, the boys were being paid like, what 150k a show? Wasn’t sustainable.

How much is a show now?

Sh1.8 million, Anything between Sh1.5 million to Sh2 million a show.

And you do how many shows in a month?

We do about seven and 10 shows a month. But these kinds of things vary, man. Sometimes we charge less on slow months, you get? In December, you can do 20 shows and some months only three.

How do you manage egos? How do you keep these boys together?

It’s not me to keep them together. If you are going to have someone on the outside keep you together then it won’t work. The reason I work with these guys is because they know who they are, they are like brothers. Money does change people, but these guys know what they want and appreciate what they want. You have to be real with each other.

Proudest moment in life?

Proudest? Getting married to my wife, man! Forget these boys! (Chuckles) Beautiful wife. I have pissed her off many times in the seven years we have dated – enough for her to leave me, but she didn’t. I’m not easy to get along with, my schedule is crazy but she married me at a nice wedding.

Darkest moment in your life?

When the Czech Embassy closed down in 2010, my mobile business went down. So I lost my house, my work permit, my diplomatic passport, all my savings and had to start from scratch. That was really tough, took me two years to get out of that mess.

How do you stay sane?

Cooking, boxing and travelling. The best book is the atlas; there is nothing that will teach you about people, cultures, life, race and about yourself as travel. If you don’t know your planet, you are lost. Racism and xenophobia wouldn’t exist if we all travelled. When you travel, you learn that we are all the same.
What is your biggest extravagance?

I’m an extreme personality which makes everything extravagant, Annabel will tell you.

What’s the most extreme thing you have done?

I like jumping out of planes, I like fast bikes, I like extreme sports. Most extreme thing? Every three years or so, I break my legs then I have to learn how to walk again! (Laughs) I’m always having back injuries or leg injuries, breaking parts of my body....

Why do you veer so close to the edge? What do you look for there?

It’s on the edge that you really live, man. That’s when you start seeing things clearly, feeling things you haven’t felt before. It’s where you experience life in its rawest form, man, just fun! You can’t just take safe bets – to go to the top, you either go all the way in, or... hey aren’t we going to eat something man, I’m starving!

You go ahead and order but I have to run, in a bit. If you were one of the Sauti Sol guys, who would you be?

Chimano. Because he is the defining rock star of the whole group. He’s a natural kind rock star. He’s open in his thinking, he’s non-judgmental, an open old soul who just does his thing. Because he’s a rock star he does absolutely nothing, man! Bien writes, Delvin produces, Chimano is just a rock star... he just gets onstage and everybody recognises him and he does his thing.

Are you having a good time?

I’m having the time of my life, man. I just got married, and now my wife will love me forever because I met Beyonce in New York. (Laughs)

What’s in the travelling bag? [A Sandstorm]
I have my charger, my laptop, my wedding documents...

Wait, you walk around with your wedding documents?

Yeah, man, I need to sign them. I didn’t have a chance to sign them so I’m headed to church now. Are you sure we can’t have a bite?