Capespring. (Polo Onguru) is a young artist from Nairobi, Kenya, using music to navigate his way through an ever changing world. Combining the influences of Dijon and Frank Ocean among others, and inspired by the cultural diversity of Kenya, he aims to bring different, long lasting music to the table.
His most recent work single “silk teeth” marks a new, more explorative sound for the young artist. The single places capespring. even closer to the genre-less category, and features a choir, heavily distorted vocals, electric guitar, and hard-hitting drums.
Quote from the artist:
‘Silk Teeth” is a song outlining struggles with religion, love, and feeling like you’re not good enough. I wrote this song at a time when I was in a rut and was seriously questioning my capability not only as a songwriter but as a producer too. To me it serves as a reminder that the answers you need will only ever come through being yourself, even though they may not be the answers you want. One of the most important lines of the song says ‘even the stars burn out’ which is to say that as beautiful and magnificent you might turn out to be, it’s not worth shining for something that eventually fades. But it is rather more worth it to shine for who you really are.
capespring. describes “over the past few months both my life and my music have entirely changed. I’m in a place where authenticity, vulnerability, and being unapologetically myself in front of the mic are the most important aspects of my life. To me, there is so much beauty in openness, so much beauty in crying, screaming, or laughing in a song—so so much beauty in emotion. And while this may seem obvious to some, it really just clicked for me recently, at least in terms of my music. I want to help create an artistic world where words and feelings matter so much more, where they’re so much more intentional. It’s scary to let people into your healing or even hurting, but for the sake of art, and self fulfillment, I think it’s worth it. I’ve really worked so hard on everything I’m putting out this year and I hope that even just one person will get to see that.”
From early on, music played an imperative role in capespring.’s upbringing; whether it was his dad playing Paul Simon before bed, or beginning piano lessons at age four. This fueled his creativity, and led him to start producing tracks after being gifted Logic by one of his school teachers. Fast forward a couple years and capespring. has released a collection of singles as well as an EP, worked with some top emerging african talent such as mau from nowhere, has been featured on tastemaker publications such as Tangaza Magazine, Harmattan Rain, and The Native Magazine, and released a single under Kitsuné Musique.
His EP diodrama (stream HERE) dropped at the top of 2021 and contained four emotion-filled tracks (+ a voicemail interlude) following the story of a person looking for love in order to rid him of his problems. Through self reflection and some seriously emotional tracks, he inevitably discovers that he first needs to work on himself.
Stay plugged into capepspring. as he prepares for a new year breaking out of molds, and into new scenes across the globe.
