BY WINSTONE ANTONIO GWANDA-BASED house and Amapiano musician Thembinkosi “Master Zhoe” Zhou has said working with veteran sungura artistes Nicholas “Madzibaba” Zakaria, whom he featured on his fifth album titled Gwenyambira, was a great experience. He said it was characterised by some “unforgettable moments during which he drew priceless lessons”. The senior lecturer, as Zakaria, the Khiama Boys founder is fondly known in the showbiz circles, featured on two songs Ticheze and the album’s title song Gwenyambira, whose accompanying video will be launched tomorrow on Master Zhoe’s YouTube channel because of COVID-19 restrictions. The legendary sungura singer has a well-documented record of mentoring up-and-coming artistes to break through in the cut-throat music industry. In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style ahead of Gwenyambira’s video’s launch, Master Zhoe hailed collaborations saying they enabled artistes to expand their fan base. “Working with the legendary Nicholas Zakaria on two of our tracks Gwenyambira and Ticheze was quite an amazing experience as the lessons I learnt would help shape my career. Madzibaba is a humble old man who also loves learning new things as evidenced by his input on our amapiano duet Ticheze whose video we will also be dropping soon,” he said. “Nicholas Zakaria is indeed a senior lecturer and a great mentor who has worked with several artistes for decades. It was really an honour to work with such a father figure who has seen it all in the world of showbiz.” Commenting on the song Gwenyambira, Master Zhoe said: “The song Gwenyambira is a way of passing out a message to the youngsters that the best lessons come from our elders, be it in music, sport or any other sector in our lives, youths should take up their elders’ positions and continue with the legacy.” Despite hailing from a remote area, Master Zhoe” believes he can fight for space in the cut-throat music industry. “I have learnt a lot from the Senior Lecturer who is a veteran in this industry. We will continue working hard as he has guided. With his mentorship, I believe we will be a force to reckon with in the industry,” he said. “We did our part in the studio, and it is now left to the consumers of the product as we release it to them on Friday (tomorrow). Madzibaba’s manager and publicist Lazarus Zakaria said as Khiama Boys, they were open to work with any artiste across genres. “We are open for collaborations and have no problems working with those artistes who want to work with us as long as they agree to our philosophy for refined production,” he said. “We first met Master Zhoe in 2017 when we shared the stage in Gwanda. He later approached us and we have been talking leading to this Gwenyambira collaboration that will be released on Friday (tomorrow).” Albums under Master Zhoe’s sleeve are The Margine, Imargination, Akungise, Heavy Piano and Gwenyambira. Follow Winstone on Twitter @widzoanto