Born to the late Emmanuel Ogwang Ochela father) and Mrs Christine Olar Ochela (mother) who is still alive, Sarah Adong or Serah Adong as she is more popularly known, is one of the team-leaders at JC Label Ug. She has seen the company grow from their humble days of being known as Everywhere You Go Team, to where they are right now.
In yet another exclusive interview, we bring you a behind-the-scenes kind of experience – you get to see her world, childhood, passions, and her key insights into managing events and working with artists who we describe in one of the questions as “special people” given their often erratic emotions, and sometimes rush and abrupt changes in decisions.
Read the interview below.
This feels like the typical interview-for-a-job kind of question, but, can you tell is about yourself – preferably what people may not know about you?
I don’t know if people really don’t know this about me, but I am Sarah Adong. I am a Social Scientist by profession. I am a born again believer. I am an Itesot by tribe. I have a passion for music but, specifically Gospel music.
When I was growing up, I was told I am supposed to treat each and everyone the way I would want myself to be treated. I think that has landed me into trouble because it made me so open and…. I am a very point-blank kind of person. Being point-blank is not something everyone likes, or appreciates, maybe someone doesn’t want you to be too open with them. That is how I was brought up. I tell you everything the way it is.
What’s your family history? How many are you, and where did you grow up from?
I am from the lineage of the late Emmanuel Ogwang. My father passed on. I come from a family of 4 boys and three girls. I am the second last born, the youngest girl. We’re blessed to all be Born Again believers. I was born when my mother had confessed Jesus as Lord and saviour. She is a police officer. My dad was a businessman… I was born when my mum was still staying in Jinja before we shifted to Nsambya in Kampala. That is where I grew up from.
Of course, now we’ll ask about your childhood. How would you describe it? Share with us some memories….
In my childhood, I wasn’t a naughty child but I had some really stupid instances. I remember one time, I pushed a stone in my nose – because we were playing with my friends and we wanted to see if the stone was small or it could fit in the nose. So, I pushed it in the nose and I failed to remove it. That very evening, when my mum was back from work, I rushed to her and told her, “A stone is stuck in my nose,” and then she replied, “What do you mean by a stone is stuck in your nose?” They tried removing it but failed, so I was rushed to Nsambya hospital and taken to the theatre and it was removed.
Another time, I don’t know what was wrong with me, I got candle wax and pushed them into my ears. My mum suffered. I was taken to Mulago hospital and they scanned me, tried to suck it out but it failed, and left it. They said, “as she grows, it will just come out.” I grew up, but I don’t know if they came out. I don’t know if the wax is still there, hiding. But those are the stupid things I did when I was young.
I used to play with everyone – those normal games, maama ne taata, we’d go to the rubbish pit and start looking for things to use. It was a typical African childhood.
Now, let’s talk about the music industry. Our earliest recollection is, Everywhere You Go Team… First tell us how it started
Everywhere You Go, started as a team of 4. It was, Rossett, Karen Alecho, Kerry Rogers and myself. One time we were coming from Sheraton Hotel, it was a church event we had promoted for Redeemed Mass Choir. We tried to push the event so much. We reached there at 6pm and the event was full to capacity. We ourselves were told, we couldn’t get in. We turned back and sat at the Sheraton Gardens and started talking a lot about everything in the industry, the artists, events and everything related to the music industry. While walking back, Mac Elvis met us and said, “Y’all, what are you guys doing?” We were actually talking about him, he ‘grabbed’ us and said, “I’ve got you guys talking about me.”
We moved with him up to City Square. We stood on the streets from around 8pm to 11pm – discussing on the streets. We talked about what needs to be done – stating problems and making suggestions of what needs to be done. So, Mac Elvis said, “Why don’t you people come up with something that can unite the gospel artists? Why not come up with a group and you help the industry the way you can.” He told us, that if we needed any artist to come on board, he could help us reach that artist. We asked what name to give the team, and he said, you guys are just Everywhere You Go. After that, we were at a certain event and Levixone said, “You guys are Everywhere You Go.” Everywhere You Go was the common theme, so we decided to call ourselves that. We decided to be at every concert to see how we can help…
Then came, JC Label Ug… What warranted the rebrand?
Everywhere You Go rebranded to JC Label Ug because of professional issues. We had decided to register the company so that we could do something professional. We reached a point where we realized we can’t keep making noise, we’ll reach a point where we need to finance things and won’t have money to finance them. When we went to register, we realized we were going to get issues with MTN because MTN was using the slogan, Everywhere You Go.
We were advised to rebrand. We gave ourselves some time… We sat down to ask ourselves what we would do – what services we would offer and how?
We came up with JC Label Ug. It is a Jesus Christ Label, Uganda. Before announcing it, we prayed about it and did some research.
A lot of people were discouraging us from rebranding, saying we were going to have a major setback, people will look at you as something very new, and that was true but still we needed to register the company and make it professional and we couldn’t do it as Everywhere You Go Team. We decided to take the bait and face it, do whatever it takes to be known and out there and that’s how we rebranded.
It wasn’t easy. People kept asking us what happened to the Everywhere You Go Team. I remember we worked with Lady Bezo and whenever anyone dedicated a song to the Everywhere You Go Team, she would correct them, that it is now JC Label Ug. It helped us get mileage. Actually, now, very few people remember the name Everywhere You Go Team.
The very observant know that you do a lot behind the scenes with artists. How did that start for you, as a person? What drew you to it?
I personally like to be in the background. I don’t like taking the front line where everyone can see me. I started looking for ways to help but not actually be in the front line. That’s how I started doing a lot behind the scenes for most of the artists or events.
