Meet The Sol Family: Sauti Sol, Nviiri the Storyteller, Bensoul

What does our favorite boy band get to in their spare time? How did they get into music? Who are their significant others? Get exclusive answers to these and more questions with the premiere of Sol Family, a new weekly reality docu-series by Sol Generation Records. The show delves into the lives of Africa’s biggest band, Sauti Sol, and the artistes signed to their fast-rising record label.

Sol Family, which airs weekly on Maisha Magic Plus and is available on Showmax allows superfans a rare glimpse into the everyday realities of Kenyan musical icons Polycarp, Chimano, Savara and Bien Aime (Sauti Sol), Nviiri the Storyteller, Bensoul, and the teams that mange them. Snippets of the show are already titillating fans on YouTube have garnered hundreds of thousands of views since the show’s premiere early August.

This uniquely angled show is produced by Eugene Mbugua, the prodigious director and content creator behind some of the biggest reality shows in the country, and features guest celebrity appearances from the likes of Aaron Rimbui and H_Art the Band.

Episode one takes us way back to when Chimano, Polycarp, Savara and Bien were just boys, and we travel with them through boyhood into early adulthood, when their paths first crossed, their initial forays into music, and their lifechanging decision to leave all else and pursue their talent.

The storytelling in Sol Family is exceptional, weaving back and forth between each of the members’ earliest musical influences. We start with Chimano, whose silky bass always leaves the fans screaming for more, and through flashbacks, learn about his fortuitous mid-high school transfer from Kakamega Boys to Upperhill School, where he met Bien and Savara. He went on to study journalism in campus and landed a promising internship at Homeboyz Radio. Against some of his friends’ advice, he left it to pursue music full time. For Bien, the artistic pursuit had always been rewarding and he remembers earning his first 60 bobs for dancing for his father’s friend. However, he only joined the choir in high school because it meant meeting girls at funkies. This helped him hone his talents further and his passion for music grew. Savara’s earliest interaction with music was in church, where he sang and picked up the drums and other instruments. High school gave him a chance to explore some more. Polycarp was always driven by music and art, but he never considered it a viable career option. After high school, however, he took it more seriously, teaching himself to play the guitar.

Sol Family is a chance for diehard Sauti Sol fans to get a peek into what makes them tick. Even as we look back at their journey thus far, we also start to see part of their vision, as they found Sol Generation Records to nurture the next generation of artists. Having presently signed Nviiri the Storyteller and Bensoul, the record label is meant to be Sauti Sol’s legacy to music in Kenya. Artists to their very core, even the Sol Generation HQ was chosen particularly to offer creatives a place to vibe and create music; an island of calm in a sea of chaos. In fact, much of Sol Family is shot here, but it also follows the stars into their homes and other locations as they pursue their art.

Fans can watch snippets of the show on Sol Generation’s YouTube Channel, along with other behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, and performances by the entire Sol Generation. Sol Family airs every Sunday at 7:30 pm on Maisha Magic Plus and on Showmax every Monday.