Ugandan singer and songwriter Dokta Brain has opened up about the family tension that followed his decision to pursue music instead of the career his mother had envisioned for him.
Speaking to Galaxy TV, Dokta Brain said his mother was not musical and had always believed he would eventually become a lawyer. Instead, his passion for music led him down a completely different path.
“My mum wasn’t musical and she always insisted I won’t sing, I’d be a lawyer but I didn’t study law and disappointed her.”
Choosing music over Law at university created tension at home, according to Dokta Brain, who acknowledged that his career decision went against his mother’s expectations.
The gamble, however, eventually turned into a songwriting career that has seen him become highly productive behind the scenes.
Dokta Brain said he can write as many as 10 songs in a week, a workload that makes it impossible for him to perform every song himself. Instead, he writes with other artists in mind and sells much of his material to performers whose styles fit the songs.
That approach requires him to understand his clients and the type of music they are likely to embrace.
“I sing because, even if I generate money from songwriting, there are songs that would be hard to prove to someone like Sheebah that they can sing it,” he explained.
He also said he has plenty of conscious music in his catalogue, but not every song has an obvious market among the artists he works with.
“Now like the song of ‘Bikyagabye’ who would have bought it? I have a lot of conscious music but I know my clients,” Dokta Brain said.
His comments shed light on the business side of songwriting, where creating a strong song is only part of the equation. For Dokta Brain, knowing which artist can successfully deliver a particular record is just as important.
The career path may not have matched his mother’s original plans, but music ultimately became the field in which Dokta Brain found his lane — both as a performer and as a prolific songwriter.