When we did events, we sat with artists in pre-event meetings, we realized that it’s not only about promotion – you also need to be on ground. When on ground, you can ask people what they want to see at the event – this helps you build the event and make it a success. It would be a challenge for the artists to ask fans what to do because of this bias – when they don’t want to discourage, hence give only positive comments.
When it’s someone whose face is not on stage, you get a clear (honest) opinion. We ended up doing the behind the scenes work. It is hectic but fun. You get to know the real thoughts people have about everything that is running in the industry. It helped me understand the dynamics in the events.
I don’t want to say that I am a professional or that I went to class and studied Events Management but I do manage events and that is how I learned.
Events management is concerned with getting to know what you need for the event and who is going to provide that, how you will source them and there was that gap in the industry. That compelled me to learn how to do it and make it better.
Artists are very special (for lack of better words) people to do deal with… How do you handle?
laughs
Well, I believe there is medicine for every illness. First of all, before I start working with the artist, I try to understand them. If necessary, I try to do background checks about you so that we don’t clash. I try to understand what I am handling – the deal with the artist, what to do and I make sure I don’t cross the line.
I keep within the zone. If we’re clashing within the zone I working on, I tell you, “You came because you wanted this, so I am telling you what I know. This is how we are supposed to do this, this is how we are going to go about this. Do you like it? Yes/No? Are you going to do it? Yes/No?” I try to show you that I’ve done my part and the rest is yours.
If I see that somehow, we might not connect or may not be able to work together, I refer you to someone else within the company. When they understand you, everything moves on smoothly, but then also, this is an advantage or disadvantage – people tend to look at me as a tough girl laughs again and yet I am such a darling. But then the artists know that, this girl is so tough, you don’t come and do whatever you want to do. I keep in my zone and I don’t cross the line.
If we’re doing music promotion for you, I tell you, we are doing this for a specific time and this is what you should expect from us and this is what we expect from you. If I have not done my part, which rarely happens, I will take in anything you say… But if my part fails because of what you’ve failed to do, that’s a different story. How would you expect me to do this when you didn’t do your part?
Imagine that what you think an artist needs to do is contrary to what the artist wants to do, how do you maneuver? Has this ever happened to you by the way?
That is a tough one. Yeah! It actually happened once. If an artist is under our management, I tell you, “If you do this, you are going to go (get dropped by our management).”
If the person is not under our management, I just tell you what I have to tell you, try to do my part. If the person fails to understand what I am telling them and they go and do things the way they want to do them, I believe that time will be my best friend. At the end of the day, they will encounter something and come back to you.
I remember one artist sent me their music to review and say something about it before releasing it. I told this artist, “the person you featured gave it more justice than you did. It’s going to be like this is not your song but for the other person, yet it’s yours. I think you should go back to studio and work on it and the production is lacking.” The person thought I was biased, because of the stories they might have heard, like; ‘that babe is so tough and strict.’ This musician went ahead to tell other people what I’d said and those same people came and told me what the artist had said. I said, ‘it is well, let the artist go ahead and release the song.’ When they person took the song to Power Fm, they told the artist the same things I’d told them. After that happened, they returned and asked that I be in studio. In my head I was thinking, how can I punish this person so that they understand that they should not be joking? I just let go and I told them, I am glad you experienced what I told you from someone else and that now, you are willing to change. They changed for the better, they are one of the celebrated artists and is coming up. So, if you are within my control, I tell you, I will send you away.
In your many years of working with artists, share five things you believe they need to work on to guarantee them success!
First of all, an artist needs a manager – whether it is a company or an individual. Artists seem to have this mentality that managers are cheats and will eat their money… or maybe because they don’t know the roles of a manager, they don’t get one.
Also, character. Some artists need to work on their character for their success. Your talent takes you wherever it can, but your character keeps you there. If your character is wrong, you won’t last.
Thirdly, the music! Some people have worked on the music and it’s actually okay but others are under this “I know DJ so and so and they will all play my music” whether the music is good or raw, because they know the DJs that people listen to. This is not right, we need to keep our music good. There are songs you listen to 10 years later and it’s still good. There’s a song you listen to one year later and say, “what went wrong?”
The artist needs to work on their appearance. Some people have this thing of ‘jangu nga bwoli – come as you are.’ That cannot work for an artist. If I am to respect you, I need to look at you and respect you even before I get to know you. Artist need to work on their brand – the way they dress up and show up for performances. I appreciate one of the artists who asked for my opinion on what they should not crossover into 2018 with. I told them, “You are a great artist but sometimes you dress up like you are going for a sports event.” When I met the artists in the few events of 2018, I was like, “wow, you’ve changed.”
They need God. When you were starting to sing, it was more about God, along the way, after realizing someone else is earning a lot from music, you decided to change and also earn, then you start diverting. There’s a time and God has the best plan for each and every artist. He knows where and when you will get money out of anything.
As a bonus, I’ll add – Honestly, the Ugandan Gospel Music industry right now is not that well-paying. If you compare a Gospel artist and a secular artist, a secular artist earns way more than a Gospel artist – which is so unfortunate, but they can get a job. What did you study for before becoming an artist? If you are an accountant, get a job and be an accountant somewhere, in the evening, come and show us your artistic skills. There’s nothing wrong with working for someone and then you are (still) an artist.
Assuming someone is out there and they want to be like you when they grow up, what advice would you give them?
My advice would be, first of all, to follow their passion no matter how hard it is, no matter how weird it looks like…
I never knew I would end up this way, things kept building up. I used to like music and things progressed from that…
Follow your passion, but above all else, God should be first in all you do – God guides and leads you. In the concerts we do, we always pray that God’s perfect will will be done. Put God first, follow your passion and follow your dream.
Make research. There’s following your passion and you don’t know anything about it.
God bless you and thanks for the opportunity.
Ug Gospel Life 