OKETCH BRIAN ROBIN

Founder & Creative Director

“Mine is a story of an African boy born and raised in Oyugis, a small town in HomaBay county. My father, a chef, bought me a 25key toy piano which gave me my first exposure to music playing. At age 9, after he had left us, I found myself erasing his old Rhumba cassettes and dubbing music from urban FM stations to create my own mix tapes. This continued until my African step mother found out her gospel music tapes no longer played Jesus' music. My biological mother had passed on 5 years before her husband, leaving me with my two elder sisters. I spent my 2006, 2007 & 2008 years away in an orphanage where I found freedom to perform music and learn life.”
In high school, I was forced to drop music and shift my attention to computers after successfully failing in music class twice. I developed the love for computers so much that one day as I locked myself in a computer lab I found a software which had steps and piano keys; Fruity Loops! However, I didn't take it seriously until my last year in college when I redeveloped my interest in music, took my school fees and ordered a soundcard and two condenser microphones from Amazon hoping to find success with YouTube covers.
The year is 2017; I have just graduated on top of my class. I take a chance to apply for internship in three radio stations in Kisumu. I get two spots with request to start immediately, but I'm not satisfied so I turn to Google to give me better options and by chance I land a recording studio, One Vibe Africa, works here for 3 years.
In 2020 during the wake of covid-19 pandemic, in my studio apartment in Manyatta slums in Kisumu I founded Artbeat Music, a virtual recording studio only using the name to book recording sessions in other studio spaces. I worked through the pandemic and was able to move to a one bedroom apartment on August 23rd same year when Artbeat Studios officially opened doors. We have gone on to add a film department, moved to Nairobi, added a photography studio, increased the team to five and continued with our mentorship programs where we have trained 12music producers, 1 female filmmaker and offered industrial attachments to 3 female students from Maseno and KCA universities.